Friday Update: Writing and Reading

I got to help coach last night… flag football! Mostly I marked the line of scrimmage, but it was so much fun! As for Alan… is there a Wii scholarship available somewhere? Cause it’s not looking like a football career is in the future. Ah well…

What am I writing? Things are clicking along on Claire’s book. Anytime we have a long car trip, I get a good deal of thinking time in. Jon and Amanda helped me plot the end, and it’s going to be much better now. Thanks guys! Amanda also constantly challenges me to write good 3D characters, even in the first draft. As a result I haven’t written much new stuff this week, but I’ve filled out Paige, Brooke and Nate.

What have I learned? Not too much geeky stuff this week. I’ll work on that.

What am I reading? The Pilot’s Wife Let me preface this by saying I have an overactive imagination, so I choose carefully what fiction I read, and even what movies I watch. This book was the kind of fiction I enjoy, an intense internal journey. Kathryn Lyons is awakened just after three a.m. one morning to the news that the airline her husband, Jack, was piloting exploded off the coast of Ireland. The grief is real, perfectly drawn by the author. All the odd, off balance thoughts that go through a person’s mind are captured. But because of the nature of Jack’s death, it’s not a private grief. Investigators arrive and questions surface, questions without answers. Kathryn’s quest to vindicate Jack leads to an unfolding of who Jack Lyons really was. The most devastating line in the book, “Jack and I did not have secrets.”
It’s good for me to see characters who don’t have a Christian worldview. The whole time I read, I wanted to somehow comfort Kathryn. She needed someone. It also makes me keenly aware what a blessed hope we have.
Perhaps the most telling comment was my husband’s after I said yet again, “I can’t believe he did that to her!” He looked at me and very calmly reminded me, “It’s FICTION.”
However, because it took me so many days to get over my outrage at Jack Lyons, I’ve just started Daisy Chain. (I can go from one non-fiction book to the next and not miss a beat. Not so with stories. They have to soak a while.)

What has God taught me? 1. He knows everything. (Technically, I already knew that, but reminders never hurt.)

2. If we aren’t careful, life can be a series of missed opportunities.

3. Some folks would rather be right than righteous.

4. I’m glad God is God.

Have a great weekend! (My last weekend of being 41…)