One Late Bloomer Finds Her Season by Brenda Leyland

“Everything on earth has its own time and its own season.”

ECCLESIASTES 3:1

I must tell you about the bright yellow rudbeckia flowers, familiarly known as black-eyed-susans, that grow in my garden every summer. This perennial plant pokes its green shoots through sun-warmed soil early in spring, but unlike tulips or daffodils, who waste no time sending out their flower buds, the rudbeckia unhurriedly spends spring and summer developing sturdy stems and masses of glossy leaves, with nary a blossom in sight. Then in early August -- when peonies, lilacs and Siberian irises are history -- the rudbeckia takes centre stage and bursts into flamboyant blossom and continues to bloom until the frost comes.

Like my Rudbeckia, I am a late-in-the-season bloomer. Many of my friends and classmates after high school and college sprinted out of life's starting gate and got on with their lives -- finding mates, getting married, having kids, being homemakers, starting careers. It was my most cherished dream too, but I was in my forties before I met the wonderful man I would marry. And I was well past the fresh flush of youth before I ever dreamed of writing or attending my first writers' event. Beginning to recognize I was forever composing sentences and opening paragraphs in my mind, I finally started writing them down on paper.

“You don’t have to remind a flower
when its time to bloom is near;
it has been preparing for it all of its life.”
MATSHONA DHLIWAYO

Some people know they want to write from young and so they prepare as they grow. For me, because the desire dawned much later, God knew I needed time to acclimatize to the idea, and so my season of preparation matured gently through the summer of my life. I explored writing genres, developed writing skills, took classes, wrote articles, created newsletters, and started blogging. It all became part of figuring out what was in my heart to share with others.

Then came my sixtieth birthday. Although astonished to have arrived at this decade so soon, I did not find myself lamenting my youth long spent. Rather, I embraced turning sixty in a way that completely surprised me. It felt as if I'd been waiting for this season all my life, and I reached out to receive it like a gift. The time had come. In floral lingo, it was my season to bloom.

From this vantage point, I looked back and saw two things I'd never seen before. One, because I preferred writing non-fiction and mostly from my own material, I saw that I had had to live my longish life before I was ready to write about it. Second, I needed the time and distance to see how God’s faithfulness, loving guidance, and grace had umbrella-ed everything that had ever happened to me. I could see that even my day job in the Alberta Legislature for more than twenty years had been part of the preparation, developing the writing skills I needed on the job that would prove useful down the road.

One phrase overshadowed my thoughts during that milestone birthday. "Gather the memories." I began curating my personal history, organizing the motley collection of photos, journals, yearbooks, scrapbooks, and various touchstone keepsakes. As long forgotten memories floated up, I wrote them down. I created an autobiographical timeline as a reference which included recording many of the beautiful, life-changing God moments I had experienced over the years. And that Fall, I self-published a magazine through Blurb that housed my simple but cherished childhood Christmas memories. Talk about being totally amazed when strangers wrote to say they loved the stories and please would I publish more. Music to any writer's ears.

As a girl, I watched my farming parents working into the late hours when the days were ripe to harvest grain and garden provender. Less needful things had to be set aside. There was no time to lose. The frost was coming. That's how I feel about the season I'm in. There is an increasing sense of urgency. I'm not getting any younger and the days do fly by. Other authors reach sixty and already have a legacy of writings to their credit, but much of my work still lies ahead. I embrace being a writer in this late summer-early autumn season of my life. Filled with gratitude and joy, my heart sings and I do feel His pleasure when I write.

Oh Lord, keep me near to your heart, let these words be written with Love. Quicken my body and sharpen my mind. Take these 'breathings of my heart' to bless others, in this generation and maybe even in future ones.

A long-time InScribe member, Brenda Leyland writes from her home in Alberta, Canada. She has been a columnist and contributor in the FellowScript magazine. She sees herself as a curator of memories and works away at various memoir projects. Inspired by beauty, Brenda also blogs at It's A Beautiful Life and posts on Facebook.

There’s No Expiration Date on My First Book by Nina Faye Morey

While my novel’s first draft flowed nimbly onto the paper from the nib of my pen, my second is stumbling unsteadily across my keyboard. But I’m not going to let myself get bent out of shape on account of this snail’s pace. The way I look at it, there’s no expiration date on my first book.

The slow progress of my novel is mainly due to getting sidetracked by an offer that seemed just too good to refuse. I honestly did try to decline it a couple of times to stay focused on my novel. But when the offer reappeared for possibly the third and final time, I decided God must have had a hand in it.

For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back?

~ Isaiah 14:27 NRSV

You see, I’d always dreamed of writing for and editing a magazine. The writing side had already become a reality, but I’d begun to think the editing side was destined to remain in the dream category. Unless I founded a magazine of my own. Believe me, that thought—temptation—has occurred to me more than once in my lifetime. So, long story short, I accepted the offer to be the editor of InScribe’s FellowScript magazine.

Even though it’s a quarterly publication, working as FellowScript’s editor eats up a substantial portion of my time. So that means I’m often forced to let my novel rest undisturbed in my desk drawer for extended periods. But I view this editing opportunity as another one of those life experiences that will only serve to enrich my writing in the long run.

Frequently, I see those lists of bright, young, up-and-coming authors, who are celebrated as “the ones to watch.” But just because I’m getting a few grey hairs doesn’t mean I’m past my “best before” date. I like to think I’m still in the “prime of life,” and it’s not too late for me to achieve success as an author. Besides, just think of all the life experiences I’m accumulating along the way to write about. Despite having already passed me on the path to publication, those bright, young prodigies are still far behind me on the road of life.

I would hardly be alone in writing and publishing my first book rather late in life. Several successful authors have proven it’s still possible to find the path to publication in later years. These “late bloomers” have had their first book published after age 40, 50, or even 60. After all, “late” is a comparative term. Late as opposed to . . . ? Besides, I don’t believe creativity has an expiry date either.

I can think of several “mature” authors who’ve inspired me over the years. When I was a youngster, one of my favourite books was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. She wrote this beloved children’s classic in her last decade of life, and it wasn’t published until she was 57. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote and published her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, when she was 65. Like me, she’d written for some periodicals in her fifties, but her novel writing didn’t really get off the ground until her retirement years. One author who certainly proved it’s never too late is Millard Kaufman, who published his first novel, Bowel of Cherries at age 90.

As you can see, there’s no time limit on achieving your writerly dreams. So write, write, write; edit, revise, and repeat; and stop worrying about still not having made your way through the door of that publishing house. Just relax, take your time, enjoy the ride, and never give up on your dream.

Photo Credits: Best Before Date - Nina Faye Morey; All Other Photos - Pixabay