A Writer is Born, Part II

   One of the biggest accomplishments of my life (and maybe my dad's, too, though he's done more awesome things than I have) started as a spontaneous, skin-and-bones-framework bedtime story. My grandpa, who we call Grampy, first told it to his five kids on-the-spot on a camping trip.

  Somehow the story lived on through my dad's childhood and into mine. I remember laying under mountains of blankets in Rock Springs, Wyoming while Papa told me the story of five runaway children and a mysterious bluebird.

  In 2010, Papa decided to make a dream come true and write the legendary tale down. All went well, at first. My dad is phenomenally skilled at story telling, and it wasn't long before all the little details and "why's" and "how's" were taken care of. He expanded on the original story big time, adding backstory, scary bad guys, and all that jazz.

  But while he is great at plotting, Papa couldn't write a really good sentence to save his life. Once the story itself was as good as it could be, he hit a wall. The book wasn't ready for publication (which my parents had already paid for), but it didn't seem anything could be done about it.

  Now, here is a lesson in God's amazing timing and plans. Just about the time Papa hit the wall, I was discovering I could put words together very nicely. Mama put two and two together and hence created the "dynamic duo", as we like to call ourselves. I picked up where he left off and changed every single word in the 100 page book. But I only added one little detail to the plot.

  Fast forward ten months and a world of hard work later, and there we were, holding in our hands the very first copy of The Blue Feather Escape. I don't have anything else to say except it is true, in Isaiah 55:8, when God says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways."

   In the end, His way is so much better!