Snippets From Spindle Dreams

See? I'm back. This makes the second blog post this month for me... which, considering my record from the last four years, is pretty good. 

I began this summer with great plans for writing, books, editing, etc. While I've not been as consistent as I would have liked, I have knuckled down on a few things. FIRST OF WHICH was actually finishing The Rose and the Balloon's companion novella: Spindle Dreams. 

Confession time, folks. I began writing this short story back when Rooglewood announced its third fairytale retelling contest. IN 2015!! Yeah, I was in college and writing for fun doesn't come easily when you're cramming for tests and procrastinating on homework assignments. Three years, though. And do you know what the sad part was? I wrote most of the story that summer (2015) and then stopped a few chapters from the end. I picked it up again in 2016 and wrote all but the last half of the last chapter. 

And then the story sat that way for 2 years. Pretty pathetic, huh?

Anyway, that was one of the first things I knew I needed to do this summer. FINISH THE STORY. It was practically at the end anyway. My Little Writer was after me to complete the thing. Ha. And that was after he'd forbidden me to begin writing it in the first place. 

Anyway, we're at some 23K words right now, and I've already jumped into editing. I'm more pleased overall with how Spindle Dreams turned out -- almost more pleased than my first draft of The Rose and the Balloon. No promises, but I'm hoping to have SD self-published here in the somewhat near future. We'll have to see how things go. 

But I promised you snippets, and so snippets you shall have. Here you go. 

~*~

Dmitri noticed his odd attire for the first time. “What happened? Did you meet up with bandits?”

Felix waved away the concern. “No such luck. Samson decided I needed an impromptu bath. Twice.”

“You still have that rebel animal?”

“He's not a complete rebel. Just active and slightly mischievous. But he means well.”

Dmitri grinned. “Slightly?” 

~*~

Felix shut his eyes against the sight of the fire. The deed did no good, for he could still see fire with his eyes closed. He opened them again. The same dark laugh that permeated every dream was still clinging to his memory, taunting him, mocking him, squeezing his sanity to shreds.

“It was just another nightmare,” he whispered to the night, hoping to alleviate his thumping head.

The words, however, were too powerful. The echo of Dmitri's scream still rang in his mind, and the more Felix thought about it, the more he was certain he could never go back to sleep. With a strangled groan, he threw the blankets off and got out of bed.

No – tumbled out of bed described it better, for Felix's legs gave out and he hit the stone floor on all fours. Rubbing his stinging palms, he was suddenly very glad that bedrooms were private chambers.

After he had gotten dressed and finished the mug of hot chocolate left by the servants – now cold – he headed for the stable. The grooms, to be honest, were more than a little surprised to see the Crown Prince's cousin wanting to ride in the dead of night, but Felix needed some air. The hard, confining walls of the castle were too close. After he'd convinced the grooms he wasn't mad or sick, he rode out on Samson.

It was only then that he realized he’d forgotten to pull some shoes on. He suppressed a groan and looked away from his stockinged feet. Dmitri had loaned him a very nice pair of riding boots, too. 

Samson, the jovial creature that he was, delighted in the midnight ride. It wasn't often that he got the chance to frolic about when all other sensible animals were asleep. Felix let him go full out, and the night swallowed the echo of his hooves.

~*~

“We are very pleased,” Erland crooned, raising his glass, “to have such friends with this Rohesia. We have a long history of alliance, and it is the hope of us that we go together far in the future.”

The lord's thick accent did not merit him well-understood, but Felix thought he could stand firmly behind that claim of friendship so he raised his glass as well. Lord Erland, however, apparently was not finished. After giving Felix a glare until the latter lowered his glass, he cleared his throat and continued.

“We know that this fair land will not be the cost of our trade, and that our dear king will not harm his friendship with us. Trothen has seen her woes, but there is a time soon that she will rise again! From dirt she will rich, and from pain she will glory. She once the brightest star will shine forever.”

As his toast droned on, Felix tried hard not to show his confusion. National pride was definitely a virtue for all men, but the ambassador's thick accent did not merit him well-understood. When Erland began to quote the kings of Trothen, in order from the first crowning, Felix sighed. Nicolas and Nicoline would have smashed a pie over his head long before this.

~*~

Dmitri, looking worried, met him outside his room. “Felix! Where have you been? Do you know what time it is?”

“Couldn’t be that late, cousin, surely?”

Dmitri looked him up and down. “It’s well past midnight, surely. Janelle was certain something had happened to you and was ready to send a search party out. Is something wrong?”

“Couldn’t be better.” Felix smiled again.

Dmitri’s eyes narrowed and twinkled in the same motion. “We need to talk, then.”

A half hour later, Felix was still sitting in his sitting room with his cousin, both with cups of hot chocolate at their disposal. He’d already told the entire tale to Dmitri, but the prince insisted on hashing out all the good parts just to make Felix’s face go red. Why cousins made a hobby of that sort of thing, Felix didn't know. All he knew was that his cousin was thoroughly enjoying himself.

~*~

Janelle watched him walk away and then turned her eyes on Felix. “I know you’re not going to like this, but I’m putting food into you, getting you into a bed, and having the doctor look at those burns. And you can’t deny a royal order.” 

Merryweather let out a whimper. 

“The dog can go with you.”

~*~

Felix didn’t waste any time. As soon as the doctor left, he bolted for the door. He was already sixteen bounds down the hallway before he realized that he’d forgotten to pull his boots on and that Merryweather was close at his heels. The dog had become a close companion the last three days of confinement, and he was grateful for the company. As for the boots -- he’d already been making a fashion statement in the kingdom, so he didn’t bother with going back for his footwear. 

God bless!

The Course I Failed in College

"Well, I'm back," he said. 

Even though that is the last line of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, I thought it appropriate to begin again with that. It's good to be blogging again! And Lord willing, I'll be a little more regular with it like I was before college. 

Don't look at me like that. One can hope, y'know.

And just like that -- four years and college is over! It's been a week and a half since graduation, but I still can't believe I made it this far. It was all God, I can tell you that. 

On May 4th (coincidentally also Star Wars Day), I received my degree in Creative Writing, the result of 8 long semesters-worth of work. On the same day, my husband received his master's degree in theology. I'll tell you what -- it was pretty neat to be able to graduate together. However, the master's degree is just a stepping stone for my hubby as he's planning on continuing his education in seminary and getting a doctorate. 

Lord willing, in about seven years, I'll be married to a doctor. How's that for cool??? I'm so stinking proud of my husband. 

College isn't easy. There were times when I thought some classes were gonna be the death of me, some assignments would never be completed, some tests would catapult my GPA to irreversible depths... but I passed the classes, I completed the assignments, and I managed to squeak out a pretty nice GPA to cap it all off. 

But there was one course I failed in miserably. Four times. 

Have you ever gotten the feeling that God really wanted you to learn a specific lesson? As in, He wanted you to learn it so badly He sent it to you more than once? Because that's exactly what happened to me. 

I thought I knew how to depend on God as my source of strength. Not far into my freshman year, however, God struck me with a bullet in the head. Metaphorically, of course. He showed me as a energetic, stupid freshman exactly how much I was relying on myself by giving me a knee injury while playing society soccer. Not only did the knee pain kick me out of soccer for the rest of the season (not that my exercise-induced asthma helped much in that decision), but it also made getting to class difficult at times. Steps were a nightmare. I was thankfully on the first floor in my dorm, but I had several second- and third-floor classes. Thus, it was either be late to class with a sore knee, or take the embarrassing elevator ride. To say it bluntly, that year was very humbling as it forced me to look to God as my source of strength. 

Sophomore year. I had the lesson down, right? 

Ha. Nope. 

Sophomore year began with a shoulder injury. My sister had hyper-extended her shoulder, and she wasn't allowed to carry her own backpack. So, I, as a helpful older sister, volunteered to help her carry it around. I had her backpack slung on one shoulder and mine on the other. The result? I hurt my shoulder, and then I wasn't allowed to carry backpacks anymore. Oh, the irony. Again, I was depending on my own strength to get around and help my sister when I should have been depending on God. 

I managed that semester having to accept the assistance of a very nice young man to carry my backpack around. Another friend and some cousins helped my sister carry hers. After always refusing help with my backpack, it was humbling. Honestly, I hated needing help. 

Second semester sophomore year, I struggled with random fevers and a lot of fatigue. My sister (also my roommate at the time) had some of the same symptoms and was diagnosed with the epstein barr virus -- mono. Guess who else had mono? Yeah, yours truly. For Spring Break, I spent the entire week in bed -- only allowed to venture out for food. I was weak and tired.

Again, I had to rely on God as my source of strength. 

Two years... and the same lesson. You would think it would have gotten through my thick skull at this point. 

Junior year rolled around. I was still recovering from mono, but I had learned how to take care of myself better. I started relying on my own strength once again, and God sent Ken back into my life. 

(For those of you who don't know, Ken is my evil twin, a.k.a. the person I become when I have asthma.) 

At first, I thought it was just a quick visit from Ken, as he likes to come stay with me on the weekends (not cool). But a whole month went by, and he was still sticking around. As it happens, the smoke from the horrible forest fires in Tennessee was drifting south to my college, and I couldn't breathe outside unless I had a mask on. Coughing set in, and I actually had one teacher stop class so she could find me a cough drop. Again, weak and miserable, it was another humbling year. 

Senior year I was sure I had the lesson down. After all, I'd spent the summer getting married and setting up my first home with an absolutely amazing husband. What could go wrong? 

Truth be told, nothing went wrong. Everything went just the way God had it planned. The week before classes started, my husband looked at me and said in his blunt way, "You've been moody lately and you look kinda bloated. I think you're pregnant." 

(Side note: Most husbands shouldn't speak that way to their wives, but that's just how my husband and I communicate. I love our relationship.)

I was adamant that I was not pregnant, but we got a test...

And it was positive. 

Over the numbing, sheer joy at the realization that we were going to be parents, the tiny logical part of my brain kicked in: How in the world could I complete an entire year of school pregnant? Morning sickness was one thing, but our baby was due the last week of classes spring semester. Meaning that I'd be approximately giving birth a week or two before I graduated. 

Truth be told, I didn't have a terrible pregnancy. Morning sickness, though ill-named, wasn't too bad -- but I had to miss class and work sometimes because of it. The normal aches and pains weren't awful, but as I progressed further to the 9 month mark, I became more and more limited as to what I could do. God gave me just enough strength to do what I needed to do, even though I was often not allowed to get out and do extra things. 

Our little daughter arrived on April 21, two weeks before graduation. As I was still in recovery after giving birth and not allowed to walk very far, my husband took me across the stage in a wheelchair to receive my diploma. 

For someone who wanted desperately to be independent and do everything for herself, I had to be broken and humbled. God really used college to show me how much I needed Him. There was no way I could have survived all four years on my own. I'm very grateful for everything that He did for me -- there's countless other stories I could tell you. 

I'm not telling you all these things to get you to feel sorry for me. I would not change the last four years and the lessons that God taught me through them. I'm sharing this story because God's still working on all of us. I'm 24, married, a college graduate, and a mom, and I sure don't have my act all together yet. God's still teaching me, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. 

Even if God has to give you the same lesson four times, take it with grace and LEARN IT! Sometimes the thing we need the most is the redundant reminder. 

God bless!