A friend of mine wrote an inspirational article about living in the moment – being aware of what is going on around me, not living in the past or borrowing from the future. Scripture tells us that “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” In other words, Keep your mind on what you are doing! Good advice, all of it. I’m trying to do that. But, for a writer of cozy mysteries, sometimes that can be hard.
After completing Moonlight Can Be Murder, I have been going back through, tightening it, checking for errors, re-reading and, in part, re-writing. I have been living in Ednalee, Oklahoma, in the mind of Nettie Elizabeth Duncan McNeil. And, I got stuck there. That is, yesterday I was not always “in the moment.” For example, I went to exercise class at 11:15, forgetting that they closed at 11:00 on Saturdays. Deciding to buy a few groceries, I tried to pull out the grocery cart, but it was stuck so securely to the ones in front, I couldn’t budge it. After someone took pity and yanked out a free one, I nearly ran into a lady in the aisle of the store. However, we did have a nice conversation about cats. Back at home, I decided to bake some cookies. Using the butter wrapper, I buttered the cookie sheet. Therefore, my usually rounded chocolate chip cookies, sort of melted a bit. But, that’s OK. They are still tasty.
Dare I set foot out of the house today? Dare I go to church, to Sunday School? Is my mind fully functional in the here and now, or is it still stuck in Ednalee? It’s bad when an author is taken over by her character. So, I’ll breathe deeply, drink another cup of Folger’s, and remind myself that I must live in the moment – not Nettie Elizabeth Duncan McNeil’s moment, but my own!
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