Yes, I Am a Novel Creation

 I’m sitting at my computer struggling with this week’s topic for the blog. I named the blog: “A Novel Creation” for two reasons. The first was my idea and is rather weak. The second idea was, in a way, revealed to me by God. Much later. 

I’ll start with the first. 

When I decided to turn my attention to becoming a published author, I attended a conference at Wheaton College in Illinois. I was there to learn what I needed to do to publish. Actually, I already knew the first step was to write something. Before the conference I began crafting my first novel.

At that conference in 2012, I heard over and over again I needed to write a blog. I didn’t even know what a blog was, much less anything about writing one. I started to research “blog” and bumped into work by Jeff Goins challenging writers to write. 

I was one of the early members of a Facebook group emerging from that work called “My 500 Words.” Through his work I learned about blogging. The goal was to write at least 500 words every day.

I needed a name for my blog. I was writing my first novel, so I called the blog, A Novel Creation. Clever, huh? Not really, but my goal at that time was to share everything I was learning about crafting a book with others interested in doing the same thing. 

It’s a small pool. Actually, I run into many people who talk about writing a book, but getting down to it is another thing.

Anyway, that was the beginning of A Novel Creation. I posted my first blog entry the day after Christmas, December 26, 2012. I trudged along with the weekly posts. Most of them were aimed at taking people along on my writing journey.

My first novel released at the end of March 2014. The end of October, that same year, my husband of forty-three years died  after a bicycle accident. 

I actually had most of the November and December posts already waiting in the wings, but there is a definite difference in the posts when, as a widow, I began writing for the blog again. I came to recognize the blog was no longer about crafting a book. It was about me.

I am a novel creation. I am a woman created by God and fitted for a unique path in life.

I kept the blog going, though I have often referred to losing Tom as “the moment the ink ran out of my pen.” I worked at living. I traveled to India, moved to a new house, moved to a different country, and crafted a blog that followed the life I was now muddling through. 

In April of 2023, I married a man I’ve known since junior high. We graduated from high school together. Mike Tyler is a good man. He makes me smile. I feel his love every day. And…Mike encourages me in my writing. Now? I checked. I just hit my 500 words!