The Requisite New Year Post

Burning Midnight Oil

Burning Midnight Oil

Little has changed since my last post. Caregiving continues. The Day Job sputters. But I now rise at 2am—allowing myself three hours to work on my eternal novel project undisturbed. Or, mostly undisturbed. There’s always the cat.

I know it sounds crazy but that part of every day is mine. I plot out my schedule so I can be in bed early and not sabotage the tea and solitude with sleep. Every other hour I am running from task to task trying to keep loved ones fed, medicated, transported and comfortable.

It’s a strange role for me. I’ve never had kids so being responsible for others at this level is terrifying at times. And this path takes only one direction—from heartache to heartache.

But you have to find a place where you can set it all aside and still be you—if only just clinging to one tiny thread. If you can’t or don’t, you’ll diminish to the point of disappearing. And no longer be the fighter that your loved ones depend on.

____

See can what I’m working on via my writing blog:  LDavisCarpenter.com

 

Working From Home

work to do - small

We never know what change is coming at us.

Two months after my last post, Hurricane Matthew looked like he was going to grind up the entire Florida coast as a Cat 4. I dashed away from my out-of-town gig to rush home and evacuate my parents. Two hours into my five hour drive south I got a call from my boss saying, sorry, but we’re going to have to replace you immediately. We’ll get you back in here ASAP once your family responsibilities are complete. I said, OK, no problem. This is life as a storm adjuster who also lives in a hurricane prone state.

Can’t be everywhere at once.

One hour later – still rushing south – phone rings again. Different company asking me if I am available to lead an in-office storm team – right in my own home town! Oh, yes! How’s that for timing? Maybe God is in control?

That gig didn’t last long but segued into another also in my home town. Whew. Good thing too because by then I needed to attend all parental medical appointments, etc. Working out of town is no longer an option.

Fast forward one year. Hurricane Irma is coming and another out-of-the-blue call – offering me to:

WORK FROM HOME! 

Woot!!! Woot!!! World’s Biggest Woot!

The hours were brutal but completely flexible – allowing me to work as much as 77 hours/week while still getting my parents to appointments and walking their new dog. (Hah, that’s another post).

But, after ten months of that pace, I’d had enough. I took the slower summer season as the chance to change my Day Job. We’d been praying that this opportunity would come and it did. Same industry, different role. Still work from home. Still completely flexible hours – just a lot less of them and less emotionally draining.

I LOVE my Day Job!

And, since work is slow right now, I am still catching up on all sorts of things that were neglected: INCLUDING MY NOVEL! (See my writing blog update HERE.)

FIRST DRAFT = DONE!

 It’s been two+ years of hard work and sudden changes. I am thankful for the grace of God which continues to strengthen me for each step and allows me to face the future with peace – having seen His hand so clearly at work in the past.

2019 is going to be challenging in endless ways but when I can make myself stop and remember His past blessings, I can face the next round of the whirlwind.

Light Reading

From my LDavisCarpenter – Writer blog:

Light Reading

Posted on January 1, 2014

Bedtime Stories

Bedtime Stories

I was so exhausted by Penman’s Plantagenets that I searched for something in my To Be Read Pile that would be light and fun. So, of course, I settled on Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies.

Really, I did. My other options were to start this or that series and I didn’t want to embark on another long-term commitment. Bring Up the Bodies was at hand, not nearly as massive as the three Penman tomes I’d finally completed and it is the 2nd in a trilogy I’d already started. So it took priority over starting something else.

The good news – I zipped through it in less than a week. It was strange reading more Henry stuff but this is No. 8, rather than No. 2. My brain wanted to merge them together for a while but I finally left the Plantagenets behind and caught up with the Tudors.

The first book in the series, Wolf Hall, started off as a difficult read. Mantel has chosen an unusual point of view – 3rd person present tense – all from the head of Thomas Cromwell. It took me about one hundred pages to get the POV and voice to sink up with my brain – sort of like trying to read Shakespeare after many years away from it. Once I found the right groove my only problem was the occasional confusing pronoun reference. Mantel’s writing is so immediate and nearly stream of conscious that it was easy to lose track of the “he” references in Wolf Hall.

Delving back into Thomas Cromwell’s head in Bring Up the Bodies was a synch. And I was thrilled to see that Mantel had found a device to solve the pronoun reference problem without tampering with her distinctive voice. In a given paragraph, if there is a risk of the “he” pronoun reference being unclear, she now writes, “he, Cromwell, blah, blah, blah”. Like the rest of the book, it is unusual but it works.

As to the story – Oh, my. Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell is a disturbing enigma but how else do you explain the contradictions present in this singular human being? I flew through the book even already knowing the historical outcome.

Highly Recommended.