Joplin Journal Volume 11-8, Issue 1

From the Editor's Desk:

It's still pretty dark right now. Rumbles of thunder roll in the distance. Some closer than others. There is a pause in the rain pattering on the roof and things grow quiet. It's been a lovely, rainy, stormy morning. No big winds or crazy things like that, just lighting, thunder and rain. Wonderful rain. It's the kind of morning you want to either settle down with a good book, or get a lot done.

Weather Report:

Heat! Yesterday was 104º and I don't even want to know what the heat index was! All week it's been triple digits. And some days last week too. Everything is dry, or at least it was before this morning. Leaves are turning brown and falling off trees, or curling up because it's so hot and dry. We've had to water more than once a day.

"Genius Burns":

Last month I was 75 words short of reaching 58k words! If I had known how close I was, I would have written those 75 words. Maybe even 80. But my count had gotten off on the camp progress sheet so I thought I was just over 57k. Oh well. I made good progress on "Monday's Mystery," worked a little on "Secret Project," started and wrote several thousand words on what I hope will be a novella: "Nan's Ice Cream Shop," and worked some on another story that is currently needing a name of sorts. And wrote some short stories.

I haven't written a lot yet this month. The other day I ended up bruising my knuckles between my ring finger and pinky on my right hand causing typing to not be very comfortable. Thankfully it's pretty much back to normal now so I'm hoping I can get back to writing soon.

Project Prognosis:

How am I doing?

• Work on Blog Posts for 2023 – I actually have 3 August posts done, and one done in September. I didn't really do much in the way of blog posts last month.
• Update Website – I probably still need to update some things.
• Write Christmas Play – I haven't done that yet. I'm still thinking and tossing out ideas. I have my cast list.

Visitors:

Grandpa and Marty came down last Friday. Or was it the Friday before that? It was raining that morning and Grandpa couldn't work at Jimmy's, so he came over here in the morning. Mom and Marty went out to lunch, and Grandpa took, Dad, Sarah, and I out to lunch somewhere else. That was fun. Sarah and I worked on some sewing projects with and for Marty in the afternoon. They didn't stay for supper.

Whispering Winds:

Camp is over for the summer.

Babysitting:

We had a few of the kids, Lucas, Grant, and Kinsley one evening last week. Grant and I started building a lego trash truck. It's a set that I told him just he and I were going to build. He got the cab done.

On Monday Drew on down came over at lunch time and stayed until around five. We ate lunch and Grant opened his birthday presents which included a lego pull-back tractor. He and I spent almost the entire afternoon getting it built. He was so proud of it! Lucas worked on the lego camper, Kailyn started building a lego tree-house, but didn't do much on it. And Drew set up a lego train track and ran the train on it. As for Kins, she played with the Noah's ark, and drove the train, and took a nap, and read "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World."

Here's a picture of our Noah's ark lego set.

The Music Stand:

Nothing right now.

KDWC:

Camp is over. It was a very good camp. We ended up with over 2 million words written and edited. It was the largest camp we've ever had, and I heard from several of those who came for the first time that they were planning on coming back in November. This camp we had ladies from China, Australia, Hungary, Estonia, Chili, Canada, New Zealand, the US, South Africa, and I think I'm missing a country or two.

Sewing Room:

Sarah has a lull in sewing right now. She's tried out a new skirt pattern and made me a skirt which I love! But she's also waiting for a heart-sister to have her baby because she'll go and spend about a week with her.

Read Another Page:

I get to show you the lovely cover for the new Homewood collection some friends and I are doing! You may recall that some of the KDWC aunties published a collection of Christmas stories set in a tiny, fictional town of Homewood, MN last year. Well, we decided to write another one this year and fill in some decades. My story takes place in 1993.

Isn't the cover pretty? We have 7 authors and stories in this collection instead of 6. Two from the last collection couldn't do a story this time, but three new aunties did. And if you want to read and review one of the stories, or if you want to help us promote it by sharing about it on social media, you can sign up HERE. We'd love some more help!

Oh, and if that wasn't enough, during camp I wrote and published a short story titled The Miner, the Preacher, and the Outlaws.

Teacher's Lounge:

Closed for now.

Book Nook:

Not a lot of books this time either. I'm almost finished with a collection of novellas, but I'll share my review of that next time. And I have a stack of library books waiting to be read. But for now, here's what I read. Seize the Fight (okay read), Lessons from Liberty (reread my own book), A Reversible Santa Claus (kind of funny), Wagons to the Wilderness (enjoyed this), Addy's Surprise (brought back memories).

Farewell:

It's raining again. After a lull, thunder cam back, and the rain began falling heavier this time. Lovely rain. Wonderful rumbles of thunder. I'm going to see what else I can get done this morning. I'm going to meet up with a friend at noon for ice cream and a long chat. That will be fun. I don't know if we're in for an all day rain, or if it will move on this morning. I'll enjoy it while I can. Mom and Sarah are watching some regional Little League games right now. Not sure what Dad is doing. Maybe I'll write next week. Maybe I won't. We'll see.