Hello friends!!
Whohooo! I have now finished the writing and photo editing for the book about the 90-day road trip! If you’ve been with me since the start, you know that I was following the entire course of the Mississippi River from the headwaters in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico – and you know that it was 90-days because that’s how long it takes a single drop of water to make that journey. So, I followed my imaginary raindrop, nicknamed Serendipity, and met more amazing people and had more once-in-a-lifetime experiences that I could ever have hoped for. In case you are just now joining us – and want to see the blog version of the trip, it is still available. Here is a link to the start of it http://gayleharper.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/blessing-of-the-journey/.
So, for many months this blog has been silent as all of my energy went into writing the book and editing the thousands of photos – and now it is done!!! Interestingly, people have said things like, “It took tremendous discipline to stay with it as you have.” Thankfully, it didn’t. I’ve never been especially good at making myself do things because I thought I should. This was always what I wanted to be doing – and, to my surprise, it was nearly (but not quite) as much fun as was the traveling!
Now, the tale is told in a series of vignettes. Each one is like a short story, complete with its photos, and each is unique in its mood, personality and focus. I never knew where it would go when I began – some are about a person I met, or an experience, or some unique bit of history or something that was stirred in me by any of those things. They are as free-flowing as the journey itself.
So what next, you ask? Good question! For the writing to be truly alive, it meant that my attention needed to stay fully on the day being written about and not gawking around or looking ahead. The result of that is that, right now, I feel like a little gopher just sticking my head up from my hole and looking around at an entirely unfamiliar landscape. Although, at the moment, I haven’t a clue which way to head first, I do know, happily, that whatever my next step is will be made clear when it’s time to take it. I feel incredibly fortunate that there are some good options before me in terms of publishing and, because there is so much that I don’t know at this point, I will try to learn before I leap.
Now that I am open to them, it seems that ideas and possibilities are blossoming like the spring and it’s pretty exhilarating! There are a gazillion decisions to be made and steps to be taken before there is an actual book in anyone’s hands, but for now I want to share this news of our progress. I will keep you informed of the process and I may ask for your input on a few decisions as we go. This project has, from the beginning, been a shared experience and as always, I thank you for being part of it!
For now, this is, I believe, the image that will appear on the cover.
With love, Gayle and Serendipity