writing inspiration | Cathy C. Hall Writes

So I was piddling around with the cows this weekend, and sometime late Sunday night, wore out from cow pies and giggles, I came across an email. An email that had somehow burrowed into an inbox black hole. And though I occasionally discover “lost” emails, they are most often junk emails.

This was not a junk email.

It was an editor email. An editor asking, mostly nicely, whether I was going to ever get to work on the next project. And I thought (after I freaked out about it having arrived in the black hole three weeks ago) that it hadn’t really been that long. I mean, geez, it was just…let’s see…three months ago since I finished the other project and said I’d get back to her soon.

Um…three months? Three. Whole. Months. OHMYWORD! ITHADBEENTHREEMONTHS!

So, yeah. Then I really freaked out. ‘Cause basically, I work all day, most every day, writing. What had I been doing?

I suppose I could make a pie chart and figure it all out, but I think that might be a wee bit depressing, to see how I’ve actually been wasting time.

And anyway, I have been working. Of course I’ve been working. I just don’t have anything tangible…say, like an improved bank account…to show for it. That’s the unfortunate side of working on picture book manuscripts or middle grade manuscripts or any manuscript, for that matter. You work and work and write and write–and all the while, you’re operating on all sorts of intangibles.

Like faith in yourself and your work, trusting that your craft’s improving, hoping that this time, you’ve captured on paper the story that’s in your heart.

You can’t put faith, hope, and trust in a bank. But I still believe that someday, that work will pay off.

In the meantime, I’ve responded to that email and thanked that editor for her extreme patience. And though she hasn’t given me a deadline, I kinda think I need to finish this project tout de suite. So there’ll be no more watching comedians or listening to Julie Andrews or messing with cows.

Well. Maybe one more cow pic. (Who knew they were so darn cute?)

Some of you may have seen on Facebook about Oldest Junior Hall and his trip to New Zealand. But there’s a whole backstory to Joey’s (the afore-mentioned Oldest Junior Hall) trip, so I thought I’d share that along with “The Importance of Now“. I wanted to include Joey’s story with that afore-mentioned Muffin post, but I ran out of space. So here are the rest of the words, another look at the importance of now.

Joey is big on seeing the world. And that’s all well and good, as far as broadening one’s horizons. But seeing the world requires a bankroll to finance the travel hither and yon. So about three or four years ago, after he’d successfully managed a trip to the Grand Canyon and back without falling into the Grand Canyon, he decided he would go on an even grander trip. And so he began to plan.

He had a good job that paid enough for him to live a comfortable lifestyle. But that wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was to save money, little by little, so that one day he could afford a grand adventure.

He brought his lunch to work. He lived in a basement apartment (it was a nice basement apartment but not exactly the kind of space that screams, “Really cool bachelor lives here.”) at a bargain basement rent. Way out in the suburbs of the ATL where it’s far cheaper to live. He continued to drive a somewhat beat-up car that already had well over 100,000 miles on it. He enjoyed activities and such on the weekends–I mean, he wasn’t a hermit or anything–but basically, he opted for a frugal lifestyle.

And to be honest, it was pretty funny, this crazy kid with his Ramen noodles and watching his weight so he could still fit into his clothes from high school (he just turned 29). But then, last summer, he announced his big plan to go to New Zealand. And not just go to New Zealand but to sort of live there, for like, a year.

It was something he’d always wanted to do, and day by day, little by little, he’d worked towards that goal. And then last week, he was off on his grand adventure. To New Zealand. Wow.

Of course we’ll miss him and his noodles. But holy Auckland, I was so excited for him! So happy for him as I hugged him at the airport. He’d actually done it.

There’s something in your heart that you want to do, too. Maybe it’s a grand adventure, maybe it’s writing a grand story. Or maybe it’s growing your own vegetables. It’s not so much what the dream is as it is starting the daily work to get you to that dream.

That’s the importance of now.