Catching Up With Stella...

When I first started talking about taking Stella Madison along on this trip, it was sort of a tongue-in-cheek way of explaining that I would have to bring one of my “works in progress” with me in order to keep up with my writing schedule. This because our plans of going up and back to Alaska one summer, stretched into two years. Little did we know the Glory B was about as unprepared for such an enormous undertaking as we were.

Like us, she had been sitting in one place too long. The stresses and strains on moving parts that had not moved in years, brought a lot of things to the breaking point. But she was the perfect boat for us, we loved her, and it was no small thing that God had brought her to us in such a miraculous way*. So—as is the case in similar situations—we kept fixing things, and fixing things, in order to just carry on. Most of our money went in that direction, too. Because when you love something, it doesn't matter so much what it costs, you simply don't want to lose it.

Not to mention, there was a dream attached to the Glory B that we might experience something of a resurrection, ourselves. One that would allow us to fulfill some “divine assignment” the Lord was still holding open for us. If only we were brave enough to step out, and fully put our trust in Him. There was a lot at stake. And the harder we worked at it, the more valuable the whole idea became. So—necessity being the mother of invention—I came up with an interesting (I thought) way of breaking an entire novel into parts, and literally “living out” the background and research as I went along. It would be fun. And just as much fun (I hoped) for readers to share in those experiences along the way.

I was going to mingle some truth with my fiction. Goodness—had that ever been done before? Yes. Of course it had. About as much as when I thought I had personally invented the genre of Inspirational Adventure Fiction, before I realized how many other authors had been turning out similar stuff for years. Anyway, it was new to me. What I had no idea of (or I would have thought twice about attempting such a thing), was that there are many worlds other than our own individual spheres, co-existing all around us. Which is fine if you stay where you belong, and don't make any unnecessary waves in the great sea of shared atmosphere we all live in. However, if you do...

You sometimes get a reaction similar to splitting an atom.

At least, that's my theory for why things began happening to us that were way off our charts. In bunches. As if we had unknowingly stepped out from under our umbrella and got drenched beneath some deluge we didn't even realize was going on out there. It reminded me of that old movie, Back To The Future, when the Delorean reached enough speed to intersect with enough electricity to crack the time barrier. What in the world had just happened to us? More importantly... where had we ended up?

It was a lovely little cove where I had just about finished with my next Stella Madison Caper. I was getting ready to head over to the local library and put the finishing touches on, connect up to Internet, and send it safely to myself until publishing day. I climbed into the dinghy and sat down (as I have hundreds of times over the last two years), and was waiting for the Captain to hand over the things we were taking with us before he got in. All of a sudden, I was in the water. The dinghy had tipped, as if by some giant hand (we weren't even in rough water), and I rolled out like a fried egg being slid out of a pan.

Oddly enough, the water (which is supposed to be frigid in these northern latitudes) was not cold. And I remember thinking I had forgotten how wonderful it felt to swim in salt water. But then the Captain, who was now leaning over from the deck of the Glory B, said, “The briefcase—get the briefcase!” At which point I realized it was floating right next to me, having flown off the deck of the bigger boat at the very same time. I grabbed hold and handed it up. But even though it had been in the water less than a minute, my computer, my smart-phone, passport and other important papers, were all drenched. And while the passport and papers eventually dried out, all those state-of-the-art electronics were never to rise, again.

Which is why we are halfway through this journey, and you haven't seen any videos, yet. It is also why I had to write that Stella Madison Caper over, again, from scratch, with the help of the Captain's little Dell mini, and an old fashioned notebook and pen (during the times we were without power). However, the worst part of all was the discovery that Apple Care (which I switched over to specifically for this trip, in case I ran into any problems) does not cover accidents. Why didn't I know that? Let's just say I come from a different era, when the word insurance meant it covered everything except an act of God. So, all that new equipment my wonderful husband sold his last truck to get me, was not only gone, it was good and gone. A sobering thought that took days for the shock to wear off, even to sink in.

Meanwhile, we were being stretched at every turn, physically, mentally, spiritually, and monetarily. Not only that, we seemed stuck in place like a perpetual rerun of the movie, Ground Hog Day, as week after week continued to pass by. And I don't mind saying I was even beginning to have some hesitations at writing the next Stella Madison Caper, too. Because I suddenly didn't like the name of it one bit. Lost In The Wilderness. If the cover hadn't been done, already, I'd have changed it. Which was probably just a result of having to travel past places with map names like Raging Rapids, Whirlpool Rapids, and Desolation Sound. But I still felt that way.

So, have we caught up with Stella? Let's just say we are perfectly in-sync at the moment, as both of us travel the same territory on our respective paths. The PushoverPlot is about maneuvering one's way past the darker side of supernatural. Whether, or not, we have actually “converged”...

I will leave for readers to decide.

* The miraculous story of how we got the Glory B is in the ebook 21 Stories of Faith—which is FREE TODAY over at Amazon. It will cheer you up in 21 different ways!