Our Story Begins
The letters hurried to
get in line, to make sense of what they were all about. Author Dad’s mind unscrambled
itself to bring their thoughts to the front. One letter nudged another as
confusion took over for a moment. Miss Question Mark said, “Hey, don’t you know
“i” comes before “e” except after “c”? We have to make sense when we get ready
for the world to read us.”
Little Comma paused and
asked, what is the world? His big sister, Question Mark, answered. “The world
is where we go when we leave Dad’s brain, you know, where he creates us. We do
not have to be afraid. Dad is careful where he sends us in the world. We are to
go to a special place. It’s a place that already loves us.”
Comma sat still and
didn’t say a word for a moment. His tail curled, and he smiled. When he was
about to burst his exclamation point, he asked his sister, Question, where is
this special place? Question answered, “Dad found us a home called, InScribe
Christian Writers’ Fellowship.”
The news about InScribe
traveled fast. One little letter exclaimed, “I’m so excited I could p!” All the
other letters scurried to get together and before they knew it, there was a run
-on sentence and things were getting crazy and brother Quotation Marks couldn’t
figure out who said what and finally yelled, “Dad, we need your help!”
Author Dad woke up from
his daydream, shook his head, and took a deep breath. “Okay everyone, InScribe
is expecting us and I want you all to behave.” We can find a home with InScribe
Christian Writers’ Fellowship. They are a group where all letters and quotation
marks matter. We can find our way into the world with InScribe’s help.
The stories, poems.
Blog posts and other masterpieces sensed each other’s built up enthusiasm. Dad
proofread and finished his final preparation as he readied himself. Before he
sent his first words, an InScribe Blog post, to meet the InScribe family, he
took another deep breath and pressed “publish.” All the letters, words,
sentences, and paragraphs of the Blog post shouted, “Let’s do this!” With a
prayer to God, Dad said, please God, bless our new family and help us fit in.
Our Story
Continues
The above brief story
is my tribute to our InScribe family. In all honesty, I love this group. From
my membership welcome letter of November 2014, from Ruth, to today, I have
always sensed a kinship with the group.
I began to post on our
InScribe Blog on a regular basis in February 2015. I cannot recall the theme,
but I called the post, “Reflections of An Adult Orphan.” This message was an
homage to my parents. In this post I stated
Many times, when I am writing, I sense closeness to my
parents. This prompts a longing in me to see them again. As an adult orphan who
is attempting to be a writer, I try to honour my parents through a sense of
vulnerability, transparency, and stark truth. This evokes a deep joy within me,
for I know my parents would be proud of each word I write.
Feb. 2021 will mark my
sixth year of monthly posts for our Blog. I still hold to “a sense of vulnerability,
transparency, and stark truth,” as I write. Thank you, my InScribe family of
writers, for the encouragement you have given me through the years.
Alan lives in Deroche, B.C. with his wife, Terry. He
contributed stories to Good Grief People by Angel Hope Publishing, 2017 and
Story by Story: The Power of a Writer, Unstoppable Writers Publishing, 2018.
Alan has also written articles for FellowScript Magazine. Blog:
https://scarredjoy.ca. Alan is the Provincial Rep. Liaison and BC Rep for InScribe.
I'm so glad Author Dad found Inscribe as a place for his behaving letters and punctuation marks!
ReplyDeleteHi Lynn! Thank you for the words of encouragement. I am happy they have all behaved themselves as part of the Inscribe family. They are fun most of the time but okayshunally git owtt uv hhandd.
DeleteI love how you've personified punctuation and letters! This could easily be adapted to a children's storybook with illustrations. Well done, Author Dad!
ReplyDeleteHi Valerie. Thank you for the compliment about adapting the post for children. I admit they can indeed act like children at times. Oh well, this keeps me young at heart as well. :)
DeleteI LOVE THIS!!!! (Yes, I'm yelling in excitement!) How clever, and in the end what a lovely tribute. I can hardly believe it's been six yers already. My, how time flies. It has been good to get to know you through your writing.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU TRACY!!! (I get excited now and then as well.) :) Time flies, indeed, and these crazy letters and quotation marks keep me on my toes. I enjoyed writing this post. I decided, or I should say, "we" decided to show a fun side of being part of a wonderful and fun group of people. Thank you, Tracy, for giving me my start in writing with our InScribe family.
DeleteI love how God, our Father, has placed so many gifted, unique individuals in InScribe! Well done with your letters, Alan. I'm glad you are part of the family :)
ReplyDeleteHi Ruth. I'll never forget when you welcomed me into the Inscribe with your welcome letter.
Delete, Alan. Thank you for organizing your whole word family for this very enjoyable post.
ReplyDeleteHi Joy! Once they settled down and took a collective deep breath, we were ready to go. They did well. :) Thank you for your encouragement.
DeleteWhat a lot of creative energy and ingenuity you’ve packed into this blog about how you appreciate InScribe. You've chosen a good home for your family of letters and punctuation marks. Thanks, Alan, for regularly gathering up your ideas, lining them up and sending them to us.
ReplyDeleteHi Sharon! I wanted to plat around a bit with this post. I had fun writing it and glad you enjoyed it. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is fun and insightful Alan - your ability to be "vulnerable" and "strong-wise" at the same time comes through too. I like it. AND the photo at the end of the post works really well - great portrait of an artist-writer. Hard to imagine your parents not being Very Proud.
ReplyDeleteHi Dayna! Thank you for the compliments and encouragement. I had to grow in confidence to write and still work at knowing people may enjoy my writing. I appreciate your mention of my photo as well. :)
DeleteThis was so fun! Thank you Alan! I’m thankful for our InScribe home too where we are loved - and also to Dad for finding a home for us!
ReplyDeletePam M.