A Summer of Change

As this summer goes on 

I'm realizing more and more just how drastically my life will have changed by the time summer ends and fall begins.

From starting college, to getting my wisdom teeth pulled, my hair cut, and selling my beloved horse, I am on the verge of a new turn in the road.

It's difficult, and I often sit and wish I could go back to my days as a young girl;

carefree and without any responsibility aside from my next class in school, and the next chores to be finished. Now I have to say farewell to those summer days of laying around, relaxing, reading books, playing outside, and being bored.

But no amount of wishing for those days will bring them back. And, on the other side of things, I would rather not give up these new adventures ahead of me. With my second novel drawing closer to completion and the prospect of film school ahead of me,

I get shivers of excitement up and down my spine at the thought.

The future holds a lot of new, mysterious things, but it also holds the promise of a grand adventure in store.

My King has an amazing plan in store for my life yet, and I can't give that up; my adventurous side won't let me.

And so I feel as though this summer is a packing up for the journey, a saying farewell to things of the old, and rushing ahead with a combination of thrill and fear, sorrow and pure glee into the unknown. I go, plunging into these new depths laid out before me by the Creator of the Universe.

Assr vísa ykkarr brand.

(May God guide your sword.)

ElizabethMarieKauffman

When Life Speeds Up Without Warning. . . .

You know that feeling?? When all of a sudden it feels like you're running at break neck speed just to keep up with yourself. . . . Well, I'm just getting into the downward slope of that feeling right now. I'm thinking that it must have been toward the end of last month that life started speeding up for me. I successfully went through my first ever production week for a short film that I wrote, produced, directed, and am now editing. My hope is that it will get into this up coming San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (some of you may remember last year when I was an extra in a short film that was a semi-finalist in that same film festival, if you don't, you can find that post here). Making a short film like that was SUCH an amazing experience!!! Even with the stresses that it caused, and even. . . even as we sat there all stuck on the beach that we were filming on, huddled under towels and the few beach umbrellas that we dared have open, trying to keep both ourselves and especially the equipment dry while a big storm was raging over us. . . even then, I could very happily tell myself, that this was where I belonged, this was what God had created me to do, at least at this point in time.

Since that experience of a lifetime, my mind has been overrun with exhilarating thoughts and plans for future films (short AND feature length!), but of course I've had to make myself leave those as mere ideas running around in my head and occasionally over notes to pick up later, so that I could work on completing the editing for this short film. Knowing me, if I started writing a screenplay for one of those others, I would probably never get back to finishing this one. . . . So, they shall just have to wait patiently on the sidelines for the time being. :)

I've been able to work farther on "The Wolves of Langoor" as well, during this time, and the plan is to get myself back into a schedule of writing every single night. If I did that, I think that I should easily be able to make my goal of completing the first draft for TWOL by the end of November 30th (that will take me through NaNoWriMo).

And so, for the most part you are caught up on my life. . . . I'm continuing to work on character development for my role in the short film that the sister of my friend is making (see here for a bit more details on that), so that is always fun. :) The second read through for that is this Saturday, and then Burns Family Studios announces their next film project this Friday!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D So I am very eagerly awaiting the weekend! :D

Amorette 99 (who was just barking rather obnoxiously in a brave "I will defend everyone!" sort of way–as much as a 4 pound puppy can–at a prop still sitting in my bedroom from filming week) greets you all. :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Amazon, Here We Come!

After that long process which I talked about in my last post, it has finally happened! I've hit the approval button to start the 6-8 week process of getting TSOT onto Amazon and BarnesandNobels.com!!! :D I have also learned that not only will my book go to Amazon and B and N.com (which was enough to sell me. . .), through this distribution package it will also be open for other bookstores to pick up if they request it. This is a very pleasing thought, but one that I realize probably won't be of much use unless I get busy selling my book to the different stores. . . . For me (a very much introvert who completely froze up when trying to get my friendly dentist's office to purchase an advertisement to be put in the program of a play I was in), this is a rather daunting idea. . . daunting may not be the right word; how about catastrophic? But I'm sure, if this is God's will, everything will turn out. :)

In the mean time, some other pretty exciting things have been going on. . . . I got the lead role in a film (:D!!!!!!!!!!!!), and today I'm going with my dad and some people from our church to meet 2 of the people behind an independent Christian film that has been an inspiration of mine since I first saw it almost 2 and a half years ago. (The movie is "Pendragon; Sword of his Father." If you have never seen it, I would encourage you to do so! :) )

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Sales Rank Hop!

I've found it quite exciting to chart TSOT's sales rank on Lulu.com. Especially when it makes rather big jumps. . . . ;) When it started out, it was somewhere around the late 60,000s or 70,000s (somewhere around then anyway–that was before I discovered that watching numbers was fun) but now, The Sword of Teneraz has hit number 57,863 on the Lulu.com sales rank, as well as being given a 5 star review!!! :D I am VERY thrilled to see what God is doing and going to do with this book! Thank you to everyone who has already bought a copy! :) My total sold now is about 21 I believe (that's counting the 6 plus a download that my family bought *sticks hands in pockets and begins whistling a tune*).

I am also continuing to go through the process of getting TSOT available on Amazon and BarnesandNobles.com, however, it's turned out to be a bit tougher and longer of a process than I had expected at first. . . . So. . . it's going to be longer than I had planned until that happens, but I guarantee, unless some catastrophe happens (like a paint truck running into a telephone pole and sending it smashing into an electricity station which then turns out all of the power in the entire state, and then at the same time a meteorite falls from the sky and lands smack-dab in the middle of the Lulu.com outpost. . . . Or I get a no and a change of directions from God.) it will still happen.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂. (God guide your words.)

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

THE BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED!!!

(The title's pretty explanatory. . . . :) )

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂. (God guide your words.)

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

I'M PUBLISHED!!!!!!! :D

(Click on image to view a larger version)

When an evil act is done, leaving the kingdom in the hands of a betrayer. . .

When the rightful heir to the throne has gone missing. . .

All those who are still faithful have gathered together to form a rebel group known as the King's Men or the Konungr Ly∂r.

All of their hopes rest on a prophecy: on a sword and its wielder, and a girl and her dragon. All of their hopes rest on finding the rightful heir to the throne. But when they find him, will he accept the challenge of fighting to get back the throne? Or will he himself fall prey to the darkness?

After almost two and a half years it's actually happened. . . . My book is published. My name is in print! I don't think that I can quite grasp the reality of it yet. . . . But that's beside the point. The matter of the fact is that it has really, truly happened! I'm not going to wake up in a moment to find out that this has all been some kind of wacky dream. . . it's real. My book–The Sword of Teneraz–is published and available for purchase at lulu.com. I hope to later have it available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNobles.com, but I have to first figure out all of the details of getting that going. :)

Here's the TSOT book trailer as I promised several posts back. . . .

And of course the confetti that goes with it {throws a handful of bright-colored stringy stuff in the air}. . . and don't forget the popcorn!!! :D {licks lips and reaches for a bag of heavenlyness}

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

(an author)

The Sword of Teneraz: The TRAILER!

I'm am very excited to announce that the The Sword of Teneraz book trailer is now complete!!! :D However. . . I am not going to show it to you, yet. You may thank my dad for the wonderful advice of waiting until closer to the books publication date to place it out in public. And I think that I'll keep the reasoning to myself and he: it may ruin it's affects on you otherwise. ;)

So keep your eyes open for the trailer to be released soon, with a great amount of hullabaloo and confetti.

And with that announcement, I think I should let you know how progress on my books are coming.

The Sword of Teneraz– is still in the editorial process. My mom is on her second run through, at the completion of which my dad will go over her notes and see if he has anything to add or such. My cousin has had–as he put it–an evil {crook eyebrows evilly} semester in college these past months, but his plan is to get TSOT edited over his Christmas break.

The Wolves of Langoor– is about 1/3rd written if my estimations are correct–which they seem to be known to not be, so we shall see just how far I truly am. The fantasy of completing NaNoWriMo's required 50,000 words in one month hasn't turned out to be a reality this year. :( All though I HAVE been able to make a great dent in the mass of writing to be done in order for this book to be called complete. So that has been exciting in itself. And I feel, that if I can keep up even just the amount of consistency that I've gotten in writing this month, I MAY (just possibly) be able to get the first draft done in a few months. (Don't hold me to that though, what with Christmas coming up and all. . . . It can be a great time to get lots of writing done, because of getting a break from other things; such as school. But on the other side of things, it's very possible to not get any writing done over the Christmas holiday, because you're so busy spending time with family.)

I hope that you feel U.T.D on all the latest happenings with my books now. Oh! And that reminds me. . . once NaNoWriMo is finished, I WILL be typing all that I have so far of TWOL into the computer so that I can put some numbers into the word count for it on my side bar; which, to my chagrin, still very clearly says "COMING SOON".

Thanks for following! And happy (late) Thanksgiving!!!! :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

It's That Time of Year Again. . . .

NaNoWriMo is here. . . . Well, technically it came several days ago (I was a little late in starting). But anyways, my goal is to write 50,000 words in The Wolves of Langoor before midnight November 30th. Wheeew! That is a lot! But I've calculated that if I write approximately 5-8 pages a day, I should have it. . . . Yesterday I got a little over 5 written, and today I'm hoping to beat that, so I'd say I'm off to a decent start. . . .

I'll keep you posted with updates as the month progresses. But first, I want to hear back from the rest of you NaNoWriMo participants out there. How are you faring? What are you working on??

Before I go. . . I have 1 more announcement/question. So I've come up with 2 simi-title names for the series that includes The Sword of Teneraz, and The Wolves of Langoor. What do you think of:

1. The Chronicles of the Sword of the Kings

or
2. The Sword of the Kings Chronicles. . . .

I threw out the idea of calling it a trilogy, as I have a feeling that it might become 4 books instead of the originally planned 3.

Please let me know your thoughts. :)

Assr vísa ykkar or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Brought To You By: A-99!

Wow! It sure has been a LONG time since I last even got onto blogger. . . not counting that one time that I just opened up my blog page to listen to the music on it while putting dishes in the dishwasher. :)

A lot has transpired since my last post. . . . "Anne of Green Gables; the Musical" is done (I never did tell you what part I got in it. . . I ended up being Tillie Boulter–which meant that the summer before I almost drowned in the lake, AND I got to dress up as an igloo. ;) It was a super fun role.), I'm also in "Meet Me In St. Louis" now, as a ball room dancer (which means I get to learn to waltz. Which is super fun! :D ).

On the writing side of things, everything is going pretty well. :) I really need to get back into some kind of schedule here. . . really, just any kind of schedule would work. But you'll be glad to hear that that hasn't kept me from writing! I'm somewhere around chapter 7 or 8, I think, on "The Wolves of Langoor", and my mom is nearing completion of her editorial run through of "The Sword of Teneraz", my cousin is working on his copy right now, and my dad is going to start as soon as my mom is finished. Over all, things are moving closer and closer to getting that first copy. {fans face, and reaches for a paper bag to breathe into}

And now. . . (drumroll please). . . I have what I believe to be a very (and when I say "very", I mean extremely) important introduction to make. So now. . . before further ado, I would like you to meet Amorette 99; also known as Amorette, also known as 99, also known as A-99:. . .

in other words; my little chihuahua puppy. :) My friend breeds chihuahuas, and her dog had puppies, so after discussing with my parents, I decided to get one of her puppies and start breeding her myself to make some college money (since I kinda dug into it to buy her in the first place. :} ). But I am very proud of my little baby. . .

I just need to work on her not chewing on erasers when she writes. . . . tsk tsk. ;) Of course she's a little too big now to sprawl across my desk like that, though she still likes to dig at my writing papers when she wants to get on my lap and it's in her way. lol.

But I guess I'll say so long for now! Hopefully I'll be able to post more often now, but we'll have to see.

God bless.

Assr vísa ykkar or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Oh What Happiness! Oh What Thrill!

Just maybe 10-20 minutes ago I finished the 4th draft of "The Sword of Teneraz"!!! :D I am very excited. . . . . Now it is time to relax and celebrate as others edit it (and of course do a bunch more writing in "The Wolves of Langoor") until I get it back from them and take the final editorial step of putting them all together into my last draft. *deep sigh* :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Beautiful. . .

This past Tuesday I went to the first meeting of a small group that I'm involved with this summer. And it went wonderfully. :) I think that it will be great! But anyways. . . we were talking about beauty, and what God sees as beautiful. We're working through a book called "Want More? Life" by Natalie Lloyd, and the title of the chapter was "You're not pretty; you're beautiful". . . or something to that extent. It talked about David when God chose him to be king, and that section there that talks about God not looking at outward appearances, but instead seeing the heart. And then it asked, if God looked at you, would He see someone beautiful?? Naturally. . . that was kind of an awkward question. I didn't think I could say yes, because I knew that I was by far not a perfect person, and the definition of beauty with God is someone perfect right??? So, I answered that I could only hope.

A few days later. . . I was busy reading a REALLY good book called "Bones of Makaidos", fourth book in the Oracles of Fire series by Bryan Davis, (if you haven't read these books–as well as the first series Dragons in Our Midst–you should go read them. . . . :) They're GOOD!) when I came across a section of the book where a character was asked almost the exact same question as I had had such trouble answering. "Are you truly beautiful in God's eyes?" But her answer wasn't "I can only hope", or some other indefinite answer. She was confident. . . Jesus had cleaned her, so she was wholly pure, and no one could make her believe that she was still buried in her sins.

It clicked.

And I realized how wrong I had been. We should never doubt the cleansing power of Jesus' blood, nor, how beautiful we are in God's sight when we truly rely on His saving grace. No one's perfect; so before I had been led to think that no one could truly be beautiful in God's sight. But sure. . . no one is perfect by their own power, but when we allow Jesus to wash our hearts with His love, we become pure, scrubbed clean of our past sins. That doesn't mean that we can never sin again. . . and we do make mistakes, we fall at times. But that is no reason not to run back to Jesus when we realize that we are wrong, and allow Him to pull us into His arms, and gently wipe away the dirt from our palms and set us back on the right path. And then. . . when God looks at us, we can have no doubt that He will smile and call us His beautiful daughters or handsome sons. :)

So yes. . . I am beautiful.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

P.S. BOOK NEWS! I just finished the 3rd draft of TSOT today!!! WOOT! :D One more, then a few others edit, and on to publishing!!! . . . This is actually happening. . . . . .

Standby Q1. . . .

So for the past monthish I've been extremely excited about this play that I'm in (Tom Sawyer). I auditioned for it. . . let's see. . . sometime in the later part of May. I didn't get the part that I had hoped for, but although I was planning on backing out, because I didn't feel that the part I had gotten would allow for the kind of learning that I wanted, God sat me down and told me that He wanted me in this show after all. :) And sure am I glad that He did!! Because not long after I told the director that I would be being in the play after all, he asked me to be the stage manager for the production!

So that has been simply amazing!!! And I, and my parents, feel that I'm getting far more of a learning experience from this than I would even if I had the part of a main character. :) So once again, God proves Himself faithful. :)

The only thing is. . . I've already had the "stage managers" nightmare. (Not anything that has actually happened, just the asleep dreaming kind.) . . . Let's just say it was CRA-AZY!!! And my director was kind enough to assure me that I would have many more to come. . . .

Well. . . now you are updated on my life of recent. :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Yurt: ?

Last weekend (Memorial weekend) my family and I went up to our little piece of land that we have up north, with a yurt on it. . . .

What's a yurt?

(yurt |yoŏrt; yərt|

nouna circular tent of felt or skins on a collapsible framework, used by nomads in Mongolia, Siberia, and Turkey)

The time was very relaxing, and one of the best times I've been able to have up there in years! On account of either being, or getting sick whenever we go up there. . . . But God was good, and this time I only had a minor cold/allergies that were easy to deal with. :) So I went canoeing every day (sometimes more than once a day), and went hiking in the hundreds of acres of national forest right next to our property (my ankles and up into my calves were still sore for several days after getting home). And besides having an all around great time in that way, I got a jump start back into my writing. I was able to rewrite the first chapter and a half about over the weekend. And when I got home I was raring to dive into editing, and get more writing done. So I arranged a schedule, and now I'm writing in the evenings on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and editing on Tue, Thur, Sat. With that schedule I've already been able to get a bunch done, and I'm lovin' it!! (To quote Max, from "Get Smart": I've been watching those lately. :>)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Update On Books

The editing of the 2nd draft for The Sword of Teneraz is underway. :) So far I'm pretty happy with how it is coming along, though I really need to put more focus into it so that it can come along faster.

But The Wolves of Langoor however are having some troubles. . . . :\ So I'm currently taking a break (gives me more time to focus on editing), and when I pick it back up, I'm planning on doing basically rewriting what I've written so far. I was only on about the 30th page so far, so it won't be that much to rewrite. . . . [sigh] all that hard work.

But anyways. . . my reasons for doing stated dreaded thing: It just didn't feel right, and I was at the point that the ideas simply weren't coming out unless I poked, and prodded, and–to put it plainly–tortured them to. I finally realized what I think my problem was:

1-I needed a break. Time to clear my mind and bring back to focus where I want this story to go.

2-I was relying on my own strength; my own will power and imagination. At the beginning it wasn't coming all that smoothly, because this story has a more complicated story line than any others that I've written, and to be frank, I hadn't spent as much time just sitting and daydreaming about this story, to the point that I'd figured out the structure of every sentence in a certain scene, like I have for the others I've written. So, I had heard that it was good to make a layout of your story, and I decided to give it a try. But that was my error. Don't get me wrong, for others, I'm sure it helps a TON! But for me. . . planning everything out like that left out any room for last minute spurts of inspiration, which push the story in a different direction; any room for God to give His ideas. I'd left MY author out of the planning. He's the one who had always given me those spurts of imagination that kept my pen going–He's the one who gave me that imagination in the first place! I remember when writing TSOT, a time when He stepped in and completely changed where I thought the story was going, and because of that, it turned out FAR better than it would have if I had kept going the way I'd thought it should go. I know that other authors use the layout, and it works great for them. But for me, that's obviously not the way God wants me to go. I believe, that He wants me to trust in Him; trust that He will guide the story where it needs to go; trust that, when I sit there with a blank paper, and an open mind, asking Him what He wants me to put down, that He will tell me, and I won't be at a total loss like I fear I might be.

So. . . [takes a deep breathe] the layout goes in the trash. And I feel like I'm stepping off a cliff. . . . But, like that one character that I pushed off a cliff; since the author's still breathing, I know that somehow I will survive–and in the process, have the adventure of a lifetime. :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

New Header

I finally decided that it was time to change the header on this blog. . . . So I did. :) What do you think?? Do you like it?

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

I Used To Like The Dentist. . . USED TO

When I was little and I had this thing about doctors. . . I loved them, and wished I could go there more often. You know the little smarty candies that came in the long clear plastic packages all rolled up? You don't see them very often any more, but they used to be the big thing. Those were my favorite candies BECAUSE they looked like medicine pills. . . . I was one strange kid!

But then I finally went to the doctors office. . . and they gave me four shots on my legs. . . at the same time. Let me tell you! No longer did I like going to the doctor's office! And the dentist. . . well. . . getting braces took care of that pretty quickly. Now I despise the mere thought of going to a doctor or dentist office! Well. . . after moving, I hadn't gotten my teeth cleaned or checked for quite some time, so just the other day we went. :} The x-rays weren't as bad as they usually are, and even though I was tense throughout the entire cleaning I could bare it! I could have lived to snatch up my little bag of tooth brush, tooth paste, little container of floss that lasts about a week, and even that little needly thingy to thread the floss under the metal bar that the other dentist put beneath my lower front teeth to keep them in place when the braces came off.

. . . . But no. . . the x-rays HAD to show that my wisdom teeth were coming in. . . and OF COURSE they're coming in crooked, and don't have enough room. :{ I had dearly hoped that I would follow my mom and sister in the way of there being enough room, or at least them stopping and not having to be removed! But I guess that was too much to hope. . . .

So. . . sometime (I don't know exactly when yet) I am going to get my wisdom teeth removed. :(

I had and have only ONE question after that appointment disappointment (ever notice how similar those 2 words are??): What in the world are wisdom teeth even for anyway? I mean, practically everyone gets them taken out, so obvious it's not some survival thing. . . otherwise we'd all be dead right now! :\

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Yipppeeeeee!!!! :D

I have like 5 or 6 more chapters in TSOT to edit, then I'll have finished my first round of editing!!! :D I'm very excited!! Of course, I still have 2 more times of doing that, each coming from a different angle. This time was just a basic over all, make sure it flows well, work on grammar problems. . . etc. Next time will be focusing on the characters; are they consistent? Do I describe their personality, appearances, or things that make them special, singular people well enough or correctly? Then on the third time I will work on Alleria's history and the landscapes-also description. You know, all of the things that makes it more than just a story in a book, but gives it the feeling of it being someplace real. 3D instead of 2D if you will. . . .

After that, I'll pass the manuscript out to my parents and a few choice people for them to edit. And once that is done: publishing! :)

And The Wolves of Langoor is going pretty well I think. I'm probably about 3-4 chapters in, so it's not going incredibly fast, but that is because I am focusing more on editing TSOT, and getting that done. I won't tell you the story of TWOL. . . not yet! Further down the road I'll post the summary as I did for TSOT, but not just yet, you'll have to wait for that. :) Though I WILL say that TWOL is going to be a lot more epic of a story than even TSOT was. It's more of a constant battle raging on one side, while on the other is suspense and mystery. Ok, that's all I am going to say. ;) Hehe!

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

An Update On Life And The Things In It

I am sorry that it has been so long since I have even gotten on here. I'm finding with the business of the holidays, I haven't had all that much time to "waste" an hour or two of my day sitting in front of the glowing screen of the computer. I've been instead reading, making Christmas presents, and just relaxing around the fire place with my family, and it feels good! I've got to say, I've now gotten to a point that it really does feel like a "waste" to get on here! Unless of course I have a specific reason for it. Like just now, I just wondered away to help my sister with some specifics about our parent's present (and no, I will not tell you what it is, my mom DOES come on here every so often! ;) lol). But anyways, that's why I haven't written very many posts. But probably after Christmas, and all of the business has passed, I'll be able to, not only work harder on getting all of TSOT onto the computer, but also be able to post more. :)

So, to begin, I've been doing a lot of reading lately, even though I'm a pretty slow reader, I LOVE to read! So, ya, the picture above. . . that just happens to be my bedside table, and those books. . . those are the books I am reading right now (sorry about the picture being slightly blurry, my camera doesn't take the best pictures at night). It's not the most current picture, I've finished The Hobbit since I took it, and there are several more bookmarks dangling out of pages. . . but otherwise. . . it's fairly accurate! :)

Yesterday we got out Christmas tree up and decorated. It is the biggest, most beautiful tree we have had in my entire life! It looks just like a tree in a toy store would; packed up with all of the different ornaments we've been given throughout are lives. No fancy, ornamental tree for us! :) And I'm kind of glad. My grandma had this tradition that each year at Christmas she would give each of us cousins an ornament, and after she died, my parents picked it up and have continued the tradition. I loved pulling out all of my ornaments, and remembering the Christmases that I got them. . . . It makes it a whole lot more special I think, when you have memories attached to the decorations and stuff.

Well, I think I shall go pick up one of those books from my bedside table! Maybe Uglies. . . it's in a very exciting part! :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Acting, Writing, and Other Things in My Life Right Now

I am very sorry that I have given no update on the play that I am in except for saying that I got several parts in it. We only have 2 more performances left out of our ~14~ (I think that was the number. . . .). That is very sad, and I am going to REALLY miss this group of people! We have come to be like one big family. And although, like any other family we've had our ups and downs (and a ton of sickness in between!!) we've been able to encourage each other, and carry each other through the downs, while bouncing and going crazy with one another during the ups. :) I will never forget a few nights ago when someone's friend's mother had pretty much died and was in the hospital in critical condition, we all stopped what we were doing and had a prayer circle right then and there in the girls dressing room. What an awesome feeling to be able to do that!

I am continually praying that God will provide more opportunities for me to act, and He is doing just that! Just about a week ago I got a call from a lady asking if I would be able to act in this years Bethlehem Village (a reenactment of the Christmas story), so I am now going to be a friend of Elizabeth, and the understudy for Mary! But the schedule for this is a LOT less busy, and it will feel good to have a break from all the rush, although I am sure that once a few months have gone by I'll be ready to get back up and going again!! But we shall see what God has in store.

In the meantime, I have found out that November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I don't intend to join in the actual NaNoWriMo activity. But I DO plan on focusing hard on writing TSOT during the month of November, and hopefully finishing it. *lots of cheers, applauds, and patting on the back* And since I won't have any acting commitments aside from Bethlehem Village which only practices on Sunday, and even then not on every Sunday, I think that I should be able to do this easy!

So I have a new goal: Finish The Sword of Teneraz by midnight, November 30th.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~