Ramblings. As in: Have Words -Will Ramble. As in: Ramble: to write or talk aimlessly or without sequence of ideas, to proceed with turns and twists; meander As In: observances of an everyday life in passing through the spectrum of extraordinary.
Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
We're rolling our way right into 2010. So here we go, ready or not.
It's a special time of year for me, this season between Christmas and New Years. I take my clean slate very seriously. Gotta make a list of all the people I need to forgive this year and wipe it clean. Gotta make a list of people I need to apologise to and make amends.
The tree is still up and I'm writing this in a hangover fog from the great Swedish Ginger Snaps that Mom brought. I start to roll up my sleeves and stare into the coming year with a wild determination. It's a good thing too, because as I begin the rewrites on the Mercy novel (title still in the works) due out in September 2010, kick off the new live radio program from WRFN 107.1 in Nashville next Wednesday at noon, and pack my suitcase to venture to the Pulpwood Queens Girlfriend Getaway Weekend 10th Anniversary, and then on the Southern Voices Conferences in Hoover Alabama I'm going to need all the determination and grit that I can get. Okay, okay - so I'm having a lot of fun rolling in words, and meeting readers on the air and on the road in the process. It still takes just a tad of concentration. And more Ginger Snaps!
This year has inspired me and tried me. I have seen the publication of Saints In Limbo and enjoyed its beautiful reception from readers across the nation. I lost my precious Aunt Kate early on and have felt that loss all year long. The new novel is finished and moving into edits and will soon be in readers hands in upcoming months ahead. I've had the pleasure of making new friends in my travels, spending time with my family, hosting the Adorables for a madcap spoil 'em like crazy vacation, and enjoyed the minds and company of Miss Fancy and Mr. Smarty from pants down the street.
I've road tripped with husband and alone broken down on the road, been stranded, towed, and left in the woods for a month to write - only to come home to find my dream Jeep waiting for me tied up in a red bow.
I've watched wild thunderstorms crash across my porch, sunrises through sleepy eyes, snowstorms cover a region, and watched an owls wings cast shadows across our wooded hill during a full moon. And I've been blessed to survive both sons being deployed to warzones and safely returning home again. Yes, it's been a great year. Full of magic and tears and one more year of my sloppy, beautiful life.
More soon on my resolution for 2009 and how living out that resolutions has changed me, but for now - I think I'll try to keep my plants alive in 2010. Just a simple little thing. Or maybe learn to make something with eggplant, learn a foreign language again, remember how to play chess, and write an old-fashioned letter to a friend once a week. Or jump out of a plane, or . . . I guess I really don't need a brand new resolution at all. Maybe I just need to give thanks for the past year, and reach my arms out wide to receive all that 2010 has in store for me.
In the coming year, I wish you a pure heart, a wise mind, a peace that passes understanding, and that in all the light and shadows of your breathing hours you know that you are loved.
Keep reading and keep believing.
River Jordan
posted by River Jordan at 9:51 PM
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Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
I'm packing for the road again but this time it's not for book signings or wild and wonderful readers conferences. It's because Zaza and Baboo are hitting the road to visit the Adorables for Christmas. Amazing how many miles you'll drive to see a grandchild's little smiling face. Well you'll cross oceans, climb mountains, walk through burning deserts - so glad I just have to drive East for 12 hours and it makes the trip seem so much shorter considering what I would do to get to them.
As we drive East, Mama will be driving North to Nashville. She's packing Christmas goodies to come see her own little adorables that I'm blessed to have living only a mile away from me. Now - wait a minute. Isn't something backwards here? Are all the grand children supposed to be singing all the way over the hill to Grandma's house? Hmmmm. Well, nevermind all that - as long as I get little voices for a few days and big hugs with little arms all is well and same for my Mama.
She's also packing something special this year for me. It's our family nativity scene that she's gifting me so for the first time in my life it'll be set up in my house instead of hers. It's amazing to me how much it means, this simple little set, but I always knew that regardless of how big our tree was or how many lights we had blinking every room of the house (Mom decorates like nobody's business!) it was the Nativity Scene that reminded me of what we were really celebrating. A hushed a holy night filled with expectation.
The season continues to be busy for me just like I'm certain it is for you in your life. The radio program will return live in January 2010 in a new time slot of Wednesday's from Noon until 2pm. Travels for the upcoming year are being finalized for the Southern Voices conference and for the Southern Wing & A Prayer Book tour with author friend Shellie Rushing Tomlinson. New deadlines abounding, a new work of fiction set in Tennessee just finding its way to paper, edits for the great southern story of Mercy Land set on the Bittersweet Creek in editing stage and a few projects I'm keeping close under my wing - I have shopping to do, gifts to wrap, travels to make and so on and so forth but - - -
As I set out our family heirloom nativity scene this year what I want most to remember is a special night so many years ago and how that one hushed evening effects my daily life. What I want most is to remember an act of eternal love that transcends my complicated to-do list.
What I want most this Christmas is for you, for me, for all our families to have a holy, peaceful Christmas filled with love.
Blessings for this special Season and Always,
River Labels: Christmas
posted by River Jordan at 9:22 AM
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
It's turned serious cold in Tennessee. This morning the weather channel reported it felt like 12 degrees. I agree. I stepped outside to corral that big, barking dog of ours and grab some firewood and it was frosty. Perhaps, just maybe, possibly, we'll actually have a white Christmas this year. I've decorated for it and had the great help of Mr. Smarty Pants (my five year old nephew) and Miss Fancy (my eight year old niece). Their enthusiasm for all things Christmas literally knows no bounds and was delightful. They dug into the stored boxes of decorations with abandon, tested lights (where Mr. Smarty Pants told me "Watch and learn, River. Watch and learn," as he tested the workings of each string. They requested hot chocolate for this event, to watch A Christmas Story as we unpacked and began decorating, and popcorn to make the work go smoother. I must tell you flat out that this was a much better ambiance for me than husband who somehow manages to pull off a bit of that bah humbug Scrooge in his moment of channeling my Dad which converts to complaints of all this Christmas stuff coming out that's just going to have to be put back up. Yes, yes, the enthusiasm and wonder of those children made the day absolutely perfect. And the icing on the cake was that scroogeness husband walking through the house late at night as it glowed and twinkled and declared - Baby the house look all Christmassy beautiful. Oh I'll take that and nestle down to visions of sugarplums all day long.
My Christmas wish list is more than fulfilled with both son's stateside and out of war zones. So I'm concentrating on choosing some of my favorite things - that would be books - as gifts for other people. What a joy to tailor words of story to match the personalities of each. I love considering friends and family and thinking about all of the writers I know, all of those beautiful stories, fact and fiction, and finding the perfect one they will delight in.
But it's also going to be a working holiday for me as I begin the big edits for the new novel due out September 2010 from Waterbrook (Random House). It's incredible story about . . . well, just wait and see. It's southern, full of love and mystery and wonder.
On my moments that I'm not writing I'll be finalizing details for the big Southern Wing and A Prayer tour with Shellie Rushing Tomlinson to take flight March 28 - April 8 2010. Here's the projected tour route as we take our respective radio shows on the road to interview book lovers, book clubs, book sellers and even each other in a crazy seven state run. A wing and a prayer? Oh, you bet. Look for more links, and more news as the tour will be covered daily on twitter/facebook/you tube with fun giveaways for tour trackers.
I hope that where ever you are right now, the story of your unfolding life, is one that you are embracing with all your heart.
Peace to you for this Season,
River Labels: Southern Wing and A Prayer
posted by River Jordan at 10:59 AM
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