Showing posts with label Mississippi River. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mississippi River. Show all posts

Thursday, May 8, 2014

What's New?

I feel like I need to crack my knuckled and wiggle my fingers a bit to get my hands working on this blog post! It's been much too long since I've updated my blog.

Here's a brief list of all the things that have kept me busy this past month.

1. Homeschooling. We're only a few weeks away from completing our first year of homeschooling our oldest daughter! This makes me very excited. I'm excited that we're almost done, but I'm also excited that the year went so well. We're already planning for next year!

Our oldest doing her school work. We use Switched On
Schoolhouse, a fun computer-based curriculum.
2. Writing My Novel. I finished my third novel on April 13th, just shy of three months after I started it. I try to write during the winter when my husband is home (he has a landscaping business). During the summer we have a lot of activities planned and it wouldn't work for me to write with such intensity. My story already went through the hands of my writing critique partners, and is now with my beta readers. I hope to get it to my agent in the coming weeks.

I spent hours pouring over a local newspaper doing research
for my current novel set in 1927 when Lindbergh came home!
I don't know what I enjoy more: researching or writing! This
photo was taken at the Morrison County Historical Society.
3. Children's Activities. Piano, violin, dance lessons, basketball, AWANA, MOPS, and ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education), filled my winter calendar. All of these are wrapping up for the summer, and a few we have officially "graduated" from. It's bitter-sweet to close a chapter in life. I will miss MOPS and ECFE, but I'm excited for all the new adventures to come. This summer we have lots of fun activities planned. Now that the boys are four, I feel like we can have a bit more freedom to explore Minnesota and start going places I wouldn't have dared to go when they were younger. :)
My husband was one of the coaches for our
daughters' basketball team.
4. The Boys Turned Four! Speaking of the boys, we celebrated their fourth birthday on March 29th! That's a pretty huge milestone in our family. It was also the one year anniversary of signing with my agent. Lots of things to celebrate that day.

My boys turned 4!!!!
5. Judging for the Carol Awards. This year I was asked to be one of the judges for the prestigious Carol Award given during the ACFW Conference in September. The Carol Award is for published Christian fiction. It's been so much fun discovering new authors! I had never read any of their stories before (though I know who they are). I feel like I'm also a winner because I now have three new authors I want to follow.

6. Reading for Pleasure. I also have read a few books for pleasure! Pleasure, I tell you. :) Now that I write, I don't read nearly as much as I'd like--and probably not nearly as much as I should. One of the books I'm currently reading is the second novel by my friend Melissa Tagg. Her book is called Here to Stay and it's a wonderful story. Melissa captures the heart of a small town with perfection. Her hero is Blake Hunziker, who made his appearance in Melissa's first novel, Made to Last.

Isn't this cover adorable? I love it. :)
7. Spring Clean-Up. Now that the snow has finally melted, we've been busy in the yard and house! Cleaning up feels so good after a long winter. We've also had two fires down by the river already, and we're looking forward to many more.

Our first family fire--which meant our first s'mores of the season.
These are the activities that have kept the Meyer family busy this spring! I'm looking forward to spending more time on my blog this summer, and I'll be sure to update as my book moves through all the various stages of its journey.

Your Turn! I'd love to hear what has kept you busy this spring. Any fun plans for the summer?

Monday, July 1, 2013

Minnesota Monday: A Writer's Retreat

This past week I was honored to host three writing friends at my house for a five day writing retreat.
 
I planned a rough agenda, hoping to offer a fun mix of work and play. Each day we had two blocks of "work" time and the rest of the day was free. During our work time we were each given a three hour block of time to brainstorm our stories with each other. Having this dedicated, focused time was priceless. We all walked away feeling great about our story ideas and energized to work on them. This is one talented group of writers!
 
During our free time we went on walks, visited historic sites, watched movies, went on Jeep rides and saw the countryside. It's fun to see my hometown through the eyes of people who've never been here. I was a tour guide at the Charles A. Lindbergh House for ten years and it's easy for me to slip back into that mode. Not only did I show them some fun places, I also gave them quite a bit of history. What can I say? I'm a historical writer, after all. :)
 
I can't wait to have them back next year. I have even more I want to show them.
 
Me, Alena Tauriainen, Melissa Tagg & Lindsay Harrel

At the Charles A. Lindbergh House with my children and
my writing friends! The tour guide is also a good friend
of mine. It was fun showing off one of my favorite historic sites.

My kiddos looking through stereoscopes.
 
I live on the banks of the Mississippi River, so
this is where we spent a lot of our work time.
We had a few visitors as we brainstormed.

Can you see the woodchuck?

We had an opportunity to go to Linden Hill Conference
and Retreat Center to celebrate all our writing achievements.
Linden Hill was having a fundraiser, so we had food, live
entertainment, tours of the two mansions on the property and
great company.

At Linden Hill.

Eating our celebratory Dairy Queen Cake while
watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in our jammies.
 
More brainstorming, this time inside because it was windy
near the river.

It was so much fun brainstorming story ideas!

This is the road my in-law's live on. We ate lunch nearby and
then stopped by their house to see the lake they live on.

I took the ladies to see the large Blanchard Dam near my house.
You can walk above the dam and the river.

Alena and I with the dam behind us.

We picked on Lindsay all weekend! She's a
city girl at heart and was having a hard
time with the mosquitoes...and the spiders
and the moths and the wood ticks... Here she
is applying mosquito spray to her body.

Lindsay and Melissa on a walk in Lindbergh State Park.

My favorite picture of the whole week! We were ambushed by
wood ticks! :) You can't see Melissa and I, but we were running, too.
We hit a nest of wood ticks on our walk and they were
crawling ALL over our legs. We had at least thirty or more
on each of us. By the way we were running, you would have
thought we were being chased by a wild bear!
Not only did I have fun showcasing my hometown, I also had fun laughing, learning and fellowshipping with these ladies. I'm so thankful God brought our paths together through writing, and that our friendships have grown through our shared faith and interests.

Despite the wood ticks, this was a successful retreat--one we hope to have every year.

What about you? If you had guests come from out of town, where would you bring them?

~ ~ ~ ~

Lindsay is sharing about our retreat on her blog today! You can see it here. Melissa will be hosting us on her blog on Wednesday.