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The Practice of Preparing and Advent

December 12, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

This year, it seems like everything has been different for advent. We weren’t even home at the beginning of the official start to advent, we’ve been playing catch-up with our Truth in the Tinsel ornaments, and it’s been unusually busy–all for very good reasons–but all events that came up last-minute to change our December. We didn’t even get a real tree this year–breaking a holiday tradition we’ve held since Pumpkin was tiny.

In the midst of the chaos, how do we prepare our hearts for the season? We dispensed with our traditional ornaments this year. They are all packed in a box at my parents’ home. We borrowed a small artificial tree from them, and have been putting up only the ornaments we’ve made with Truth in the Tinsel.

It’s been a nice process of simplifying. We’ll head up to my inlaws’ place this week to spend a longer time with them than we usually do over the holidays, since we know our time in Canada is short now. We’ll take our homeschool with us because three children at loose ends at Grandma and Grandpa’s house are only a novelty for so long (and then they’re obnoxious).

But we’ll get to go out in the bush behind their house and help them pick out their tree–one of the ones they planted themselves–and enjoy family and new traditions, and a pause to remember what the season is really all about.

Disciplined December: Week 1 Check-in

December 12, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

I’m not feeling so great about my goals this week. I tend to think I can do everything, and the simple truth is I just can’t. I stayed up late and woke up early, and homeschool was anything but structured, all as a result of the work for my novel launch. Granted, this is not something that happens every day around here, and something to get excited about–if I could find a minute to do that in!

All of that is to say that I didn’t hit the target on all of my goals this week, but I did make some progress.

Here are the goals I’m working on:

I was up twice this week at 6:00 and had my morning routine underway. I did not exercise. Something I have yet to mention here is I injured my shoulder during our vacation. (Seeing the chiropractor and then the doctor and then having an ultrasound were some of the events that turned the previous week upside down). The diagnosis was as good as it could be. It was not any of the things that anyone suspected it might be (a break, a dislocation, a sprain, a strain or a tear). It is simply bruised and inflamed and needs rest. That’s okay, I didn’t need my right arm anyway! Seriously, though, I’m very grateful it was nothing worse. My range of motion is returning and my sleep is less disrupted by pain than it was. Even though we’re traveling this week, things can only be calmer than they were last week, and I should be able to have some kind of a normal schedule. Now that my shoulder’s feeling better, I’ll add some exercise.
I’m going to make a determined effort to go to bed on time for a change because for me that’s key to starting the day right.
Regroup in the homeschooling department and come up with a plan for what we’ll study until we leave Canada. I honestly haven’t done much about this except think about it, and fret a little. Ultimately, I realize that if my kids focused on the old-fashioned three R’s for the entire school year, they’d still be fine at the end of the year. I just feel like what we’ll lose out on is all the things we love the most (history, science, read-alouds). I know we’ll figure it out, and I keep telling myself it’s just a season.
I still have some work to do to schedule more dates for my virtual book tour, but it’s coming along. Click on the link to the right to join in! More than one of the reviewers is hosting a giveaway. You could be the lucky winner!

How about you? Are you on track?

Author Karen Anna Vogel

December 9, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

I have a passion for fiction. I decided it was time to do something about that here on my blog. So starting today, most Fridays I’ll host Fiction Fix Friday. I plan to review fiction and host guest posts and today I’m interviewing fellow Trestle Press author, Karen Anna Vogel, author of Knit Together: An Amish Close Knit Novel and the best-selling Amish Knitting Circle fiction series.

Karen writes about the Amish from a unique perspective, as a trusted “English” friend.

CC: How did your friendship with the Amish begin?

KV: My family moved to Upstate NY where there’s a large population of Amish settlements, and so we became acquaintances with many, but good friends with one family in particular, Harry Hershberger, (Eli Hershberger in Knit Together: An Amish Close Knit Novel.) He was in a wheelchair running a variety shop when I met him. His buggy was hit while trying to help put out a fire as a young man, after the birth of his daughter. When we met he was middle-aged and enjoyed my four kids coming in the store to buy coloring books and crayons.

Harry and his wife, Katie, were the most inspirational people I’ve ever met. Harry believed God allowed him to be a paraplegic for his glory, to meet many people in his store the Amish built for him so he’d have employment. He wanted to just shine the light of Christ on everyone. He was the first one who called me a trusted English friend, which carries a lot of weight in the Amish community. Now I live back in Western PA, and the Amish here know Harry and Katie from circle letters, and they immediately trusted me too. I found that amazing.

CC: What is it you most admire about the your Amish friends?

KV: When they give their word, they keep it. The Amish built our barn and addition, and I’ll never forget when Noah, a newlywed, showed up to work a little forlorn. I asked him what was wrong, and he said his wife wasn’t too happy with him. When I asked him what he did wrong, he said he got his calendar mixed up and couldn’t go with her to a wedding that day. I told him he should have called (from the phone shanty) to cancel with us, but he said he gave us his word. This blew me away!

But they’re so much fun too, and that’s what many people don’t understand. They’re not staunch, stoic people. When the men replaced our roof, all five of them sang most the day in harmony, talking and laughing. Some brought a “joke of the day” and I’d have one ready for them.

CC: In a recent blog post, you talked about simplifying life to live more like the Amish. When you consider that, what’s one thing you think you couldn’t live without?

KV: I couldn’t give up the internet or my Kindle. But, never say never, right?

CC: If you could sum up the message of Knit Together in a sentence, what would that be?

KV: You don’t have to be Amish to live a simple life, but we have a lot to learn from them.

CC: Your books are doing very well. How did that happen? What’s your secret of success?

KV: Well, I can only go by what readers are saying, and it’s that they’re learning a lot about Amish culture. They also see issues in the Amish community that surprise them; alcoholism, marital problems, poor body image among women, adoption within the community…maybe issues that aren’t normally talked about.

CC: Tell me about the serial stories. How did that get started and what do you like most about them?

KV: Well, Trestle Press asked Suzanne Woods Fisher to write the series’ and she referred them to me. I like writing a serial since they’ve made a comeback; 80% of Americans are too busy to read a novel, so short stories are popular.

I also get instant feedback from readers and it helps me see what is touching my audience. Serial books have become classics because of audience response. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, Anne of Green Gables ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery and The Mitford Years ~ Jan Karon are some examples.

CC: What’s next?

KV: I’m writing a novel set in Upstate New York where I used to live. It was such an interesting place to live, being near Amish and also Native Americans who owned some of the surrounding land. I love learning about other cultures and hope readers will too. That book will also deal with kidney transplants. I started writing it last winter when my sister-in-law was on the transplant list and things looked bleak. It was great therapy. Suzanne is Amish in the book, waiting for a kidney and goes to Pittsburgh for surgery. Since the Amish use modern medicine, it fit into the story. And in real life, my sister-in-law got a transplant and is doing very well, and we’re so thankful.

Thank you for having me on your blog, Carey. So glad we met at the “Write His Answer Conference” in Philly!

Thank you, Karen, for visiting here in the first edition of Friday Fiction Fix!

Karen Anna Vogel blogs at Amish Crossings. You can also join her author page on Facebook.

Also, don’t forget to check out the Virtual Book Tour starting Monday, December 12 for After the Snow Falls.

A Disciplined December

December 5, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

Can you believe it’s December? Well, if you’ve been to the mall, I guess you’ve been confronted with the reality, but still. Really?

Recent goal-setting failures aside, and the desire to eat turkey, light candles and do nothing barking at the door, I’m determined to have a productive December, and bring some much-needed discipline back to my routine. Here are my goals:

Structure my personal schedule in order to make time for morning routines. My hope is that this will help me eliminate backlog and find time for things like writing (because I’m very excited about the new novel idea that’s been brewing in me), and internet use (because marketing for After the Snow Falls has taken on something of a life of its own).
Regroup in the homeschooling department and come up with a strategy for what we’ll do until we leave Canada. We just came back from a vacation, so we’re in get-back-in-the-groove mode, but we’ll have to stop really soon for Christmas. And then there’ll be moving frenzy. (Trust me, I know this well.) So I need to rethink schedule, prioritize and make it happen.
Successfully launch After the Snow Falls. It will be released on December 15, and I’m lining up a blog tour now.

Wow! They’re big goals, and maybe I’m being overly optimistic with all the good Christmas-y feeling in the air, but I think I can do it.

And believe it or not, I haven’t forgotten Advent. I sincerely believe that if I’m able to structure my days better–maybe more realistically–I’ll be able to do the slowing down necessary to prepare my heart for this season.

What are your goals this month?

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