Ray on Monday: Time Tables

 
Waiting for the bus or train can sometimes be a testing time. The time table says one thing but your clock says it is way past the expected arrival time. Any number of factors can contribute to delays, but they do annoy.

In Galatians 4:4 we are told when Christ Jesus entered into this world it was right on time. That is one of the things about God’s scheduling of events. Try as hard as they can, no outside forces can delay it.

Through the history of the World God in His foreknowledge used it to achieve His purposes. The Greek empire had given its language. The Romans gave good roads, safe sea travel and comparative peace. The scattered nation of Israel set up synagogues which made people aware of God’s messages and promises. All this was used by the Lord to get the Gospel known so people could hear and believe.

What were some of the reasons for Christ’s coming? In Galatians 4:4-7 we are told of two. One of them is to redeem. That is to pay a price (His life) to rescue believers from slavery to Sin and the evil influences of the World. The other factor was to present believers with an inheritance. What is that? Participating in what Jesus Christ has secured by His death and resurrection. This includes eternal life and every spiritual blessing in time and eternity. On top of all that we have the privilege of calling God, “our Father.”

We do not know the next schedule of God although some have tried to guess it. Only He knows when He will call us to Himself. His second coming hasn’t been declared, only promised. We just have to be ready! For it will happen right on time!

Ray in waiting.

The Missed Week?

Certainly not through choice, my time sitting down this week has been limited. Even the preparations before the routine examination in Day Surgery were too uncomfortable to get much work done properly, and since the Day last Friday. . . Lets just say other parts of my anatomy including the brain haven’t been working too well and it helps to lie down!

Just one week of disruption has spilt over into so many corners of my life, including neglecting this blog.

There seemed so many things to do before the Preparation Day the day before the Day Surgery. The housework had to be up to date, the laundry finished, the last of those peaches becoming too ripe needed to be dealt with – and in between all that trying to keep up with email of course! Just in case the after effects would limit my time on the computer, there were several projects to try and finish, including the talk for a Rotary meeting the evening before the Preparation Day of fluids only and yucky other stuff to force down. Despite my eating restrictions I had to watch while we had dinner, that talk did turn out quite well.

But I didn’t manage to do that workshop on writing a synopsis and hints for submitting a manuscript to publishers. I hope it may help other writers at the meeting next Monday of the Society Women Writers Tasmania – if I can stand and sit here alternately long enough to finish it!

Hopefully next week things will be back to normal because the “to do” list seems to keep growing. There is the Bible Study elective for the Women’s Conference for later in March, all the organising of the book launches, the promotion of Justice at Baragula and helping Ray with his books too. I am thankful to have a guest author, Paula Vince booked to be my guest on my next scheduled post on the International Christian Fiction Writers in a couple of weeks but there are another couple of blogs I've been asked to be a guest on - will let you know about those as they happen.

Mmm. . .after writing about all those commitments it seems I should be looking more closely at my diary before agreeing to accept anything else? Her Outback Cowboy has to be written some time!

To catch up on these and several other commitments looming closer, perhaps as soon as I can I will need to burn that midnight electricity well into the night.

So, how do you handle having to miss days when you know you should be doing more than sitting awhile, lying down awhile and perhaps reading or watching TV?

Burnt peaches, Rewrites - and wasting time

It had taken me ages to prepare that second saucepan of peaches. I poured the small amount of water over the sugar and stirred until it started to boil. I turned the stove plate down and thought I’d wouldn’t start writing this blog post before it had finished cooking. Just a few minutes to check my email inbox before stirring it all again. After all, there could be that email from my publisher about the cover for my new book, Justice at Baragula coming out in a few months.

Well, there was that blog post from a writer friend I’d missed responding to for several days. Just a few lines should do it. Then I saw there were a few posts on that American Christian Fiction writers digest that interested me. A few minutes later – or I thought it was ‘a few’ – I went to check the peaches.

Horror. Froth had oozed up, tumbling over, down the sides of the saucepan, onto the plate, the stove. . .and the peaches were the wrong colour. Brown! Burnt. Ruined? A waste of time?

***

It had taken me hours, even days to decide on the plot for my next book. I took many hours to get to know my hero and heroine’s characters. Even after filling out those basic character questionnaire sheets they still had to let me get to know them when I started writing down their story in those first few chapters. Oh no, too much back-story! But the reader needs to know what happened all those years ago to understand why they are reacting the way I need them to. Would a prologue help?

I took more hours writing and re-writing that prologue. Mmm, much better, and now to change those other chapters. Rewriting took a lot of time. Then I re-read that prologue again. But what about the dialogue through those headphones? Had better check if the passenger and pilot can talk to each other like that in a small one engine plane. My brother once owned a Cessna the same as the one I’ve invented for this scene. A phone call to him should do it.

Horror. Headphones not needed at all except for perhaps the pilot to hear air traffic-control through them! Prologue ruined? A waste of time? Manuscript been put aside and is still waiting. . .waiting. . .

***

Now I have a burnt saucepan soaking – a very burnt saucepan! The peaches are in a clean one until they cool down. A taste? Hmm. . .doesn’t really taste burnt but does have a certain "tang". Perhaps I won’t have to throw them all out after all?

Now I have about three-quarters of that first draft written but no prologue that will work. Now my angst with myself has cooled down, now I’ve had more time to think about the characters, the conflict that separates them, breaking their hearts. Do I really have to throw out all those words no longer needed?

I taste the peaches. Mmm. . .not too burnt?. Perhaps just caramelised sugar? And there are still more on the tree waiting to be picked!

I re-read the manuscript. Mmm. . .not too bad. Perhaps just some more depth of emotion needed, some more showing instead of telling, more dialogue, and then of course that satisfying conclusion still to write!

No time wasted after all? Just a learning experience:-

1. Don’t check emails – or blogs - while cooking.

2..Don’t expect that first draft will not need rewriting, revising, rewriting, re. . .everything!

( But perhaps I did have the same expression today as my grand-daughter on her bad day?)