Recharging

As you read this, I’m traveling to North Carolina to meet up with my best friend. She’s my person. One of the few in this world who truly “get me.” Someone I can be 100% myself with at all times. We’ve laughed, cried, worried, prayed, parented, and traveled together. For the next four days, being with her will recharge me. Without fail, being with this friend provides a unique opportunity for me to regroup, breathe deep, and return home refreshed.

It doesn’t hurt that she lives in the exact area of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains that inspires much of my writing. Laurel Cove, the fictional town in my first novel, is inspired in part by Burnsville, the town in which my friend was born and raised. Now just a short few miles down the two lane highway, my friend lives amongst a tall dense forest, in view of a picturesque mountain lake. The refreshing, cool summer breezes are matched only by the subtle sweet scent of wildflowers and pine. It’s a slower pace at mom-and-pop cafes, roadside antique stores, and porch wind chimes. Only the rhythm of cloggers at summer festivals on the Parkway call a tap to your toes.

Doesn’t it sound enchanting? Trust me, it is.

I hope to get some great photos to share with you on this place that has soaked into my creativity and fed countless stories into my mind like the cold mountain springs. Stay tuned…while I’m away recharging.

WHAT I’M CELEBRATING:

I am so grateful and excited to tell you that my not-yet published novel, Someplace Familiar, has placed 3rd in the Short Romance Category in the Touched By Love Award Contest, announced last night at the Faith Hope and Love Award Ceremony at the Romance Writers of America Conference taking place in San Diego! What a thrill!

WHERE I’M WRITING:

Look for my guest post on learning from a child today over at Jennifer Slattery’s blog, Lives Out Loud. My daughter taught me something pretty special recently about being a child of God.