Birds of a feather

In this, the craziest of years there is still so much to be thankful for. It certainly makes the point that you never really know what’s around the corner. The best laid plans can fall apart at any minute. No matter what, it is important to be thankful for friends and family, that’s the glue holds us together. Thank you also to all the health care people who have been on the front lines enduring more than any of us can imagine. Then there’s the UPS, FedEx and postal workers that kept us supplied along with the cashiers and grocery workers, and everyone who just showed up when we needed them most. We have all learned a lot of lessons this year. I’m sure like most people I’ve talked on the phone more often in the last year than I have since I was in high school. I am particularly thankful to have a husband that is so supportive of me, he’s a fine editor as well!

Progress on my book is happening but not in the way I expected. As I moved along, I was never particularly happy with the beginning but I needed to start somewhere. I had put off starting the book because I wrestled with where to start. I decided to just go for it, without being satisfied. Now I’ve gone back to the beginning and I’m working on rewriting. The re-write is happening before I’ve actually finished the first draft. I’m not sure how other folks work, but that’s how I’m proceeding. 

I’ve gotten as far as chapter 16, and just about when we had Thanksgiving aboard Little Prince in Charleston, South Carolina. Another interesting stop in our journey and a place full of history. I am enjoying researching the history of the various places we landed. Getting the proper mix of the personal and the historical is one of the challenges I’m encountering. My love of history keeps sneaking in as much of it as I think I can.

Part of my research was reading the book Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. It’s got a great deal of information I never knew and a very good read. It has given me a new understanding of the events 400 years ago. Also, they recently finished refurbishing the ship the Mayflower II, on the occasion of the 400 year anniversary of the landing at Plymouth Harbor (notice I didn’t say rock). It is only by coincidence that I was doing the research 400 years after the landing. A very interesting coincidence since Tim’s 9th great grandfather was non other than William Brewster.