New Beginnings?

What a week last week, huh?  My heart goes out to the people of Boston.  I had a friend who ran in the marathon, thankfully unharmed. She was two miles from the finish line when the world went haywire, and had no idea what was happening up ahead. The city made America look good last week, showing us all how proud we can be to live in this country. The downside would naturally be the excess of media coverage. I REALLY hate when a reporter shoves a microphone into someone's face and says something stupid like, "tell us how horrified you were when you first saw all those bleeding bodies, etc."  I'm sorry, but if that person was me, I'd want to slug the reporter.  These are not things people want to relive. I saw the same thing with the Sandy Hill thing. It is my opinion you should NOT ask a child how horrible their best friend looked, lying on the floor next to them riddled with bullet holes. Leave the kid alone!

Alright, off my soapbox.

And then there was the explosion in Texas. Wow. These events make the overabundance of rain in my part of the country seem trivial. And in true Illinois fashion, after the five inches of rain, we got snow (just a trace, thank heaven). We were out today and the Fox River near where I live has lost track of its banks, but the sun is shining, a reminder that it's a new day, a new beginning. Prayers go out to all the people impacted by these disasters in hopes that they can find a new beginning, a place to start over.

And speaking of starting over, I'm eight chapters into the new book when one of my beta readers

Flora and the Zephyrs - John William Waterhouse

pointed out that I seem to be stuck on paintings. Living Canvas had a painting as part of the main plot. This new story also has a painting in it, although it is much less "front and center," it's more a point of reference. Like the movie "Laura," the hero compares a subject in a painting to a woman he meets, but the woman in my story is not dead, and until the hero meets her, he wasn't necessarily infatuated with the subject of the painting.  But I'm giving away all the details of my story and it isn't even done yet!

My friend's observation highlighted another similarity in some of my stories, which did make me stop and consider whether I should start over or continue along the path I'd begun. Writer's angst is common and to be expected, although generally not this early on in a novel.

Maybe a new beginning isn't what we need. Maybe what we need to do is carry on, through the potholes in life, through the horror and the pain. Starting over discounts all the trials and victories we have already conquered. So while I continue with my work, I am reminded that we can find strength in the things that have happened in our lives and as dark a day as we've had to contemplate, I have faith that there are brighter days ahead to chase the gloom away.

Peace.