Happy New Year!!

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays with your loved ones. I am so grateful for the lovely time I had with my family on Christmas Day. As I had hoped, we did play a little game after dinner where two questions were presented to everyone: what is your favorite time of day? and what is your favorite comfort food? After everyone wrote their answers on slips of paper, I collected them and read them off so everyone could list them on a separate piece of paper. They then wrote their guesses of who belonged to each pair of answers.

The answers were as fun to hear as they were enlightening. Some people were easy to guess because their answers were so obvious, but others were more difficult because we've never shared such information before now. When we were done guessing, everyone had to elaborate on their time-of-day selection. The answers were fascinating. My mom, especially, loved learning more about her family and couldn't wait to share her list with her home care giver the next day. My sons had a later conversation about what really qualifies as comfort food to them. And I started an Excel file on the family with a tab for each person. As time goes on, we'll continue the game, asking different questions during each session. It will be an easy way to record their behind-the-scenes stories and enjoy some family fun in the meantime.

Happy New Year to you all!

How Much Do You Know About Your Loved Ones From Their Perspective?

As I rise this morning, my heart still sad over this past week's tragedy, I am haunted by the glaring reminder that all of us are vulnerable to losing our lives in an instant, often without having had the chance to communicate to our loved ones the essence of who we really are from our own perspective. Most likely, eulogies and memories of our lives will someday be drawn from accomplishments seen by or evaluations made through the eyes of our survivors.

My gut tells me our loved ones will treasure memories of us even more one day if we take the time to make our own contributions to those memories while we are still here. What if a mom or a brother or a grandpa had spent time asking one of these dear lost children what she knew about her world and recording her messages: her favorite aroma, song, food; her favorite time of day, the first thing she remembered in her life; something she felt she was good at; what she thought was the best part of being a kid; her definitions of kindness, love, and fun? They would have helped her make a huge contribution to her own legacy. And she could have edited those thoughts as she matured and experienced more of the world.

If I someday lose one of you, I want to remember you from YOUR perspective. I want to remember so much more than your external achievements. I want to remember what made you tick, what was important to you, and how you felt you contributed to the universe as a person while you were here. That's what I see as a true legacy.

So during this Christmas season, I'm going to practice my beliefs. I'll find a fun way to have a conversation with my loved ones about some of the above subjects. Perhaps we will make a game of it around the dinner table, where we write our thoughts about various subjects on slips of paper, and then guess who belongs to each thought. Afterwards, I'll save a file for each person and continue to collect their thoughts as time goes on.

How about you? Can you find a way to collect all that is memorable from your loved ones while they are alive and well and contributing to this precious thing called life? Blessed Holidays to you and those you love!

Heaven’s Wait’s New Online Store!

You are cordially invited to travel a brand new path along my Heaven’s Wait journey! After many months of delays and commitments that caused me to move forward with my vision at a pace much slower than I anticipated, I am happy to announce that Heaven’s Wait’s official online store is now open for your enjoyment. My fantasy world has inspired me to write its stories, compose its music, and animate its environment. Now, I will offer something new by bringing to life some of the fantasy elements that thrive within the world of Heaven’s Wait.

I’ve created a small collection of unique items and gifts that reflect the essence of Heaven’s Wait as I know it thus far. The items you find within the HW Shops are handcrafted in small quantities and exclusive to the Heaven’s Wait website. The main HW Shop offers not only two fine hand-knit specialties, inspired by the magical “wistas” that occupy the valley of Vowella under the care of the other-worldly Fig Wig clan, but also two specialty coffee selections, freshly roasted for you from the depths of the mysterious “Jimmy’s Jungle.”

The Drippils Shop offers a fun variety of activity items designed to introduce the young children in your lives to the silly “Drippils”, tiny animated characters that live unknown to Heaven’s Wait’s central characters, the Vowellans, yet hidden right under the common plants that flourish throughout the community of Vowella.

You may find the shops at www.heavenswait.com/ShopHW.html.
I hope you enjoy your visit. Thanks so much for your ongoing support of my creative journey.

With warmest regards,
Barbara McLaughlin

For continuing Heaven’s Wait updates, remember to ‘Like’ HW's Facebook page by visiting https://www.facebook.com/heavenswait and ‘Follow’ my tweets at https://twitter.com/HWwriter .

Revisiting the Hero's Journey

Lightbulb moment! I spent some serious time yesterday working on my latest manuscript. Since I was beginning to lead my main character down the path to his major ordeal within the story, I decided to take a break to test how well he is traveling the classic "hero's journey.” I pulled out Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey and reviewed the stages he suggests for such a journey, based on the wisdom of Joseph Campbell.

It felt great to refresh myself about the classic formula for story writing that has been in place for centuries, one that has produced most of the greatest stories of all time. I found it fairly easy to attach my current chapters to several of those stages and found that I can now plot out the necessary story elements I’ll need in order for my "hero" to complete his journey. Since my present manuscript is actually a rewrite of a portion of my original story about Heaven’s Wait, I already have a list of chapters that need to be matched to the remaining journey elements.

With the help of my new writing application, Scrivener, I can assign journey stages to my chapters as part of the chapters’ synopses. I’ll actually be tracking two journeys: one for Innocents’ current hero, and one for RJ, hero of my first book, RJ’s Story. RJ continues to play a key though lesser role in Innocents, but the role is still worthy of tracking. I want to make sure both characters do the book justice by traveling paths that are both creative and in line with a winning formula.

Since organization is so much my thing, I am going to enjoy this process!

Learn more about The Writer’s Journey at: http://www.thewritersjourney.com/

And check out the writing app Scrivener at: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

OK! I Give! It's time for my Blog to Hibernate.

Yes, it's time for me to own up to the fact that there are only so many hours in a day. I've decided to take an extended break from blog writing so I can focus on some behind-the-scenes development for Heaven's Wait, as well as for our family business, McLaughlin Coffee Company. Otherwise, I'll continue to move at a snail's pace on the many projects that consistently take a backseat in my overbooked life, and I'm not content to do that. I love writing my blog, and I put a lot of thought and record keeping into each post. But I'll feel much better about devoting time to it once I have had a chance to complete some essential chores and spend some serious time working on Innocents.

I so appreciate all of you who have been following the progress of Heaven's Wait and also the Lasting Story project. And I hope you will stay with me while I step away for a while. You are welcome to drop me a line or share your thoughts with me while I'm off the grid.

In the meantime, I'll occasionally post random tidbits of this-and-that, which we all seem to enjoy sharing with each other. Thanks for your ongoing support.

Barbara

Lasting Story: Kindness Means . . .

Suggestions: Let's dig into a little bit of your personal wisdom. No matter how young or old you are, you've gained wisdom through your life experiences. A way to start sharing that wisdom is to try to express what Kindness means to you. If you had to explain it to a child or grandchild, how would you tell them about it? What are the ways that kindness was expressed to you? How important do you think it is to a well-rounded life? Share your take on the subject in a way that's memorable to both you and your loved ones.

You may develop your own format for writing about this subject, or you may use the handy MS Word Lasting Story Template that lives within the Heaven's Wait website at http://www.heavenswait.com/WriteHW.html. It includes guidelines to help you write your stories in a consistent format and file them in an efficient manner.

Visit the Heaven's Wait website for the accumulated Lasting Story Write Guide at: http://www.heavenswait.com/WriteHW.html

To receive Lasting Story Writing Alerts, join the Heaven's Wait Email Alert List at: http://www.heavenswait.com/FormEmailList.aspx

Has this subject prompted a discussion between you and your family or friends? You are welcome to share your thoughts or conversations by commenting in one of two places:

1. Click on "Post a Comment" below this Lasting Story blog post. Note: If you would like to go back and comment on a previous post, click on Lasting Story under Subject Blogs in the upper right hand corner of this page. Then scroll down to the subject on which you wish to comment.

2. Facebook users, see Heaven's Wait's Page, http://www.facebook.com/heavenswait. Comment under the Status entry for this Lasting Story subject in the timeline. Scroll down to comment on previous subjects.

Potpourri: NYC! A View from the Inside

On our recent trip to New York City, I had in mind to explore the city in a different way than I had in the past. I had seen the touristy, glitzy side of the city on a couple of previous trips. This time, I wanted to immerse myself in some of the neighborhoods and local hangouts, to get a sense of what it was like to be a New Yorker, to talk to everyday people about their lives there.

We learned a great deal by conversing with a United Nations of cab drivers, hotel staff members, and food service people; by visiting a couple of old friends; and by spending an afternoon with a couple of colorful Italians who are our coffee clients. I think we just scratched the surface in getting to know more about NYC, but it was a good start. Here are a few of our inside views:

A casual Italian restaurant with a take-out front shop, Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria, nestled in the old Bowery section, just down the street from our hotel. It seems to draw locals, as well as notable food celebrities. The food was mouthwatering.

A view from our hotel of the East Village skyline. Love the rooftop gardens you can spot here and there. Everything of interest here was on the outside. Our room was so small, there was barely room to walk around the bed.

Inside the magnificent Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The grandeur and architectural achievement take your breath away.

Of course, we had to feed my fondness for Rembrandt paintings inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The caricatures inside the dining room at Sardi's bring to mind the old movie days of Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope and more.

How could we ignore the New York prices for coffee drinks at Sardi's compared to what we see here is the SF Bay Area?

More grand architecture inside the renowned Shubert Theatre.

Our favorite breakfast place, Gemma's, inside the old Bowery Hotel.

A view from inside Washington Square Park. Such a lovely environment in the middle of the concrete jungle and surrounding NYU.

This is the NY lifestyle I wanted to know more about . . . the quiet neighborhoods in the West Village.

Inside Gray's Papaya, a signature hot dog stop for locals and visitors alike.

Our Italian coffee clients,Lucca and Enrico, with Mike inside their Queens coffee shop, Triple Shot World Atlas Cafe.

The City, from inside a car crossing the Manhattan Bridge.

We enjoyed the fun decor inside Lily's Restaurant, an eclectic Midtown eatery in the Theatre District.

We couldn't leave New York without being on the inside of a powerful flash thunder/lightning storm at the South Street Seaport.