I have very poor eyesight. There hasn’t been any sight in the left eye since birth. The right, well, that’s cataracts, a matter of aging. So I taught myself to dictate so I could continue to write. Then, I discovered I’d had a pinpoint stroke and some other unpleasant brain-related issues. Now, I have some intermittent speech problems and the attention span of a flea. So much for dictation. Writing in longhand, as I did way back when is out. Arthritis. I’m lucky I can grip an orange!
It’s been said that God never throws more at us than we can handle. He must think stubbornness is strength.
I have all kinds of book ideas that will probably never be written because I’m so much slower than I used to be–and I’m not getting any younger. Back the the ’80s, I wrote The Unicorn’s Daughter in four months and it required very little editing. Ten years ago, I finished Chasing the Wind after working on it for ten years. There are at least five projects on the back burner at the moment. I want to write them. The ideas are there, forming, percolating–but they never seem to get any further.
Am I giving up? No, not yet. In a few weeks, I’ll be publishing a collection of posts from my personal blog, The Three Rs: Rants, Raves and (Occasional) Reflections. I have a memoir almost finished, Sam’s Story in progress, and Collin and I are working on a series that started with Chasing the Wind. With Collin collaborating, I can at least get that far.
I started a novel featuring five secondary characters from Chasing the Wind, but found it had no plot–and a comedy about the quirky residents of a college town, including a booze hound who really is a dog. Just a bunch of episodes. I thought they would have to be scrapped. Then I remembered that my partner in crime, William Kendall, does several serials within his blog, Speak of the Devil–including one featuring a cranky Mountie who hates entertainment reporters.
Maybe these projects aren’t dead, after all. At least not until I am….
Norma Beishir/Collin Beishir 
Time shall tell!
For some reason, I’m more interested in doing nonfiction now. I’ve been thinking about the comment Lowell made on my Father’s Day blog. I’d like to put together two books–one about our relationships with our fathers and one about our relationships with our mothers–and interview friends for their personal thoughts and memories.
You have the determination and the intelligence. You’ll make it. Your way is far better than accepting defeat.
Sometimes I think you guys give me way too much credit. It does seem weird that every time I decide to throw in the towel, something happens to make me reconsider. Two new reviews for Ms. Maxwell and Son took me by surprise this afternoon.
Oh good! You needed that! Perhaps that is God’s way of saying: Keep writing.