cover art {rachel}

it's seven days from the beginning.

seven days until my life turns into words and clicking laptop keys and late nights where i see sunsets and sunrises before my eyes ever close in slumber.

seven days until my husband begins his understanding meal plan of mac-'n'-cheese and tuna helper.

seven days until Ali and i launch upon this glorious adventure of thirty days and fifty thousand words.

today was another day of prep. a day of pouring over photos and character names. of creating cover art for my novel.

it's freeing for me to see the cover of the book i will soon be composing. it's a sign that there is some sort of structure. a plan for its creation.

currently, i have four covers. i'm not sure which one i will be choosing.

would you care to aid me in my decision? 

each one is a fragment. a corner of the story yet to be told, but that i can see so well in the corner of my novelist's mind.

seven days until the curtain opens.

and i feel ready. if only just a little.

-blessings abound,

rachel

down the aisle

for those of you who did not already know,

our beautiful Ali is now a wife. 

on october 16th {sunday}, ali and zach became man and wife. 

the wedding was beautiful. 

perfect. 

i can hardly begin to describe it to you all. 

it was the most romantic, simple, blissful wedding i have ever seen in my entire life. 

i was honoured beyond measure to have been a part of this day. 

a few notes from ali that she asked me to share with all of you:

• she and her new husband, Zach, will be on their honeymoon from sunday night until sometime next week. she will be back to posting -- both here and at her personal blog -- and commenting when she comes home. 

• she loves you all so very much, and so appreciates your support and words of love and encouragement leading up to this day.

• wedding pictures will slowly begin to trickle onto her blog, my blog, and this blog in the near future, so please keep your eyes open. 

ali has been so blessed by each and every one of you as she begins her life with her new husband. 

thank you from the depths of her heart...

...and from mine. 

blessings abound,

rachel

the maid of honour 

fascination

{via pinterest}

i've said it here already.

but i'm drawn to eyes.

and now as nanowrimo draws closer, i am getting more and more captivated by those little things that stare and pull and tug at my ink-blotched heart.

i find myself running my fingers over the worn wood of doors, searching for the stories in these portals. do you know? does anyone know what happened behind these entryways? loves lost, heart proclaimed, lives taken away.

and there there are the innocents. 

spoons and eggs and all those little things that are too much overlooked and not enough dwelt upon. their sacred appeal is lost in the shuffle.

and we start to write in twenty-seven days.

this countdown is getting shorter

but my list of fascinations are getting longer and longer.

i like that.

{via pinterest}

so i ask you.

what things captivate? fascinate? entrance?

share with me. 

-blessings abound,

rachel

{on an unrelated note: our beautiful Ali is getting married in two weeks. won't you join with me in wishing her and her handsome groom well? look for more wedding posts from us both in coming days, both here and at our respective locations}

composer

i’m a novelist.

it’s one of those things that slightly mandates my life, particularly during the month of November.

November is National Novel Writing Month. affectionately known to the writer world as the start of nanowrimo.

it is during this month that i and hundreds of other insane authours will embark upon one of the most incredible and frightening endeavours of our lifetimes.

50,000 words. 30 days. innumerable cups of coffee, endless playlists of Imogene Heap and Alex Goot, and a straight month of kissing midnight. 

one incredible novel.

or perhaps a collection of 50,000 words of ramble. it depends on how much sleep we get.

it’s this music we compose.

{won't you join me here for the rest?}

blessings abound

-rachel

eyes

i have an obsession with my character's eyes.

actually, i'm obsessed with eyes in general. maybe it has something to do with the spiritual connotation found behind these rich pools of ocular beauty.

the eye is the lamp of the body

it's true, though. so much can be spoken through a simple glance. a moment spent gazed into another's eyes can be enough to pass along an entire conversation and more left unspoken. 

eyes are mirrors of the heart. 

and when it comes to my characters within those stories so close to my heart, i cannot be pulled away.

what hides behind them? what isn't being said? or what is being said so much louder than the tongue can convey? 

i have spent hours studying photos of eyes. reading their stories. 

eyes are books. pages of novels. 

i want to know. 

i want to see and read their hearts through these minuscule portals that i am allowed on this earth. 

maybe this makes me odd or strange or completely irrational. i would not be insulted if you said so, as the greatest of writers have been deemed strange. 

so strange is a good thing.

and i'm rambling. 

but that's okay. right? 

just let me see my characters' eyes. and i can try

and tell you their story. 

~blessings abound,

rachel 

ink dreams

via Pintrest

part of my novel came to me in my sleep last night.

rather, it was in that half-wakeful, half-dozing state that brings one to a place of reality and dreams unlike any other.

it was strange. i could hear the voice of my heroine. see the circumstances in her life...bits and pieces of them, anyway. i even heard portions of the prose itself narrated in my head in some unknown tone.

and then i awoke. 

and had forgotten most, if not all. 

i should have sat up and penned it all down. i now feel like something has been lost...like something is missing from within my soul.

this feeling of the forgotten

it is almost painful to my writer's heart. 

but in other respects, it is reassuring to me, as well.

i now know my characters live. my words breathe within me, and i can feel their life starting to surge in my blood.

i can still hear my heroine's voice in my ear, urging me forward.

i know i have something to give. something to write.

and in two months time, it will all begin.

and i will outline and plan and write down my scrappy thoughts

until the magic happens

soon. 

~blessings abound,

rachel

pinspired

found on Pintrest
a piece of my story

i have a pintrest addiction.

it's becoming more and more obvious with every passing day. there is just something so brilliantly inspiring about perusing page upon page of beautiful photographs

categorizing them

listing them.

it's the place that my artistic side and my OCD side get together for a playdate.

i have followed the example of several of my friends and begun the process of putting together a nanowrimo pinboard. 


it's starting to come together, i think. or maybe not.

see, i have a fairly cohesive concept for the story i'm going to compose. however, these pictures are starting to go in a slightly different direction than i originally envisioned. it's starting to challenge me a bit.

it's as if the story is saying

change with me

let me move

let me breathe.

found on Pintrest
a piece of my story

maybe i need to loosen my ideas a bit. maybe i need to let my story tell itself the way it wants to be told. maybe i need to become more pinspired, and less boxed in. 

i'm seeing colours. themes. locations and ideas. i'm seeing more and more of less and less. 

so i am going to pin away

and let my story breathe

and take me along

for the adventure of a lifetime.

~blessings abound,

rachel