This is what I'm doing now:

I'm selecting pictures drawn by Verne Lindner ~ the very wonderful illustrator of The Ruby Books ~ and giving you a peek into them... from the writer's p.o.v. 

You see, in this picture Pearl (green dress) knows what her Thing in life is.  It's singing.  Ruby (red dress) doesn’t know what her Thing in life is.  She’s searching.  She’s open to finding it.  Very.

Right now Ruby and Pearl are on a spacecraft ~ The Friendship ~ that is taking them to Earth.  On Earth you can learn about your Thing.

This idea of finding one's Thing made its way into my story because when I was in my 20’s (when I began writing this story) I wished that I knew what my Thing was.  I wanted to find it and get on with the business of doing it so I could live happily ever after.  I believed that doing your Thing full-out was the secret to happiness.

I’m not in my 20’s anymore.  I’m in my 40’s.  And I still believe that doing your Thing full-out is the secret to happiness.  Lucky for me because that belief had me stick with the search for my Thing… and I have found it!

I always kind of knew that it was writing.  But writing WHAT exactly?  And writing FOR WHOM exactly?  It took a while, but I've got it.  It's writing that encourages and inspires and teaches young writers to write… so that they might connect with and play with and practice with their writing Thing so it can grow strong and be there for them.

Writing Things, I have found, require that.

Because I love writing and I love young people... and the inspiration that goes along with both of them as I do, I'm pretty psyched to find that this is my Thing. 

Ok.  There you have it.  That's the peek into that pic.  Thanks for looking into it with me :).

And, please, stay tuned for how RealizeWhatMatters.org is becoming TheRubyBooks.org and how it's going to inspire such goodness from our girls… it’s all in the works right now!

Yeah, it's a very good Thing!

:)

Jeanne