My Blogless Summer

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By Victoria Buck

After eighteen months of blogging weekly, I knew it was time for a respite. I needed to promote the release of my second novel. A novelette begged to be finished. I’d signed the contract for my third novel, and a fourth collection of characters and plots had settled into my imagination. So I felt I needed a break from the blog. A fiction break.

I mean, what could happen over one summer that would make writing about reality more interesting than making up stuff? Of course, my blogless summer was quickly overstocked with reality–the kind that fuels commentary, journalism, and blogs.

So I figured when my Mom went home after her three-week visit from three thousand miles away that maybe I’d break my blog fast. But four days before she was set to fly home, she fell and broke her hip. Of course, her care is my priority now. Before God made me a writer, He made me a daughter. So for now, my blog break continues. I probably won’t finish that novelette either–at least not for a few more weeks. The Kindle is out for novel number two–Killswitch–and the softcover will release September first. By then, I hope I’ll be back to blogging weekly. I’ll try to encourage readers who are left wondering if there’s any good left in this world. I’ll try to calm fear and give hope. To share the Good News. To remind my fellow believers that we are not of this world–this broken, scary, downward-spiraling world. That’s my goal as a blogger.

By late summer, I’ll catch up on my fiction projects, which are mostly about the broken, scary world and the unsettling possibilities of the future. Even writing speculative fiction, I hope to offer encouragement. The gift of writing–the talent and tenacity–is not limited to the faithful. The study and struggle, failure and success is common to all who take writing seriously. But we who follow Christ must add His truth to our fiction and His mission to our imaginations. In this, our calling becomes so much more. We are set apart, not by what makes us write, but by the One Who makes us writers.

For the next few weeks, I’ll trust the fiction simmering in my head will only get better because of the delay. I won’t blog, even though subject matter is plentiful. But I decided to sit down and write this blog, even though I missed my deadline. And it felt really good to spend the morning writing before I go to the rehab center for an afternoon with Mom. And with the nurses and therapists and other residents. God put us in this place–my mom and me–and my blogless summer will be spent following Christ, being an encourager. I will, of course, file certain occurrences, conversations, and personalities for future use in blogs and stories. After all, I am a writer.

Victoria BuckVictoria Buck is a lifelong resident of Central Florida. She clings to the Gospel, serves in the local church, relishes time spent writing, and curiously contemplates the future. Her novels, Wake the Dead and Killswitch are available from Harbourlight Books, Pelican Book Group.

Comments 0

  1. There are times when we just need to give our body and our mind rest. 🙂 Praying for you and your Mom.

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