I’ve been neglectful of this blog, busy both at work and play this summer! I can’t believe July has folded up, the allure and pop of fireworks long behind us!
I hope you have been enjoying the warm weather and blue sky. I’ve been working on a dozen things at once, such as developing a plan—and the website—for Janice Beetle Books. This site should launch in the next few weeks, and I will eagerly tell you more when that happens.
I will also be telling you more—likely in September—about a book, called Flight of Integrity, which a client and I are publishing. I will be reading from this work of fiction, which tells my client’s own story, at venues in the region. Please stay tuned. I hope you will come out and give a listen! Or invite me to do a reading in your home. I will travel, too!
I’ve also been writing and editing challenging and fulfilling pieces for clients that include Glenmeadow, Florence Bank, Smith College School for Social Work, United Way of Hampshire County, Patrick’s Pub & Eatery, and the Laconia Daily Sun. From the end of June through mid-July, I got up every day at 5 a.m. and worked until nearly midnight. It was wild. I lost track of the fact that it was summer!
Since, I’ve also been having fun biking, hiking, boating on the Connecticut River, visiting my family in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire with Jacques, and visiting his family in Newfoundland.
In July, Jacques, my daughter Molly, and I finished the hike that Jacques and I took last September, which ended with him getting hauled out on a stretcher with a broken leg! He conquered it this time. Being in Canada was also exhilarating. The scenery is breathtaking, and reminded me of home and the White Mountains. (I got it in mind that I want to spend a summer there in the future and write a book about the paper mill there in a town called Corner Brook!)
This Wednesday, I will also mark a milestone in my life. I spent my summers on a lake in New Hampshire and have long wanted to own my own home up here, near my brothers and my mom. Wednesday, Jacques and I will close on a vacation home on Lake Opeche. I am holding my breath. At this time, it does not seem possible or real. Come Wednesday afternoon, you can be sure I will be running through the empty halls of our new home, staring out the windows at the view of the water, squealing! You can also be sure you will hear more about this house as time passes!
If you follow me as Janice Beetle Author on Facebook, you know I’ve been reading some excellent books. I just finished Glennon Doyle Melton’s memoir, “Carry On, Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life.” Glennon is just plain real, raw, and revealing. I love her style of writing.
What I learned from her is that I am also a memoirist. A serial memoirist. I am most at peace, and feel most able to inspire others, when I am writing about events, or people, in my life. This must stem from my diary writing, which began when I was six. It also helps, I’m sure, that I was a journalist for 15 years, and I have been interviewing people and telling their stories my entire career.
I notice things. I am intuitive. I have deep feelings. I like writing about all that stuff.
Thanks to Glennon for making me feel like writing memoirs is okay. I’ve always been self-conscious of that.
This is one excerpt from Glennon’s book that resonated deeply: “So I decided that’s what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to walk around telling people the truth. No mask, no hiding, no pretending. That was going to be my thing. It’s my thing. I was going to make people feel better about their insides by showing them mine, by being my real self.”
Telling stories of life with no filter or safety shield is my thing too. It feeds my soul. I have the distinct impression that coming to this realization could change my life.
Let’s just see about that!
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