Life, Family, Lockdown

Update.

The last few months have been interesting. I finished writing two books (simultaneously) while working full time (and overtime! With no extra pay 😦 ) and stashing in some intense editing, too.

On the home front, I decided to get my hands dirty by growing a garden again. I finally got lettuce seeds to germinate under the cool mid-May weather… after the third try. Phew. Try balancing a lot of light versus cool weather. That really doesn’t work well in Accra. You usually get plenty of heat with the light. We (my sister is finally a garden enthusiast) kept moving the nursing trays from the dining hall table, to the shelf, to the verandah- all depending on the weather that day. It’s certainly paying off. I safely transplanted the fourth tray of lettuce plants. The peppers are hustlers. They don’t care about the weather, just growing nicely and obediently. So also the marigolds. I picked them out because I remembered how vivid they make everything look, and back in Jos, Nigeria, I heard they drive away snakes.

Speaking of snakes. I turned my head one morning (working at home, of course) and there was a lanky snake staring at me. Well, I think it was me because I was the only one there. It “ran” into my bedroom and the long and short of it is that the entire day turned into how to fish out this one vile reptile. And I was the only one who had seen it. By the time the room was turned down and out, from top to bottom, I am sure some of the men we called in from the construction site near by thought that this babe might have dreamt it all.

But my brother found it. I had called him earlier and told him I was coming to pick him up from work and he needed to come home because there was no way I was going to deal with a snake. It was too much. I saw it at about 11am. It got killed at about 4:30pm. Guess where we found it? Coiled around the burglar proof getting a nice tan. At 10pm, after eating (only meal of the day) and putting the bedroom back in order, I sat down again at my laptop to catch up on work. Life goes on, right? Plus, I had to move my mattress out of the room because of the fumes from the fumigation we had done when trying to kill it. For three days, I was camping in the living room until my mum said, “I see you are really enjoying sleeping here”, code for “isn’t it time to move back to your room?”

So, why did I stop the short story series after promises of posting every Friday? First of all, here is a categorical “sorry!” for any disappointment and not sticking to my intentions. I plan not to box myself in like that again. Life simply got in the way, plus the story took on a life of its own. Let’s just say, it will evolve into my first ever short story and I’ll put it up on Kindle. (Have you read at least one of my novels yet?) And truly, writing can sometimes be mundane. All this talk that good writing is discipline plus talent, don’t wait for inspiration, all that. Well, it’s very true, but sometimes, your characters just refuse to budge. They stubbornly refuse to do anything and you need to wait and then suddenly, the x factor comes in. The waiting is sometimes necessary, honestly. Creativity can be summoned, but it can never be boxed in. For instance, I just finished reading Catherine Marshall’s “Julie” for maybe the fifth time and it felt as if I was reading it for the first time. Do you know how long it took the author to complete it? Seven years. I say it all depends on the story. And life.

Life. Birthdays, family, lockdown. Miracles and the abundant grace of Jesus in these times. Who says staying at home guarantees safety? That is only found in Christ. I could go on but here (this post) is what I hope is a “come back”.

Let me know how you are doing.