Are you a “New Year’s Resolution” kind of person? Did you start this new year with a list of goals to strive for, or do you prefer to take things as they come? Personally, I know I accomplish more with a framework of goals as a guide, but like most people, I can lose focus and enthusiasm if my list is too long or it feels too overwhelming. Or if fear holds me back. And what if you think goal setting is too “woo woo” or a waste of time? I think whichever camp you fall into, there is one small thing that every single one of us can do to help set ourselves up for success in the year ahead. You’ve maybe heard this idea before. It’s really very simple. In fact, it can be as simple as three little letters. Or maybe a few more. Focus by picking just one specific word and let it be the driving force behind how you live your daily life. I tried this for the first time a few years ago. I feared the year ahead would bring the most difficult challenges I’d ever faced, but I didn’t want that ugly truth to dictate how I felt every single day. I needed to try something, anything, that would help me get through the dark days ahead. My word that year was “JOY.” It was the screensaver on my phone (and we all know how often we glance at our phones every day…). When hard things threatened to sweep all hints of happiness away, I’d remind myself to search for something, however small, that would help me feel joy. Honestly, it helped. Was it the perfect antidote to the loss and sadness? Of course not. But it did help. Every single day there was something in my life that could give me joy. I just had to look a little harder some days for that “thing.” As I’d suspected, it was a year of highs and lows, and not one I’d want to relive, but it wasn’t nearly as devoid of joy as I’d feared it might be at the beginning. More recently, we had a last-minute opportunity to attend a Celine Dion concert. A friend had tickets he wasn’t able to use, so he offered them to my husband. I jumped at the chance to go but we laughed as we waited for the music to start, my husband pointing out how few men were in the audience. Was this the reason his friend had passed the tickets on to us? I hadn’t even noticed the disparity. There was something else I couldn’t ignore. A bright neon sign sporting one single word kept drawing my eye to the still quiet stage: Courage. I’ve never considered myself to be an especially courageous person. I tend to worry about lots of things (if you know me, you might be snickering right now because this is probably a tad bit of an understatement). I know worry and fear hold me back. That bright sign spoke to me. As I stared at the word courage, I came to the realization that I want to finally learn to live without the fear of failure holding me back. This year, as we all enter this new decade together, I need a different word to guide me. I will dig deep and find the courage I know we all possess. I vow to step through, over, under, or around my fear and pursue those things I’ve been dreaming of incorporating into my life.
How about you? Is this the year, this beginning of a new decade, when you’ll fight your fear and do that thing you’ve always wanted to do, too? I’d love to have you on this journey with me. If not now, when? Life is too short to wait. And as so often happens, the universe provided me with yet another reminder that we all face the same circle of life. Our time is not unlimited. As I was putting the final touches on today’s post, I googled Celine to be sure I spelled her name correctly. I was saddened to discover that the singer, who brought tears to my eyes with her amazing talent during her concert, is mourning the recent loss of her own mother. You see, the year I had to specifically chose to focus on joy was the year I lost my beautiful mother to a terrible illness. We all battle through similar losses in life, and we can all lift each other up in some way with our own innate talents. So let’s get on with it. Cheering alongside you and excited to see how high we can help each other climb. Let’s make this a year, and a decade, to remember. Kim
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Can you believe it’s nearly 2020? Out with the old decade, in with the new! One of the things I love about December, beyond the festivities of the holidays, is to plan out my goals for the coming year. I like to buy a brand-new journal, find a quiet place to sit, and with a cup of coffee in hand, I’ll get the big goals I’ve been chewing on in my brain down on paper. I find the process inspiring and encouraging. A whole, fresh new year is ahead. The possibilities feel endless. But before I do that, this year I decided to pause and spend a little time thinking about the decade now coming to an end. There is value in hindsight. It can be a stark reminder of things. For me, at this season in my life, “someday” arrived in a couple of key areas over the past ten years. I see where comfort and complacency lead to stagnation, and I have proof that finally stepping out into the unknown and trying things I’ve always wanted to do, regardless of what anyone else might think, can breathe new life into my days. I don’t think we should rely on our brains alone to take this 10-year journey back in time. Memories are fickle things. Photographs and notes can provide a clearer picture. I decided to meander my way through old photographs and half-filled journals to see what has changed and what’s stayed the same. My first roadblock: the digital pictures on my laptop only go back to 2014 (when I get a new computer, I try to transfer them over). Sigh… How hard is it going to be to find those pictures taken between 2010 and 2014? They exist, but probably on a medium that will get harder and harder to access. A new goal for 2020 – organize those pictures and turn the best ones into an actual printed photograph that changing technology can’t steal away from me. Part of my trip down memory lane through pictures will have to wait. How about written notes then? Based on the journals I find scattered around my house, I’ve been doing the whole journaling thing for at least fifteen years. I journal in fits and stops. There are always entries at the beginning of each year. I’m a firm believer that writing down a goal boosts the likelihood that we’ll achieve it (if we couple the goal with a plan). Then I’ll get busy working on the goals themselves and forgetting to journal about my progress. Mid-summer, usually around my birthday, I’ll sometimes check in with the notes I made at the beginning of the year. But if you want a bit of a kick in the pants, dig out goals you wrote down in December of 2009, ten years ago. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m incredibly grateful for another decade here on this earth and for the many blessings of those years. But seeing that some of the same things on that ten-year-old list are items I plan to write down to focus on for 2020 is sobering because I haven’t made much progress! In many ways, the past ten years have been a transition from one season of life to another. Ten years ago, our three kids were 16, 12, and 8. I had no idea what to expect as we braced ourselves for the teenage years, but I knew one of my biggest responsibilities would be to help them learn, grow, and survive until young adulthood. I continued to dread the thought of an empty nest (I’d hated the thought since the day our oldest was born). Fast forward to today: one is married, one is living halfway across the country attending grad school, and one headed off to college this past fall. Now I’m learning the art of still being there for them in a different way. Is the empty nest as bad as I feared? Honestly? No. There are lonesome moments when I miss the noise and even the messes, and I’d like nothing more than to be able to open their bedroom doors and see them sleeping peacefully in their beds. I love my time with them. They’ll all be home starting this week for the holidays, and I can hardly wait. But our days aren’t bleak and empty, as I’d feared. We are filling them with new things. And life is still wonderful. So the whole kid thing is working out. We are blessed to have three young adults that seem to like us still. Win! The kick in the pants stems from other areas in my life. Guess what one of my top goals is every year? You guessed it: get healthier. I suspect this would be the case for nearly everyone. When people are out of shape, most know they should do better. When people are doing the right things in regards to their health, it isn’t by accident. It takes conscious, ongoing effort. So regardless of which camp you fall in, you can’t help but always be thinking about your health. So far, I know I’ve been lucky. Lucky that I’m as healthy as I am, given my lack of success in attaining my annual goals of eating better and getting more exercise. Again, the whole boom and bust thing hits me here. I’ll go in streaks. I’ll focus on cutting out all the things I know are sabotaging my daily eating habits, get my butt out walking or to a dance class at the gym, and feel GOOD about it. But I never manage to do it long enough to make it an ingrained habit. I start out with the best of intentions, but… Ugh. I’m tired of the ‘but,’ the excuses. I absolutely have to do better in this area over the next decade. A girl can’t rely on luck and genes alone. There is always more I’d like to do from a career standpoint. I’ve learned lessons, worked hard to earn a living, and have big aspirations for the coming years. Kids grow up, our jobs change, and if we aren’t careful, we put on extra pounds. Life goes on. Until it doesn’t. That, my friends, has been the hardest lesson of these past ten years. We can either wallow in the sadness of it, or we can use the harsh reality that life almost always passes quicker than we want it to as fuel. Fuel to stop waiting to do all those things we’ve always wanted to do. Fuel to finally make the leap.
Lots of things have changed over the past decade. Some things haven’t changed at all, even though change might have been better. We can’t change the past. But we can learn from it. Soon I’ll sit down with another new journal. I’ll dream about where I’d like to take my life over the next ten years. Then I’ll narrow it down to the next five. To get there, I’ll figure out how I want to make the most out of the next year. Then I’ll figure out what I’ll need to do, every day, to design the next decade to squeeze the most out of the life I’m blessed with if I’m lucky enough to wake up in the morning. Because all that really matters is how we live our life today. But the choices we make today will be the foundation for our future. Imagine what you can accomplish over the next decade if you live life on purpose. If that thought alone doesn’t excite you, and maybe scare you a little because it is ALL up to you, I challenge you to keep working on it. My kids laugh at me when I go into the “self-help” mode. I’m sure there is lots of eye-rolling going on if they happen to read this. Maybe when they have the benefit of five decades of life behind them, they’ll better understand that life can either happen to you or for you. You get to pick how you respond to the curves and challenges life throws your way. Decades are huge chunks of time. I’m excited to see what the next one will bring, and I have a healthy appreciation for the fact that none of us are gifted with an endless supply of decades. I plan to make the most of “the 20’s”. How about you? Are you excited, too? Where should we take things? Always here cheering you on, Kim Do you still close your eyes and make a wish when you see the first star in an inky black sky? How is it that I can’t remember someone’s name five minutes after I’ve met them, but the Star Bright rhyme from my childhood pops into my head nearly every time I see a twinkling star above? (Sorry – now it might be stuck in your head, too.) I feel like wishes get a bum rap. We have all kinds of wishes and dreams when we are growing up. Some of us manage to keep on dreaming, but often, life intervenes, and we get caught up in the busy, monotonous rhythms of daily life. Our wishes fall to the wayside. We don’t have time for that silly stuff anymore. When we were younger, there was always more than one way to make a wish. We’d make a wish before blowing out our birthday candles. Or how about when we’d pick a fluffed-out dandelion on a hot summer day? Did you blow on it and send your wishes off on the cottony seeds as they drifted away? Out of curiosity, I poked around on the internet and had to grin as I was reminded of other prompts we used to wish on:
There were others listed, but they didn’t ring a bell for me. When we were young and the holidays were approaching, we’d sit for long hours with a Sears or Montgomery Ward catalog in our laps, carefully studying the toy section and circling those items we’d wish we would find under the tree on Christmas morning. Visits with Santa Claus were another valued opportunity to make our holiday wishes known. Do you ever wish you could go back to those simpler days? In reality, maybe they weren’t simpler, but if we were lucky, as kids, we were blissfully unaware of bigger troubles. But as soon as we reach adulthood, there isn’t nearly as much encouragement to spend time wishing. Setting goals and working hard – yes. But sitting quietly and looking into our own hearts to remember some of our earliest wishes for our own lives (and letting those dreams drive our goals) – not very often. One fun thing we do get to do as adults is to try to help make the wishes of children come true. I remember the anxiety I felt one holiday season when our then three-year-old son only wanted a “101 Dalmatians” video from Santa. This created a dilemma. Twenty-plus years ago, Disney would cycle through their movies, only offering some for a “limited time” and then locking them back up “in their vault.” You couldn’t simply “go online” to find a random copy somewhere. I looked and looked but had no luck, sure our little boy was going to be so disappointed on Christmas morning. But wishes can be powerful things. My brother happened to be dating someone at the time who loved and collected Disney movies. He was bringing her home to meet us all for the very first time that Christmas, and when she heard about our dilemma, she saved the day. Santa was able to deliver. I knew I liked that girl (and she’s been part of the family ever since!) And let’s not forget the amazing Make-a-Wish foundation – granting wishes to critically ill children. They do incredible work, and all of us can help them in their mission in some way. Tonight, as I’m writing this post, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas, tired following an amazing, three-day writing conference, where I was surrounded by like-minded authors and amazing presenters. It felt surreal to be part of something like this. And to think it all started out with a simple wish—to write a book. My hotel room looks over the courtyard below, and a few times each night, they offer a light and water show at the waterfalls. The first night I heard it, I couldn’t figure out why something that sounded like a soundtrack from a Disney movie was playing so loudly outside my window. When I peeked out my curtain, I was delighted at the spectacle below. Much like the feeling you get if you let the little kid in you come out and play during a visit to Disney World, there was a little bit of magic in the air as I gazed upon the show and enjoyed the music. I would never have guessed when I told a group of girlfriends more than ten years ago that I wished I could write a book someday, that I’d be standing here tonight, my head filled with fabulous ideas and inspiration.
It always starts with a wish. Last week I launched my fourth book. If you’ve read it, you know wishes, both old and new, are weaved throughout the story line. It’s a holiday book, and there is no better time than the holidays to take a break from the craziness of life, sit quietly, maybe stare into twinkling Christmas lights, and let your mind wander. Think back to Christmases of your childhood. What did you wish for? Spend some time with your memories. Then, come back to today. Would you still wish for the same things? Or maybe life has given you new dreams and wishes. As we celebrate the holidays with family and friends in the coming weeks and months, it’s the perfect time to dust off our wishes, as we did when we were kids. Remember those wishes or find new ones, and now that we are all grown up, maybe it’s finally time to do something about them. The calendar will soon flip over to the year 2020, the perfect time to focus on finally achieving some of those wishes and dreams. Make it happen. Always cheering you on, Kim With Halloween fast approaching, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to dream up a short ghost story. Much of my fiction series, Celia’s Gifts, takes place at a family-owned Minnesota lake resort. Even my newest holiday book, Capturing Wishes, kicks off at a Halloween party out at Whispering Pines. There is a legend of two young ghost boys that keeps popping up in my books, so I thought it was fitting to have two of the kids sneak outside and see if they couldn’t find the alleged ghosts. Because everyone deserves one good scare on Halloween: "Don’t tell Mom, but that movie was lame,” Logan said, motioning toward the credits rolling up the television screen. He directed his comment toward Dave, his twelve-year-old brother. Their two younger brothers, Jake and Noah, had been asleep since halfway through Beetlejuice, the DVD their mother had picked up for them to watch once the party games were done and everyone else would want to visit. The sleeping boys were sprawled out on the round braided rug on the floor in front of the screen. Someone was snoring softly, clearly worn out from the evening’s festivities. Dave snorted, glancing up from his phone screen. “I suppose you think you could do better.” “I know this film is supposed to be a classic, but, yeah, I think I could do better. You wouldn’t believe the monsters that roam around in my head.” “Oh, I can believe it,” Dave said, sounding bored with the whole conversation. “Let’s go upstairs, see what Robbie and Nathan and the girls are doing.” Boring, Logan thought. Sitting around with his older cousins and their friends sounded nearly as dull as joining the adults out in the kitchen where he knew they’d be discussing something like weather or politics. Ugh. “Come on, Dave, this is supposed to be a Halloween party,” he whined. “ I don’t want to sit around. I know why you really want to go upstairs. You think that new girl that came tonight, you know, Aunt Jess’s boyfriend’s daughter, is cute. But she’s like fourteen and way out of your league, bro.” The way Dave squirmed at his words confirmed to Logan that he’d been right about his brother’s real reason for wanting to go upstairs. “Do you have a better idea, then?” the older boy asked. Logan, the most daring of the four brothers, slowly grinned. “Why don’t we go outside and see if we can find the two ghost boys everybody talks about. You know, the ones they say roam around out here at Whispering Pines, Albert and Arthur.” “You love that old ghost story, don’t you?” Dave said with a shake of his head. “You realize it’s all crap, right? Something someone dreamed up to scare little kids around the campfire?” Shrugging, Logan stood. “Probably, but I want to write a screenplay about the old legend. Wouldn’t that be cool? We could sneak out, maybe get some creepy footage on our phones. No one would even know we were gone.” He saw Dave glance toward a window, an uncertain look on his face. “What’s the matter, big brother, are you scared?” “Yeah, right,” Dave said, pushing up off the couch he’d been stretched out on and picking his hooded sweatshirt off the floor where he’d dropped it earlier. “Let’s go find you some little ghost boys, but if either of them wakes up and tells Mom or Dad, we’re gonna get it.” Logan headed quietly for the door, knowing Dave was right. If either of the two younger brats found out they’d ducked outside, they’d be raking leaves the whole next day as punishment. ******* The boys tiptoed to the front of the old lodge and went outside through the front door. Icy pellets pricked their faces, driven by gusts of harsh wind. One solitary street light cast a mellow glow over a corner of the gravel parking lot, leaving the rest in deep shadows. Hulking shapes of parked cars and pickups reminded them they weren’t alone, although the moan of the wind and tick ticking of tiny beads of ice were the only sound. “Perfect Halloween setting,” Logan said with delight, skidding to a stop on the gravel and pulling out his phone. “Look how cool those tall pine trees look against the night sky, swaying like that. It’s like frigging skeletons dancing.” Dave stopped a step behind him. “You are twisted. It’s freezing out here. If I’d known it was sleeting, I wouldn’t have let you talk me into this.” Logan saw Dave glance back toward the lodge. He hadn’t realized the weather was quite this bad either, but he had a feeling he could get some inspiration for his story out here, wandering around between the dark cabins. He didn’t really believe in ghosts, but if they did exist, this would be the type of night you’d likely stumble across them. “Come on, don’t be a pansy. Let’s go,” Logan said, walking briskly toward the corner of the lodge toward the sidewalk that would lead them into the heart of the dark resort. He held his breath as he entered the shadows, hoping Dave would follow. He couldn’t hear his brother’s footsteps behind him, but Dave was probably testing him, so he kept going. They’d spent enough time out at the resort lately that he didn’t need much light to know where he was going, which was lucky because clouds were blocking most of the moonlight. The flashlight beam from Logan’s phone only revealed a couple of feet of the ground in front of him as he walked. Only family and a few friends were out at Whispering Pines tonight. There were no guests renting cabins. It was getting late in the season. He must have passed Dave’s test and walked slow enough because his brother was suddenly at his side. “What exactly are we looking for out here?” he asked, his face shrouded by the hood of his sweatshirt. Not that Logan could see much of him in the deep gloom. “Don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I wanted to feel what it would be like to walk around out here in the dark on Halloween. Feel my blood pump a little faster, experience whether or not we could even see anything back here. It’s hard to write about this if you’ve never experienced it.” He heard his brother grunt beside him, unsure if Dave was agreeing with him or suspecting he was nuts. Maybe a little of both. They continued on, passing the cold, dead fire pit in the gloom. “A s’more would sure taste good about now,” Dave said, although Logan knew there was no way his brother could be hungry. They’d been eating since they’d gotten to the Halloween party. But Dave had a point. There was nothing like a hot, gooey marshmallow, smashed between a chocolate bar and graham crackers in front of a roaring campfire. The thought of it made the gloom of this night even more pronounced. They were now far enough away from the lodge and the party that all was dark back here. Somewhere, an owl hooted, the unexpected sound causing both boys to jump. A hand grabbed Logan’s upper arm. “Come on, Logan, this is stupid. Wandering around out here in the dark. I’m freezing. We aren’t going to find anything out here. You can’t even film. It’s too dark.” Logan shook Dave’s hand off his arm. “Not yet. I’m telling you, Dave, I feel something out here.” “You feel something? Give me a break, bro.” “Don’t you think it’s cool out here?” Logan asked, doing his best to make out the dim shapes along the edge of the lawn, where the woods encroached close behind a small cabin in front of them. Logan knew his family called this the Grey Cabin. There was something off about the little structure. It was the only place at the resort that made him feel somehow weird anytime he’d been inside of it, which wasn’t often. But he sensed something bad had happened there, a long time ago. “Fine, ten more minutes,” Dave reluctantly agreed. “Tell you what. I’ll give you five bucks if you walk into the woods back there and sit down on the ground, by yourself, for like ten minutes. That should give you plenty of feels.” “Like you’ve got five bucks,” Logan shot back, half hoping his brother didn’t have the money to make good on a bet like that. “Matter of fact I do have it, right here,” his brother replied, waving a five-dollar-bill he must have pulled out of a pocket in front of Logan’s phone light. “Come on, I dare you.” Dang, Logan thought, no longer feeling quite so brave. The owl hooted again, and the wind sighed through the trees, high above their heads. There was no way he could pass on Dave’s dare. He’d never hear the end of it. “Ten minutes?” “Yep, ten minutes. I’ll just sit here on the steps of the Grey Cabin and wait for you.” Logan wasn’t sure which was worse. Sitting on the steps in front of that creepy cabin, all alone in the dark, or in the woods. “Fine. Set the timer on your phone so you can’t accuse me of cheating. Yell when time’s up,” Logan ordered, then set off across the grass towards the edge of the trees, leaves crunching and rustling under his feet. Dave was right, this would be a good way to find some inspiration. ****** Logan reminded himself he was heading into the dark woods alone to find inspiration for his story, and not just because Dave bet him five bucks he couldn’t do it. He walked about twenty feet into the trees and found an old log on its side. He sat gingerly, testing whether the log could hold his weight, then settled down with a deep breath. He could do this. He could prove to his brother that he wasn’t afraid. Dave didn’t need to know his heart was nearly beating out of his chest. His phone slipped out of his sweaty hand, falling into the leaves around his feet. He bent over, fishing blindly through the leaves for his phone, and grimaced when his fingers grazed something cold and squishy. He bit his lip to keep from whimpering. Just a dead plant, he assured himself, sitting back up straight, phone again clutched tightly in his hand. He turned off his flashlight, committed to getting the full experience of sitting in the dark woods, all alone on a stormy night, a few days before Halloween. As he sat, the darkness lessened ever so slightly. High above, glimpses of broken clouds were visible through dense tree limbs and tall pines. A few errant moonbeams broke through, illuminating small circles of the forest around him. Behind him, something rustled through the leaves, but he barely flinched. It was surely a small animal, nothing to be worried about. He closed his eyes, focusing on how he felt sitting alone. He could feel the rough bark under his butt, and something poked his ankle through his sock. Probably a stick. With his eyes closed, he could listen without distraction. The wind sighed, and he thought he could hear something else. A whisper of laughter, out of place in the woods. Fighting the urge to open his eyes, he forced himself to focus. This was why he’d come outside; to see what his imagination would conjure up. A slight murmur, almost like voices, reached his ears, but no matter how hard he strained to make out the words, whatever he was hearing was too faint. “This is good stuff,” he whispered out loud, his own words echoing back at him. Eyes closed, he could imagine two young boys, standing near, watching him as he sat quietly on his log. They’d be wearing old fashioned play clothes, a slight glow making them visible through the darkness. Would they want him to play, anxious for a new playmate after years of having only each other in these deep, dark woods? Oh yeah, I could write a movie about this, Logan thought to himself, feeling only excitement now. “Logan, Logan,” a boyish voice whispered in his ear. An icy finger touched his neck, and he shot up off his log, spinning to see what was behind him, sure Dave had snuck up in the dark while his mind was busy formulating what he’d write. But there was no one there. Nothing but branches and trees, creating a maze of crazy lines. He lowered the beam from his phone, shutting off his flashlight. There, behind his fallen log, was a smudge of something, probably a trick of the moonlight through the trees. He pulled his phone back up and held down the photo button, taking several shots in quick succession. “All right, you little creep, you did it,” Dave’s voice rang through the woods to reach him. “Come on out. It’s been ten minutes.” Logan started to turn away, but stopped, again straining his eyes to see the area behind the tree. If there had been something there before, a breath of fog maybe, it was gone. With a sigh, he turned back toward Dave’s voice. While he’d never admit it to anyone, he was more than a little spooked. What had he felt on the back of his neck? That had not been his imagination. ****** “I can’t believe you actually did that,” Dave said, jumping off the middle step in front of the Grey Cabin onto the grass as Logan approached. Logan snatched the bill out of his brother’s outstretched hand, hoping Dave wouldn’t notice how his own hand trembled. “Course I did it,” he replied, trying to sound braver than he felt. “Piece of cake. You said it yourself. That old ghost story is just crap. But sitting there, I got some good ideas for my movie.” He could see Dave shaking his head through the gloom. “You are nuts.” “Probably,” Logan replied, heading back toward the lodge. Dave fell into step behind him. As they got closer, lights glowed out the windows. Inside, he knew there was still plenty of conversation and life. Sitting out there in the woods, he’d begun to feel incredibly lonely. He hadn’t liked the feeling at all. He gave his whole body a quick shake as if that would dispel the sensation. Up ahead, he caught a blur of movement pass by one of the upstairs windows. He pointed, turning toward Dave. “Think we can scare them?” Dave stopped walking, following the line of Logan’s finger. “How?” Logan stepped off the sidewalk once again, this time walking over to a nearby tree. The ground underneath was littered with fallen crab apples. He gathered a hand full and walked back to where Dave stood, looking up at the upstairs window. “With these.” Dave looked down at what he held in his hands, a grin spreading over his features. “Turn your phone off, or they might see us,” he ordered, taking a few small apples out of Logan’s hand. “Not too hard,” Logan warned. “They’ll kill us if we break a window.” Dave rolled a tiny apple between his thumb and index finger. “Nah, these little things won’t break the glass.” Logan watched as his brother, a better baseball player than himself, wound up and whipped an apple towards the window. They couldn’t see where it hit, but they could hear a tiny thud. “Dang, I think I missed,” Dave said, trying again. Three tries later, they could see one of the apples against the light from the window, and it sounded different when it hit. They both held their breath, but nothing else happened. “Here, let me try,” Logan said, mimicking Dave’s actions. His apple hit the window square. Suddenly, a black silhouette filled the left half of the window. Someone was looking out. The boys froze, hoping they wouldn’t be spotted. The silhouette stayed there for a minute as if searching for something, and then it disappeared from the glow of the window. Dave slapped Logan’s hand, making him drop the few remaining tiny apples. “Come on,” he whispered, taking off in a tip-toe jog back toward the corner of the lodge. “We gotta go before someone sees us.” Logan took a minute to kick the fallen apples into the grass. He turned slowly around, taking one last look across the deserted resort. Just before he’d spun all the way around, something caught his eye, a trick of the light perhaps, back near the Gray Cabin. A grin spread across his face. Their little excursion out into the woods had been worth it. He’d found more than a little inspiration during their little late-night adventure across the darkened resort. He’d found Arthur and Albert. Did this little story remind you of how fun Halloween can be? Did the idea of seeking out a delicious little scare ever have you heading to a haunted house or a corn maze? Purposefully scaring ourselves isn’t for everyone, but it can be part of the appeal of Halloween. How much money would it take to get you to sit in the dark woods, alone, on a stormy night? Especially if that night was Halloween?
The four boys in the story above will play a bigger role in the next book I’m writing in my series. Val, their mother, has her hands full, but she’s more than capable of handling the chaos. But you won’t have to wait much longer for Capturing Wishes – A Whispering Pines Christmas Novel. My latest book will be available in early November. Stay tuned! If you are a fan of Halloween, I hope you enjoy the festivities this week, even if it’s just handing out candy to little ghosts and goblins. Otherwise, keep your front porch light off and curl up with a good book. It’s the perfect time for books, blankets, and cocoa. Kim p.s. If you haven’t yet read my free novella where Albert and Arthur first appear, join my Reading Club today, and your free story will appear in your email inbox. |
Kimberly Diede AuthorHello everyone and welcome to my blog! My name is Kimberly Diede and I'm a fiction author and family girl. When time permits, I am happiest with a great cup of coffee in one hand and a book in the other. I love to alternate between reading and writing. Winters here can be long, dark and cold. Summers are unpredictable, lovely and always too short. Every season of the year, as in every season of life, is a gift. Let's celebrate it together! Archives
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