A Little Note

And an update on my literary endeavors...

Hello! It isn’t looking like Spring just yet where I am, but the anticipation of a new season is palpable in the longer days, the sprouted seeds we started in little pots in our school room, and the ice melting off the lake by our house. I thought I’d also welcome the new season by sending out a little update of my writing doings. If you’re new here, welcome!

The dill from last year’s garden is just as lovely in the snow.

I have used these snowy days well, finishing the editing for my middle grade trilogy novels The Mountain’s Hope-Bearer and The Mountain’s Healer. I am now working my way back through The Mountain’s Sacrifice. Making major renovations to an almost 100,000-word work is no joke. When they say that the work of writing is revising, they aren’t kidding. I am hoping to have the edits done by June 1st to resubmit them to the publisher I am working with.

In other writing news, SGD Morgan shared my poem Contours on his podcast Bammerhab. Give it a listen HERE. Bammerhab is my favorite podcast and explores the etymology and meaning of words from the Word. You can listen to Bammerhab on any podcast platform. Just search Bammerhab, episode 49, Persecution.

The Clayjar Review accepted my article, entitled Catching Silence, for the May issue of their publication. Their theme is Silence, and I was honored that they chose my reflections on grandmothers, the Dakota language, love, and true meaning to share with their audience.

StoryWarren published my essay on imagination and creativity, inspired by an echo and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Do you have Echoability? Find out HERE.

I entered an essay in Inkwell‘s first writing competition, and if it isn’t selected, I will still feel like a winner just for having written something difficult and personal. Their theme was the agony and ecstasy of writing, and I wrote about my son’s inability to communicate until an older age and the word that began his foray into language.

Since it is the trend now to say something about AI, none of my writing process involves the use of artificial intelligence. You only get real, human intelligence here, as flawed or limited as it may be, and I only use my own photography and images to accompany my work on my pages.

You can find my weekly articles for the Devils Lake Journal right here on Substack, or alternately, on my website. Thank you for reading along and for the encouraging notes and messages that you send. I am so thankful for each of you.

I just finished reading Amy Coney Barrett’s Listening to the Law. Though a little dry at times, it was an insightful explainer of the inner workings of the Supreme Court and originalism. Since the New Year, I have also really enjoyed James Rebanks’s The Place of Tides, David McCullough’s History Matters, and Eleanor Parker’s Conquered: The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England. What have you enjoyed reading recently?

As I plan my garden and my summer ministry, I find myself meditating on Paul’s assertion that “it is God who gives the growth.” I am praying that Jesus will grow me this spring and that He uses my words to help you grow too.

Love Much,

Sarah