Adventures Over the Rain Forest

By C. Lynn Beck
© 2008

CeeLynn tightened the harness to her parachute. A feeling akin to tiny kangaroos bouncing back and forth churned in her stomach, and excitement caused her fingertips to tingle. She wasn't afraid—not a whit. Jumping from an airplane and floating over the top of the rain forest was exhilarating ... adrenaline spiking ... and technically speaking (in case the IRS was reading), research for her upcoming novel.

She stood in the open doorway of the plane and gazed at the blue horizon, where the curvature of the earth arched with the grace of an angel's halo. The sight was so achingly beautiful that for a second, she wondered if she would become an angel when she stepped out the door.

One.

Two.

Three!

"I love being a writer!" she yelled, as she stepped out into nothingness. . . .

Or maybe she yelled "Geronimo." In my writer's fantasy, the wind was whipping past my ears so fast that I couldn't quite tell what she said as we both plummeted to the earth.

Speaking of fantasies, if you haven't figured it out already, a writer's life is not at all like that. Well, not for most of us, anyway. Case in point—the other day I posted a blog for YourLDSNeighborhood.com. It was one that I'd carefully crafted and painstakingly proofed. The link for it went live on Thursday.

The blog disappeared on Friday.

No, I'm not making this up. When that happened, I neither yelled, "I love being a writer," nor "Geronimo." I think what I yelled was more like "Oh, crap!" Then I tried circumventing computer logs, programs, and servers for hours in hopes of bringing that blog back—hours that would have been far better spent writing about CeeLynn and her adventures in the rain forest.

Ah, yes. That is the life of a writer. Not only must we write, but we must also navigate the World Wide Web, build websites and blog pages, and function as a jack-of-all-trades. Sometimes it's frustrating. However, we can't let that stop us. We need to remind ourselves that when we're rich and famous, we can hire someone to take care of the idiot computer and navigate the spidery Web.

In the end, my writer's ingenuity saved the day. In a flash of brilliance (you'll notice I use sarcasm in my writings), I re-posted the blog. Thank goodness for a techie who was around during the weekend and re-linked it.

So, dear reader, I'm hoping that aside from enjoying today's blog, you'll also notice it was a tactful way of announcing that I'm blogging for YourLDSNeighborhood.com. Well, okay, it was supposed to be tactful!

If you'd like to see what the lost blog was about, and whether it was worth all the time I spent trying to retrieve it, you'll find the link for it at YourLDSNeighborhood.com. Click on the building on the right side that's titled "LDS Outlet Stores" and scroll through the block until you find "The Newsstand." My blog link is titled, "What if it's Boring?"

Hope you enjoy it. Drop off a comment and let me know if you think the blog was worth all that work, or if I should have spent my time on CeeLynn and the blood-sucking leeches she encountered (human and otherwise), instead. And while you're there, take a gander at all the cool products and services at YourLDSNeighborhood.com.

C. Lynn’s other work:
Cup of Comfort for Horse Lovers, "Horse on Lap"
Life is Like Riding a Unicycle by Shirley Bahlmann, "Priming the Pump, pg. 79
Newspaper Column
Ensign Magazine, Dec 2007-Q&A
2007 League of Utah Writer's Award-Historical Fiction
Website

What books C. Lynn recommends:
You Know You're a Writer When ... by Adair Lara
The Writer's Book of Hope by Ralph Keyes
Publishing Secrets by LDS Storymakers (BJ Rowley and others)