December Open Spaces

 

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.12            December 24, 2021

By John W. Vander Velden

I have been writing these letters for nearly two years. Perhaps I should remind you where the title Open Spaces originated. It comes from two places actually. One: I love the open lands. Raised on a farm in northern Indiana. Becoming a farmer at the age of twenty. You might say I am a man of the land. When we travel Jackie and I find ourselves most at home, in areas of vast landscapes, whether that be the deserts of the Southwest, the trails in the Appalachian Mountains, or the out of the way coastal beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. We are most at ease spending time in Open Spaces. Two: The title is tied to the stories I have written. Or most of them anyway. Stories set in non-urban settings. Those are the places my stories take place. And those settings become an extra character within those stories, ie Elizabeth, Matthew, and the prairie grasslands etc.

Should it be surprising that I would call a newsletter about my writing...Open Spaces?

I think not.

“Shifting gears” or “back to tack”, I am the keyboard. I spend too many hours in front of the CPU screen it seems, but today, Christmas Eve, I have begun this month’s newsletter. For some it might be the first time you have found Open Spaces in your inbox. I welcome you and hope you find these words worth your time.

But it is Christmas Eve, and everyone is busy today. Yours truly included. But as we rush about attempting to finish all the last minute things we are certain need to be done, let us not forget that it’s Christmas. Christmas means a great deal to me.

Christmas is about Family. About my family...your family. This will be the first Christmas that Nick, our son, will be unable to join us, even for the few brief hours as he had these last years. But though our son is 1100 plus miles away, he is still family. He still has a piece of our hearts. The phone is a poor substitute, even a face on the screen is insufficient, but family’s bond is not diminished by distance, is it. Yes, Christmas is about family.

Christmas is about joy. Laughter at games we will play around the dining room table with others. Movies and music and all the rest that make for happy experiences. Yes, Christmas is about joy.

Christmas is about light. Lights on the tree, lights we see as we drive around at night, candles that burn around the Advent Wreath and sometimes light our home in the evening. God sent his Son to be a light in a dark world, a light for us all. Christmas is about light.

Christmas is about love. Love is the glue that holds the universe together. Love for family, for friends, for neighbors, for those we meet on the street. Love for our God. For Christmas is the ultimate sign of God’s love for you and me. Christmas is about love.

Christmas is about connections. About reconnecting to those we have allowed to drift away. About remembering connections that time and life has given. Those connections might appear to be severed by distance, or perhaps something that seems much more than measurable space. Deep connections are never limited by material boundaries. Even death’s chasm does not stop love’s reach...love’s binding...a connection unbreakable. Christmas is about all good connections.

What does Christmas mean to you?

 

Now for just a bit of writing news.

The third book of the Misty Creek Series has a name. I have finished the editorial revisions of With the Sun’s Rising in late-October. The BETA copies have been printed and distributed. One has come back to me, and I await their return of the others. I will carefully consider the answers to the questions I have asked my readers and study their comments. The book is scheduled to go back to my editor in mid-January. I will have a better handle on how much more work this book requires when Kristina, my editor, sends it back to me.

“Shuck to the cob”, John.

What this means is, I have reached an important milestone in the process of shaping this particular book. But it is a long work...646 pages, roughly the equivalent to two volumes, and I expect that I will need to pour many, many, more hours into the book before its completion. You will have to be patient, friends. I would expect a publishing date of summer 2023. I know that seems like forever, but imagine how it feels to this writer.

That’s where things stand from today’s viewpoint.

So I close this newsletter simply, for I wish you a Merry Christmas and a healthy 2022.

Blessings,

John

 

 

Looking for the links to purchase your own copy https://johnvandervelden.com/purchase-a-copy/

 

October Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.11

By John W. Vander Velden

November 25, 2021

 

I finally sat down to begin this month’s newsletter on the evening of Thanksgiving Day. It was wonderful to spend some hours with family this year. We didn’t last year. COVID changed a great many things didn’t it? But we made up for the lost opportunity and were able to reconnect face to face with those we love. I hope that you were able to get together with your special people as well.

Christmas is only a month away and if your home is like ours that sets a busy schedule for these coming weeks. Yet I feel it is important to remember what separates December 25^th from the other 364 days. Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Christ...and with His birth the world changed. I’m sure you have heard it a thousand times, Jesus is the reason for the season, well in our home we know it is true. During this insanely busy season, take some time to remind yourself about why you celebrate Christmas.

Now for a bit of writing news.

I have finally finished my first editorial revisions. The story has changed dramatically since I began this step in early February. I mean even the title has been changed. But soon, probably in January, I will send this draft of With the Sun’s Rising to my editor for her take on the story. At almost 650 pages it has been a major undertaking to hone this work into this new story.

It is my hope my readers will enjoy this chapter of Elizabeth’s life.

I have only one more Author’s Event left this year. It has been a thrill to be able to meet with readers once again for the three events I have had this month. Having the opportunity to come face to face with these wonderful people has been a benefit I had not expected. It may be the best part of publishing my books and makes the thousands of hours to create them well spent.

If you are in Goshen, Indiana, Friday December 3^rd, stop by FABLES BOOKS, 215 S. Main Street, between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, take a moment and say hello.

So I will close this month’s newsletter with these few words. Thanksgiving should remind us of how blessed we are. To be thankful brightens our day. Make a habit of counting your blessings.

So on this day remember that God loves you. He loved you yesterday. He will love you tomorrow. God never abandons...never.

May blessings come your way.

John 

August Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.8

 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Where has the summer gone? As we near the end of August the busses rumble by twice a day as proof that school is once more in session, and we wonder how the summer has slipped past. Yet the temperature reminds us that season has not freed us from that portion of its grip. 

Yet it is my hope that the summer has offered you special opportunities. That you have built new memories to carry with you all the days ahead. Summer found me mowing grass and trimming bushes and those demands stealing time from the tasks I would rather be doing. I’m sure you faced a similar dilemma. Our lives are over filled and we have become accustomed to what might appear as insanity to those that stand on the sidelines. 

But we stride forward, don’t we? 

If our day to day were not overwhelming enough, the world news reveals millions of people that would wish for our problem set. When I observe the suffering of so many, I do not complain about what in truth I recognize are my own miniscule problems. I have watched scenes of people in panic while clinging to the outer skin of military aircraft. Witnessing parents lifting their children over fences in the hope their offspring find a place that offers a better situation than the world they find themselves. 

I have also shook my head at the devastation following the earthquake in Haiti. Of lives that were literally crushed and homes destroyed. But nature that has struck in other places as well. Hurricanes and torrential rains in amounts beyond imagining. The smoke detected in skies more than a thousand miles from their source proof of millions of acres left in ashes and even now the fires continue to rage, devouring homes and businesses. 

Seems to me that I should have two mindsets. One: to be grateful of the things I must face. Yes, we have had some storms this summer, trees to cleanup, but have for the most part have gone unscathed. That in of itself is worth celebrating. And two: to feel compassion for ALL those that suffer. To NEVER allow my heart to become hardened to the plight of others near or far. 

So as September nears, I remember these two things and make certain that they are included in my prayers. 

Now shifting gears to lighter subjects. A bit of writing news. 

I know you have been waiting, patiently I might add, for book three of the Misty Creek Saga. I am well down, what I will describe as a very long road. I have never faced an editorial revise nearly as difficult as this one. I have poured many hours into this step, as I shape this book, tentatively named With the Sun’s Rising. Let know what you think of the title. Last week I completed the first pass of part three. With one part remaining, I continue to push forward. 

But I must remind you that there is MUCH work ahead of me, if I am to create a book to meet my fan’s expectations. This volume is a continuation of Elizabeth’s story, covering the first years of her marriage. I keep any other details “close to the vest”, so to speak. 

I’ll try to get through a few more pages today after I finish this letter. 

So let me close with these few words. I trust the God that I know is the Master of all things. I know that the Spirit is with me always. I rely on Jesus who has saved me from myself. For God is love...and love is the greatest force of all. Be surrounded by love. By family, by friends, by the compassion of strangers, and by God. In all things remember that God is nearer than your next breath... 

Blessings,

John

 

8-27-2021 (652 Words)

July Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.7

By John W. Vander Velden

 

July is when summer really starts cooking. Most of us would agree that THIS July has been hot. Well for the most part anyway. It has been wet too. When you mix summer, hot weather, and multiple rains, you get one of the seasons less favorite visitors―mosquitos.

Break out the repellant!

Yet such is summer time for us here in north central Indiana, and we do our best not to allow the buzzing beasts or the afternoon rains stop us from doing some of the things we love. Jackie and I are both fully vaccinated against COVID and so our world is broader than it was last July. Even so we have not allowed our guard down completely, recognizing that the situation remains in flux and could change drastically.

Even so it feels liberating to move about at near to the life we had taken for granted. It is our hope that you too have been able to accomplish some of the things that you could not last year. I look forward to visiting with dear friends and relations in the months ahead, as well as the ability to travel again.

Our trip in late May to early June reminded us that things have not completely returned to a pre COVID state. Many places were understaffed as they tried to “get back on their legs” again. I am optimistic they will, but understand it takes time to recover from such a debilitating pandemic.

Yet the Delta variant reminds us that we are yet haunted by the COVID virus, so we still take care. Yes, our masks are often in our pockets, handy when needed. Washing hands and avoiding crowds ingrained into our behavior. As is using hand sanitizer. Things are better, much better, but it’s not completely better.

But because things in the pandemic department have improved so much, I wish you a happy summer and a healthy one as well for you and your family.

Now for a bit of writing news.

I had the vain expectation in finishing part three early next month. However I have had to do some back pedaling. I felt the need to insert a new scene, one I thought was important near the middle of that section of the book. That scene inspired other changes. A few lines here, a page there, you get the point. But I am moving onward friends.

So I come to the last portion of this newsletter. With all the hectic-ness of our world, especially during the summer, I hope you find a few moments of calm. And when you enter that quiet place, even if you must force yourself to do so, look around you at the wonders God has given you, places, people, things to do, and of course love. May the God that grasps the universe hold you gently, guide your steps, and protect you until we can meet face to face.

Blessings,

John

  

June Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.6

By John Vander Velden

June 25, 2021

 

Friends there are so many things I take for granted. During the wee hours of Monday, I was reminded just how much I depend upon the electricity delivered to my home and the farm as well, when I awoke in pitch darkness. It had stormed off and on through the night, but it was near 2 AM when the sound of the rain pelting the roof and window while the wind roared woke us.

Time for us to head for the basement.

I knew as soon as my brain caught up with my feet that our electricity was out. It was the darkness...pitch dark. Now don’t get me wrong I haven’t needed a night light for more than sixty years, but on typical nights there is sufficient light bouncing off the dresser mirror and the walls to prevent me from stumbling. For though the security light is some yards away, with eyes adjusted to “night vision”, if that is a proper description, it might seem dark, but it’s not DARK!

The intense wind passed and now armed with flashlight and a LED camp lantern (we no longer go camping, but the lamp is a gem) we returned to our bed.

But the lack of functioning light switches is only one of things we take for granted which had abandoned our beck and call. The most significant other thing is having running water. It takes power to pump the water to our faucets. It takes power to pump the water out of the basement too. We have a battery backup sump pump so for some hours that problem was covered, that is if you could ignore the annoying alarm each time the battery pump was called to operate. And of course the A/C was on sabbatical, and a rain storm was not the time to raise the windows.  

Then at 2:30 my phone rang. And rang. And rang. I stumbled through the darkness again only half awake to hear some machine tell me that the power was out in Walkerton and what was I planning to do about it.  You see our church has an emergency monitoring system, and I am the contact point. My fogged mind absorbed most of the significance of the computer created message. I pushed #1 which meant “I would do nothing”. And returned to my rest.

The battery sub pump screamed again.

None of these things are, for us so unusual. The power blinks off often and hardly noticed, except all the clock flash their annoyance. But a storm some years ago left us disconnected for five days. That event was the stimulus for the purchase of a small generator that was tugged out from storage Monday morning at first light.

A emergency generator is just that, and I guess I took for granted it would work and did not praise the machine when it fired on the third pull.

With the water pump energized and half the house electrified we were fine, and the continual roar of the little machine only reinforced all the things I juggled that most often operated unnoticed. Reminding me how my world normally clicks forward so efficiently.

Midafternoon the power came back and with a sigh my world returned to its unobtrusive normal. Then I only had to deal with the limbs and felled trees....

Yet I am blessed for through it all, our home and other structures went unscathed. It is my hope that life’s storms have not overcome you. That perhaps you have, like Jackie and I, only been reminded of the things we all take for granted. That the reminding has been only an annoyance, and if the storms rumbled through your neighborhood that God’s hand protected you and yours.

Now for just a bit of writer news. The editorial revise proceeds, and I HAVE finished Part two (about halfway through the book). Yaaaaaaaaaa! With COVID’s restrictions loosening, I have become bold enough to open the possibilities of in person events. Yaaaaaaa, again! My visits with area public libraries seem promising for the possible scheduling of events in the months ahead. Two book store stops Tuesday offered some contact info so that too is a step in the right direction.

So I remain optimistic. Feeling certain, given time, this third book of the series will be completed. Also believing that before fall I might be able to come face to face with the people that make this part of my life’s journey worthwhile.

Running long once again I will wrap up this newsletter with these words. God is love, and love is the strongest force in the universe. I ask that you do your best to tap into that force, to love those whose lives you share. Those in your immediate circle and those your circle touches. Know kindness is never wasted. Compassion heals the broken. Caring make us human.

God bless you today and every day,

John 

     Looking for a copy? Check out these links.

https://www.amazon.com/Misty-Creek-John-Vander-Velden/dp/1641110651

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/misty-creek-john-w-vander-velden/1127857944

https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeths-Journey-Sequel-Misty-Creek/dp/1641115319

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elizabeths-journey-john-vander-velden/1135154629

  

April Open Spaces Vol. 21.4

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.4

April 24, 2021

 

April showers bring May flowers is a phrase we have heard since our grade school days. There are so many ways to interpret those five words. Of course we, as children, took the phrase literally, perhaps we still do. And it, in of itself, is accurate. Early spring rains are needed for the glory of the season to arrive. But if I were to look deeper, I can see that those five words are important guides for other seasons, for other situations.

I can imagine a child yearning to play outdoors. The cold bitter days of winter are behind and warmer temperatures are coming. Yet this child stares out the rain streaked window feeling trapped indoors, unable to run barefoot in the greening grass, longing for the full spring to arrive.

The springtime of that child’s dreams.

For winter’s snow might have been glorious in December and January, but by mid-February the gray days and frozen fingers had lost most of their appeal. March came and it brought the promise of a long winter’s ending, and April, well it excites with its promises.

Yet now this child feels trapped by...the rains of April.

So I will remind us all of what I see as a deeper meaning of April showers bring May flowers. We are to be patient for grander things are coming. For each of us have faced, and many of you are continuing to face, times of stress, times of disappointment, times of pain. It is easy to believe that those rainy day times will never end. That the flowers will not bloom, that the May of our lives will never arrive.

Do not be discouraged.

Have faith that God has something better than dark rainy April days ahead for you. Sunny times of May might seem far off but it draws nearer with each day. Courage friends...and patience too, yet have confidence, for it is coming.

So what has this writer been doing these April days? There always are many things that demand my attention. The lawn for one. The lawns I care for had become quite lush and a little too tall when I hacked them back the first time last week. I also spent some time cleaning up the farm yard following the tree trimmers earlier in the month. Life goes on. Now that Jackie and I are fully vaccinated we had intended to drive south and visit Nick this April. Changes in Jackie’s work requirements at the pharmacy have pushed those plans back a bit. How far back remains unknown. Of course, when I can, I sit down at THIS keyboard and tap out words strung together. The revision of the third book in the Misty Creek Series continues. Hope to have some time to work on that project when I finish this one. You can see I do not have to deal with boredom considering the projects on my list.

I’m nearing 500 words on this newsletter so I will wrap things up.

It is our hope that your April was a GREAT month, and that you look forward to May and all the colors of spring it will bring. That God has kept you safe and well and will continue to do so until we have the opportunity to meet.

Take care,

God bless you and your family,

John

March Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.3

By John W. Vander Velden

 

3-26-2021

 

Friends,

Another month nears its conclusion. The days of March have rushed by and April looms very near.

As does Easter.

What does the holiday mean to you? I think each of us needs to ask ourselves that question...the meaning of Easter. My life, during this Lenten season, has been too busy to have spent forty days of self-examination, likely yours has as well. But it would have been good for me to do so. To look at myself a little deeper and focus a little harder on my own relationship with the divine.

But my memories of Easter are as old as I and as varied as the man that sits today at this particular keyboard. Memories of my childhood, of sunny Sunday’s and snowy ones as well. Of family, large and loud. Of Church services with overflowing sanctuaries.

That doesn’t happen so much anymore.

I remember one particular Easter season...the one of my confirmation. Those memories have dimmed little in the fifty-six years that have passed. I remember other Easters, of other families, of other significance. These days I miss most the Easters of my son’s youth. The reflection of the day’s magnificence in his eyes. Yes, Easter means a great deal to me. Not only the day on the calendar, or the memories, or the Church services, but what Easter means...

It is my hope that Easter carries such a significance to you as well...

 

Now for just a bit of writing news.

I will be renaming the book on which I am currently working. I’ll hold my title ideas “close to the vest” for now. Nearly two months into this editorial revise finds me struggling. I plod onward page by page hoping to find a balance soon. All I can tell you is that this set of revisions will take more time than I had originally anticipated. Is that good or bad? Time, friends, will tell. Fact is I never intended to write a third book in the Misty Creek series, or at least not this third book. Perhaps that is why I labor so diligently. I must make this volume worthy of my reader’s expectations. That’s a high bar and I am not certain I have the skills to clear that altitude.

I find there are times I am not completely pleased with the changes I have made. But, I remind myself, the book is a work in progress. So I take one bite and chew on it until it seems little more than mush, then go on to the next. I hope to finish Part 1 next week, and then push forward...always forward.

I have no idea when it will be finished, so stay tuned.

So I will close today with just a few final words.

God keep you and yours safe...today...tomorrow...and always. And I wish you a blessed Easter and a fantastic spring. 

 

John

 

December Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol.: 20.12

By John Vander Velden

 

We are in the middle of Christmas. For those of you scratching your head and asking
isn’t Christmas celebrated on December 25^th? Yes, it is...but... For me Christmas begins on the 25th and runs nonstop until Epiphany on January 6^th. I recognize the 12 days of Christmas. So even though we near December’s very last days, I can say to you Merry Christmas...and mean it.

Yet as we pass through these wonderful days when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we may feel that the dark cloud of COVID has stolen some of the holiday’s luster. If you are like Jackie and I, things were very different this season. To some degree many of us remain isolated. Even though the news of vaccinations is promising, this pandemic has not released us yet. We yearn for things to be “normal”, and find ourselves wondering if things will ever be the same as they were again.

Yes, Christmas in 2020 was, or as in my house is, different. But Christmas IS! And no disease can stop it. Because at the center...the very center...is that God so loved the world (you and me and everyone), SO much he sent His Son. That Jesus entered our world the same way we did, as a helpless babe. That this amazing child was born into the family of humble ordinary people, should speak to us all. That the Savior of humanity was first revealed to common shepherds, should show God’s openness for our access as well. That when later the child is acknowledged by kings, speaks of the grandness of God’s plan.

Christmas is about love! The love that stitches the universe together. The greatest power that can exist. For as I said before, love is at the center of God’s gift to us. For God so loved the world...

In a world that sets one against the other. In a world “where I am right and you are wrong” seems to be at the focus of so many people’s thoughts. In a world where “tit for tat” has come to be the norm. In a world filled with fear and hate, love gets lost, or in the least shoved to the wayside. Anger and bitterness surround us. It is too easy for us to lash back at comments made or what we feel are cruel actions directed our way.

Perhaps we will love them tomorrow...when it’s easier...or when they deserve it.

Yet we rely, with confidence, on God’s loves for us, as undeserving as we are. Isn’t that the whole point of Christmas? I find myself humbled by the simple fact that God did so much to prove His love for me. That is what Christmas means to me. And in that context, I am driven to try my best to love others as well.

So this month’s newsletter is different than those I have shared with you, dear friends, in the past. It is my deepest hope that your home is filled with Christmas...the real...the living Christmas. That the coming year brings you blessings, and health, but above all else...love. Love which comes to you and those you hold near, and a love you would gladly share to the world.

Merry Christmas,

John

Author of Misty Creek and Elizabeth’s Journey

 

p.s.

I must add a bit of writing news. I have finished the first revise of the third book of the Misty Creek Saga. Next month the manuscript goes to my editor and friend. So things continue onward. During these weeks I hope to finish a draft titled Severed Ties a standalone novel. So that’s where this writer guy finds himself at the moment. Hope to have more to tell you next month.

JV

 

November Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 20.11

By John W. Vander Velden

November 27, 2020

 

By the time you get these words Thanksgiving Day will be a memory. It is my hope that during these unprecedented days that among those recollections are happy thoughts. COVID-19 has thrust much of the county into a situation that you and I have never faced before. The tremendous rise of cases in our area force us to make changes we did not wish to make...changes we hated.

Those changes were not driven by fear...though we, like everyone do not want to become victims of the disease. No, the choices we made were motivated by concerns for others. Plans would have led us an hour and fifteen minutes south. It would have given us the first opportunity to see our son since February. For he had planned to make the long drive up from Kentucky.

But the changing situation and our worries about the health of others that would be there, for among them were those of extreme vulnerability, fueled our decision. Should not Jackie and I set aside our own longings, if to do so would reduce their risk?

So this Vander Velden household had a private dinner of amazing food in a quiet home.

But Thanksgiving is not about over eating...well not really anyway. It should be, first and foremost, a time to be grateful. To be grateful for all the things we take for granted most of the time. We may not be able, this year, to hug out son, yet we are grateful for the young man he has become.

Out of sight is not out of mind!  

And we have SO many things to be thankful for, a home with a roof that doesn’t leak and a furnace that heats it, our health that makes it possible to accomplish the things we are to do, automobiles that start when we want them to, tasks that give us purpose and a reason to get up each morning, family that we love, and certainly not least, the love of our GOD and the gift of grace He has given.

So as 2020 moves ever closer to its conclusion, I am a very grateful man. It is my hope that vaccines will bring us closer to the normal life we knew just ten months ago. Yet each of us should not abandon the simple things we have been doing, practice social distancing, washing and sanitizing our hands, and wearing a mask. Simple things that show that we are doing our part. For together we can defeat this pandemic, but it will take all of us!

By now you have heard enough about the election, so I will not give it more mention than this. Let us ALL support whoever is president in the coming years.

Now for just a bit of writing news.

I have been tugged away from my primary writing projects off and on these last weeks. All the same I am very near to the point of sending off the manuscript to my editor and friend.

You hear that Kristina...it’s coming your way soon.

I am nearing the end of a large step and preparing for larger task, the first round of editorial changes. But I am yet ahead of where I expected to be...another thing to be thankful for.

I’ve crossed five hundred words on this letter again, so let me draw this correspondence to a close. Dear friends know that the one thing that holds EVERYTHING together isn’t money...not fame either. It’s LOVE. The love you share with your family and friends. The love you feel for others as well. Love shown when you act to benefit others. The few dollars you put in the Red Kettle, your donation to a local food pantry, showing your patience when you shop or while behind the wheel of your automobile. Yes, it is LOVE that keeps this world from flying apart at the seams. And I know the source of all that love...GOD. I pray you know that source as well.

Wishing you a grateful heart...filled with love,

John

Add caption

October Open Spaces Vol. 20.10

 

Open Spaces

Vol.: 20.10

October 30, 2020

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Where does the time go? It seems that as my years add up to an intimidating quantity, months pass at an alarming rate. Wasn’t it August just yesterday? No, John, it was not. It wasn’t September either.

The summer of 2020 is just a memory. For some, not the most pleasant memory, but a memory all the same. A month into autumn and my world is racing toward the year’s ending. For Jackie and me, and for many of you as well, we will long remember THIS year.

Yet, when we have at last passed the COVID-19 crisis, and we will, I hope that each of us will have memories of the good things that came our way in spite of it. Yes, we like most of you, have had to change our plans because of the pandemic. But those changes offered different experiences we would never have considered before.

As I had mentioned in other newsletters, work’s obligations and safety considerations, have forced us to stay “close to home”. But staying close to home does not mean we did not live. A trip to a state park that had long been put off, is one example. We have gone to restaurants that have, in our opinion, taken seriously the need of social distancing. We attend our church services. No, we did not “hole up” in our basement since March!

Of course we grow weary of wearing our masks. But because we willingly do our part we WILL continue to do so. The discomfort is a small price to pay as we, all of us TOGTHER, face the dangers the disease brings.

If I say any single thing of importance within these few words...let it be that we...all of us...are in this crisis TOGETHER! And if we all do OUR part...take responsibility for ourselves, and take the actions that CAN help those around us...we will...TOGETHER...overcome the COVID obstacle.

Whether we like it or not, friends, we are interconnected. Perhaps it is time we act like it.

Time to step off my soap box...

For a bit of writing news. I have finished the first pass of the first review of the manuscript of the book I am preparing for publication. That’s a mouth full isn’t it? The book tentatively titled, House on the Lake’s Shore, is well underway, but the finish line is many laps ahead of me.

Am I pleased with the story, so far? Much more satisfied than I expected to be. Fact is, I felt concerned that I would find the story lacking in some major area. I had never written a draft where I knew...beforehand...both ends of the tale. I feared that I would fail creating a worthwhile story filling in the middle, so to speak. But reading through the draft twice has eased those fears...for now.

Even so my mind is rushing ahead creating plotlines for future stories. I hope my brain can shift back and forth between projects. I believe it can.

Though revisions fill most of my writing time, being so near the end of another draft temps me. I add a few pages each week to that story, Severed Ties, a standalone novel.

So you can see I am moving forward on my writing front, and am hopeful that you, my reading friends, will be satisfied when at last House on the Lake’s Shore is published. The third book, which falls within the Misty Creek Saga, is my primary focus at this time, and it is the project to which I give the most energy.

It seems that once again I have run long. So my friends, let me leave you with just a few additional words. Because we know the absolute power of GOD. Because we know that JESUS saves us. Because we know the HOLY SPIRIT is always near. We are able to live with confidence...today...and all the tomorrows that are before us. Let that, even in these unsettling times, bring us stability and strength to face EVERYTHING that lies ahead.

May GOD bless you and yours,

John

 

Add caption

 

August Open Spaces Vol. 20.8

 

Open Spaces   Vol.: 20.8

By John W. Vander Velden

 

August 26, 2020

 

Now that August comes to its conclusion, we know that summer is nearing its end. I hope you have found ways to enjoy your summer. For most, Jackie and I included, the summer of 2020 has been unique.

We did not take our usual summer escape this year. Dreams of Door County, Wisconsin will remain for another time. But we haven’t remained locked behind our doors either. Of course there is work’s demands. Work being very different for the two of us. My work is very close to home, Jackie’s is...well a little further away. Yet we have enjoyed the summer within its limitations.

I feel that every day is a gift from GOD. Even days under the shadow of a pandemic. The attitude makes it easier to get out of bed in the morning. Yet it remains difficult at times to be excited by EVERY new day, but I believe being so motivated is worth the effort. You may find comfort in the fact that I do FAIL to find rosy glasses some morning. Maybe more often than some.

Here the school year is beginning. COVID-19 shapes the way schools have opened. Many continue off sight learning. E-learning it is often called. It strains teachers, students, and parents, trying to find the best ways to teach, the best ways to protect children and staff. Things will remain different for a time, but I am confident it is only temporary.

 Though our school years are behind us, behind our son’s well, the virus yet influences our lives. Jackie and I do our part. We wear our masks, avoid crowds, practice social distancing, use hand sanitizer often, and wash our hands. We recognize that all of us face this danger together, and small things can make big differences. And fortunately our household remains well.

It is our hope that yours is also.

Now for a bit of writing news.

Next week I begin revising the draft I completed in May. Taking on that project in earnest means the other project on which I had been working must be set aside. Though I regret leaving the book length work I have worked upon these months incomplete, I know I will return to it on my next “dead writing time”, such as when  I send the revisions to the editor. I have no idea how much time will be needed for this first revision, but it is my hope to complete it early next year.

I will keep you posted.

Now I have reached the end of this installment of “Open Spaces”. Take care my friends, make your choices carefully, consider the needs of others, especially the weak and vulnerable, share kindness, and above all remember that GOD loves you.

May His love comfort you and ease your mind during these unprecedented times, and that He guide your feet to open spaces where you will find peace.  

With CHRIST’s love, and blessings,

John W. Vander Velden

Author of Misty Creek and Elizabeth’s Journey

 

         If you wanted the link to my 1^st Virtual Author’s Event here it is....

 

https://youtu.be/DTCx2-9tB2A