If you needed to sequester yourself away to finish writing a book, where would you go?
5 Thoughts I'm Having
Spring is coming. We got hints of it this past week, which filled me with joy. Then, today, I woke up to 19 degrees Fahrenheit. But… spring is coming.
I’m contemplating getting away for a few weeks after a busy tax season to finish my book. (Though what defines my tax season just changed a bit—see below.) You all know that one of my big goals for 2025 is to finish the fourth book in the Paynes Creek series. I’ve said this before: A lot has been happening in my and Mike’s lives the last couple of months. But some of that seems to be calming as I write this. Have you ever felt you just can’t get some time to yourself to concentrate on that one thing you really crave time with? Well, I’m working on the time frame and the place that would give me exactly that. Whether it be one of my happy places (Oregon coast, Italy, or some other quaint spot with the atmosphere to help me temporarily leave behind some of the stresses of my life and escape into the story), I’m seriously considering it. If you have suggestions of a place I need to visit for two to three weeks, leave those in the comments. I require a place where I can walk a lot and has a few local restaurants and at least one coffee shop.
In January I started a new bullet journal. I basically keep two journals: One for jotting down notes as I work the CPA job and a second one for everything else in my life. I use it as a calendar, a place to keep to-do lists, a true journal, and a place to keep record of anything and everything I wish to make note of day-to-day. Back in January, I made a list of all 50 states. I highlighted the ones I’d already visited and starred the ones Mike still needs to visit. He only has 6 states left to visit. I have 20. If you see your state on the above list, do me a favor, tell me in the comments what I must do in that state and what town I must stay in. Bonus points if you have a quaint small town I should visit for a few weeks while I finish a Paynes Creek thriller this spring.
The April 15th tax deadline took a bit of a turn this week when the IRS announced that because the entire state of Kentucky was covered by a federally declared disaster area, the majority of tax deadlines for Kentuckians would be postponed to November 3rd without even needing extensions. If you live in Kentucky, look this up or talk to your tax preparer about what it means for you. I’m still trying to grasp what it means for me and my clients. It could mean the longest tax season ever, similar to 2020. But I sure hope it doesn’t feel like that.
I tend to collect nonfiction books that I read from in slow motion. Yesterday, I picked up Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave by Ryan Holiday. Here’s an excerpt that I’ve been mediating on:
Do you know what the most repeated phrase in the Bible is? It’s “Be not afraid.” Over and over again these words appear, a warning from on high not to let phantasiai rule the day.
“Be strong and of good courage,” we hear in the book of Joshua, “do to be afraid nor be dismayed.” In Deuteronomy, “When though goest out to battle against thine enemies, and sees horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them.” In Proverbs, “Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.” In Deuteronomy, again, echoing the book of Joshua, Moses calls to Joshua and sends him to Israel. “Be strong and courageous,” he says to him, “for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance… Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
The Stoics, the Christians—they didn’t fault anyone for having an emotional reaction. They only cared what you did after the shine of that feeling wore off.
“Be scared. You can’t help that,” William Faulkner put it. “But don’t be afraid.”
It’s an essential distinction. A scare is a temporary rush of a feeling. That can be forgiven. Fear is a state of being, and to allow it to rule is a disgrace.
One helps you—makes you alert, wakes you up, informs you of danger. The other drags you down, weakens you, even paralyzes you.
In an uncertain world, in a time of vexing, complicated problems, fear is a liability. Fear holds you back.
It’s okay to be scared. Who wouldn’t be? It’s not okay to let that stop you.
I’ve been watching Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix this week. It’s well done for the type of television it is—a dramatization of the lives of people who were caught up in the life of con artist Belle Gibson. The series is very similar to the story of Elizabeth Holmes, if you followed that one or watched the series that told that story. However, it’s becoming more and more difficult for me to watch television like this based on the real lives of people, especially when it is the clear display of mental illness of a real individual and based on childhood trauma. This is not to say that Belle Gibson didn’t con a lot of people and most likely cost some of those people their lives. She preyed on their deep need for hope. I tell myself that it’s an excellent study of character for future fictional stories, but I always feel just a little bit icky at the exploitive nature of this type of television. And to add even more to the ickiness, I watched the 60 Minutes Australia interview with Belle Gibson. I found myself angry at all the people who let Belle down. Have you watched either of these? What are your thoughts?
Hope you all are well.
Until next time,
Heather
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Thanks for reading. This newsletter is a consistently inconsistent publication of my thoughts, though I’ve vowed to be more consistent in 2025. You can find more of my shorter thoughts and links to things I’m reading in my Notes.
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The rotunda was in the state capital in Salt Lake city. But kinda on the outskirts of the city.
Montana is the best place we ever visited. Glacier was the last stop on our Rails/trails trip about 8 years ago. We could have stayed there the whole time. We started in Indiana, where we were living at the time.
Took the train from Chicago to Salt Lake City. A beautiful city in the middle of nowhere. If you go be sure to see all the sites downtown. There is a beautiful rotunda in the city or county hall. Murals everywhere and marble pillars that are interesting to try to see pictures in them.
The beehive? I believe is a great restaurant downtown. There are lots of tours throughout the downtown of Joseph Smith’s residences and various wives.
We also went to Jackson hole, very small but beautiful. No more than one day can cover it all unless you golf.
Grand Teton I believe national park is beautiful.there is a wonderful view from the restaurant there. A stop at Jenny Lake allows you a wonderful view of the mountains in the background. I don’t remember for certain the order we went other than Yellowstone and then Glacier. If you take your passport you can go to the peace park just across the border in Canada. We could have gone, but the tour bus we were on was restricted on time. That was from a gift shop that was not at Glacier but very close. You could walk out to the glaciers in designated areas
So just saying you might find a package deal where you could see all those in a couple days. It was very relaxing for us because we didn’t have to worry about where we would sleep or eat. No rental cars. That was a package your we took with AmTrack. After we got to Salt Lake City we were on a your bus. From Glacier back on the train to Chicago. We probably did go through north and South Dakota on the way back. But we did not have any stops there. Sorry really long winded.