Sitting in a hotel room in Iowa on my way home right now. I reckon it's time to update you guys on the last few days of the workshop, and the trip home. Excuse me while I grab a box of Kleenex to get me through.
OK. **settles in** Let us pick up where we left off!
Thursday:
This morning began with a Bible study at 7:15, where we read Proverbs 21, and discussed it. After that was breakfast, as usual, then to the Bell Center for the first session of the day, featuring Jeff Gerke, who instructed us on how to prepare a great novel proposal to take to a publisher.
After a short break, we returned for a panel Q/A session with Jeff Gerke, Amanda Luedeke (Mr. S's agent) and Stephanie Morrill. Then we broke for lunch.
After lunch it was time for critique groups again - my favorite part of the day! This time, Eli somehow ended up with someone else's hat, so he sported a lovely hat for the next several hours. :)
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| Eli and his hat! |
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It was during this session that I read the one excerpt that I had taken that I thought was my best! Turns out, however, that my late-night editing session on Sunday night, getting ready for the workshop, had turned out a less-than-desireable product. All of my copying and pasting and re-writing had turned my once-beloved scene into a confused, muddled
mess!! It was so confusing, even
I was confused!! I had to stop and apologize while I tried to figure out where bodies and voices were coming from and why they were appearing out of thin air!! Everyone tried to assure me that it wasn't that bad, but I know it was! An author ought not to be confused by her own works! As usual, everyone else's novels were fantastic! I was blessed with a wonderful critique group! I couldn't have asked for a better one!
After critique groups was dinner, then back to the Bell Center for the evening session. This time Prof. Mark Wilson was back with a talk on Adventure, and how it is more than possible to write a great Christian adventure novel, but that most of today's society has separated the two, out of the belief that adventure cannot be Christian. As some of you might expect, he cited such authors as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Then, it was time for the last session of the evening. Mr. and Mrs. S had brought in the Greenleaf Improv Team for us, again, just like last year. Again, they were hilarious!! In one of their 'games' they had a bunch of students write down one sentence from their book, and then they used random ones to finish their sentences as they acted out a scene. It was a riot!! We left the Bell Center late that night, then headed over to the Tipping Point lounge for the remaining time before curfew.
While hanging out at the Tipping Point, I was able to spend some time just talking with Eli, and I found out that he was still largely in the dark as far as what I had been through this spring...how I found out I was sick, and what all went down as I found out what was going on. Along the way, I found out he was in the hospital for a surgery around the same time I was in the hospital. After we had finished updating each other on our health conditions, and what had gone down when, he asked me if I would write an article for Kingdom Pen about my experiences and how God's using them to affect my writing. Of course, I said I would be thrilled! Halfway through Prof. Wilson's talk, the perfect idea hit me, so I began my article then, and finished it later that night in my dorm room, which is why I didn't update the blog. You all can read the article in the next issue of
Kingdom Pen if you subscribe!
Friday:
7:15 Bible study, for the last time. I don't remember off-hand what we read...I was in a daze of exhaustion (from staying up too late, writing) and sorrow - knowing this was the beginning of our last day. Daniel had me near tears, as he wrapped up...but I made it through!
Then came breakfast (and two cups of coffee! They're dinky little cups, though...I was so tempted to go ask for a
man-size cup of coffee! Lol!) Then off to the Bell Center for the first session of the day. Upon arriving, we found that, though the scheduled event was an interview with Mr. Tom Oswald, there were many special acts that were to come first. Among them was Lindsay, singing a song that she wrote. She described it as an adventure novel in a song, and indeed it was! Earlier in the week, Braden sang a song he wrote about a character in his book...... Both songs were awesome!!
Both the first and second sessions of the day were interviews with Mr. Oswald, but due to the special acts, we didn't actually hear much from him. However, what we did hear was a mixture of depressing and encouraging. He was talking about the future of indie Christian media and how to reach our culture with our writing and music, etc.
After that came lunch, which was rather uneventful, then I had about a half-hour to kill before critique groups started. I went walking outside, just listening to music and wishing that the day would never end. I ended up finding Eli, and we walked back to the Bell Center together, so he could get the power cord for his computer. Once there, we parted ways, he had a few things to do while he was there, so I headed back towards the cafeteria to prepare for critiques. I was halfway back to the cafeteria, and had stopped to talk to Starlight, when Eli running out of the Bell Center, calling my name. Star continued on his way, and I waited for Eli to catch up. When he did, he was grinning this sheepish, almost guilty sort of grin. Turns out, he'd come walking out of a door in the Bell Center and shouted something in Russian at the top of his lungs, then continued out the door, leaving a group of shell-shocked teenagers in his wake. We had a great laugh about it as we made our way to the cafeteria.
Once inside, I set my things down and walked away from the group for a moment (bad idea!) When I came back, Eli had put on his red headband and was now looking very much like Rambo. O.o Of course, we all had to have our pictures taken with Rambo!!
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| Rambo and Tora |
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| Rambo is very tired! |
After critique groups - which were filled with much hilarity (Andrew and I were under the impression that it is impossible to OD on Essential Oils, but Eli seemed to prove us wrong!!) - we headed back to the Bell Center to find a few of our friends before returning to the cafeteria for dinner.
After dinner we met outside the Bell Center for our group photo.
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| Said group photo |
Then we returned to the auditorium for the final session. Mr. S's talk was titled The War of Two Trees. To be honest, I don't remember much of the talk.....I started crying when he started talking, and I didn't stop until about 3am. I shall have to get some notes from some of my friends to refresh my memory.
After he was done, several people got up to say thank you, or share how God had touched them....I considered getting up and saying something, to thank everyone for their prayers and to tell them how much they meant to me, but....well, I knew I wouldn't even get up to the stage without breaking down. So I didn't.
After that, we all went over to the Tipping Point to spend our last few hours together. Mr and Mrs S extended our curfew to 1am, so that we could have one last, coveted hour together. I spent most of the time just battling the tears, trying to stay upbeat, and enjoy my time. I had just recovered from a breakdown with Amanda when Kate came over to tell me that one of my dear friends had just accepted Christ. I lost it. We raced over to see him, and several of us
glomped him. From then on, I was just a wreck. I was sitting on the deck of the Tipping Point with Eli when Amanda came to say goodbye. We hugged, and cried and hugged some more. I sat back down, and Eli got up to go talk to someone else. Then Anna came over, and I did it all again. When it came time to bid farewell to Eli and Reagan, I just didn't have another goodbye in me, so we agreed to postpone it until the next morning. I promised to get up early and meet them in the gazebo so we could say goodbye one last time. Then I hugged Braden, Mig, Isaac, Blaine, Kyle, the S's and a bunch of other people and left quickly, holding back the tears until I was walking alone. Once back in the dorm, my roommates and I were up until 3am. Two of us were crying almost the entire time.
Saturday:
I got up at 6:15 the next morning, threw on some clothes and made my way out to the gazebo and waited for my friends. That began a long and very painful morning of goodbyes.
After we left, we headed for Omaha, where we met up with my grandpa, and had lunch with him. Then we checked into our hotel room, where Danielle, Haniya and I tipped over and passed out on the beds. After about a 2 hour nap, we got up and went out to a wonderful little German restaurant for dinner.
We came back to the hotel after that, and Danielle and Haniya went to sleep. Mom and I were up for quite a while after...I was catching up on stuff on my computer, and reading previous issues of Kingdom Pen that I was behind on, and she was watching movies or something. :)
Sunday:
This morning, we got up, packed up, and headed to church. A year and a half ago, when we were down here visiting grandpa while he was in the rehab center after he nearly died of an infection, we visited Bellevue Christian Center and made many wonderful friends! Since I was going to be in the area, I contacted a few of them and asked them to come this weekend. When we got there, I met up with Weston, and got to see their youth pastor, Cory, as well. After a wonderful sermon, which talked about dreaming big - no matter what the world says........and which felt like it had been written specifically for me, Weston and I went around and I got to see several of my other friends from my previous visit.
After we left there, we went out to eat at a Mexican buffet.... Word to the wise....when in doubt, skip the buffet! The salad bar was little more than lettuce and dressing (I put raisins on my salad! And I
hate raisins!!) And there was nothing on the food bar that I recognized. I found a few tasty things, but I prefer knowing what it is that I'm eating!
My mom's oldest younger brother stopped by for a few minutes to say hi, as well. I hadn't seen him in nearly 13 years, so it was really great to see him again!!! He had to get back to work, though, so we didn't get much time with him. When he left, we all walked out, and then said goodbye to Grandpa. Seems like every time it gets a little harder to say goodbye. :(
We left the Omaha area a little after 3, and started our journey north. As we were going right through Des Moines, and my dad's Aunt and Uncle live in Des Moines, we decided to stop on our way through and say hi. We ended up spending about an hour with them, snacking on fruit and cookies, and drinking coffee. After we hopped in the car, we decided we did
not want to drive all the way home, so here I sit in Iowa city!
On our way up from Omaha to Des Moines, we stopped in Menlo, IA (which is only about 2mi off of I-80, FYI) to see the
Freedom Rock. Here are a few pictures:
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| Danielle, Haniya, and myself in front of the painting of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And amazing depiction! |
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| Just a really cool view of the rock, and the flags in the background! |
Well, that's all I've got for now...it's really late, and my fellow travelers have been very quiet in the other room for quite a while!!
Semper Fi
