A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

  A reader of my blog recently asked me about the book I’m writing. I started telling her about the romantic suspense novel I’m working on and where I am in the process.  “No,” she said. “I meant the book about your adventures in Kosovo. I’ve been reading the various chapters on your blog.” Kosovo- cut into the plaster covering a stone wall. This was at an old house turned into a B&B. “Ah…about that…” She’s right. My blog, A Novel Creation, was originally about me as a new writer learning to craft a novel. My readers were other writers interested in pursuing the same dream. In August, when I made the decision to come to Kosovo and teach fourth grade at Prishtina High School, I realized I am the novel creation (read “unique being”) beginning a new chapter in my life. Each chapter on my blog is for the month I’m here. September was Chapter 1, Chapter 2 denotes October and so forth. Each scene represents one week in my life in Europe during that m...

The Decision Like most schools, Prishtina High School has a couple of weeks off over the holidays. Since the day I arrived, I’ve had people ask me if I would be traveling home for Christmas. “No.” I made that decision before I came to Kosovo.   I know myself. I made a commitment to the school. Going home would be fun but seeing my family may make it difficult to return to my teaching. I would return . I know that. But I may do it under duress. All it would take would be one of my grandchildren begging me to stay and I would feel like a heel for flying off again. Already, my four-year-old granddaughter asks me to come home every time we talk on the phone. The Plan Many of my school friends planned trips for Christmas. I wasn’t sure who would be around so I formed a plan. For my own good mental health, I planned projects I wanted to complete over the winter break. The list was much too long, so I pared it down to four projects I need to complete: Two for the s...

December 18 th was my wedding anniversary. My husband and I would have been married forty-six years. Sounds like a lifetime to most people I talk with these days. Turns out…it was. Tom died three years ago from injuries he sustained in a bicycle accident. Many of my readers know that. What you may not realize is that he died only weeks before our wedding anniversary. But this isn’t a story about loss. It is a story about gain. About resiliency. A story about love, and care, and friendship. A story about connecting. My wedding anniversary is exactly one week before Christmas. The Palm Tree Three weeks after Tom’s death, my oldest daughter and I went to a “grieving through the holidays” session at a local church. A woman there offered to pray with us. We held hands and she prayed. As she neared the end of her prayer, she asked God to bring an image of a palm tree to us whenever we were hurting. Allison and I glanced at each other. A palm tree? Even the woman who prayed coul...

I teach fourth grade at Prishtina High School in Kosovo. Most Americans I talk with fall into one of two camps. Either they think of Kosovo as a war torn country or they have never heard of the tiny nation in southeastern Europe. The beautiful capital city of Prishtina with its cosmopolitan feel doesn’t look like a war torn city, but the hearts of the Albanian Kosovars whose roots run deep in this region bear the scars of war. The war is part of their family history. Despite its tone, this story isn’t about the sacrifices of the past. It is about the leaders of the future. My class. The children in my class amaze me. They are industrious and smart. They love to learn. They are nine and ten-year-olds who can speak, read and write in at least two languages. They are deep thinkers. And they care. Every afternoon I read aloud to my students. I started the school year reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. My fifteen fourth graders listened intently e...