Where time and plans wear thin

I had plans for today. Mostly they involved finally putting finger to keyboard and starting work on Hemlock 3. But today had plans too.

It all began with that new year plan to try to be organized. I finally set up hotmail's calendar and starting writing things in it. Which means, of course, that my emails have started sending me reminders...

Today is the release date for Mary DeMuth's Thin Places. It's a wonderful book - a memoir, which is not my kind of thing, but it's really so much more. She tells of those hardest places in her life - the sort of place where secrets hide away - and how their memory can become the thinnest of skins between here and eternity, where God's provision and love come shining through. I really enjoyed the book, and I really didn't want to miss the launch day celebrations... so I posted my review and a 259-word essay about a thin place of my own. And then I put the review on Amazon, which led to Goodreads, Shelfari, Librarything... and reviews of all those other books that were waiting in my queue.

259 words? That's because Mary DeMuth is running a competition to win an Amazon Kindle, and a Kindle costs $259. You have to write 259 words about a time when God's light shone into one of your thin places, then you post it and link it and hope to learn from all your friends who've posted too. Why not give it a try?

Meanwhile there was still the shopping, and the washing, and the cleaning - I've not done that yet. And there was that writers' group contest where I had to put all our entries online today for voting. Plus that other writers' group challenge - February wrimo; finger to keyboard and all that.

My plans wear thin and the sun comes out outside. Characters whisper and try to stand in line: Who's on first? Where does the story begin? Perhaps it's just as well I haven't started to type it yet. With any luck, my delays will be just the right length for the children of Hemlock to get themselves organized. And then I'll hide by the computer while they spill out onto the page.

I've got a Bible study to prepare for tomorrow now, and a list to make for volunteers for childcare. I think that's the last of my email reminders though. Then I'll go for a walk on the green. God talks, and so do my characters, in that thin place where there's only the sky above and the world all around. When I take the time to listen, failing to be organized hardly seems to matter.