Welcome to our monthly Round Robin with the Night Writers
gang. Follow the trail this month and you’ll see us all talking about new
beginnings. Sometimes they’re fantastic, sometimes they’re so-so and sometimes
they are downright disastrous. Follow the link at the bottom to go to the next author and see their take on new beginnings.
The Sound of Music has always been one of my favorite movies
of all times and the Do-Ra-Mi songs the best ever. See when I was in 3rd
grade I was So, a needle pulling thread. I can remember the day, my favorite
dress and the song I loved so much. I don’t remember much about the performance
but I do remember I was happy it was all over.
So moving to Austria in May 2011 was a new beginning to an
old song. True, I live in Vienna, which is a long way from Salzburg but I was in
the same country where one of my favorite movies actually took place. Now I
didn’t know when I would be able to see any of these things but imagine my
surprise when my in-laws came to town and wanted to do a tour of the country
including Salzburg. What was even more exciting for me, I got to walk the steps
where the song actually was filmed, Mirabella Gardens. I really wanted to do
the Sound of Music tour but they wouldn’t’ let us take pup Harry, so that’s
left for another time. Here are a couple of things that we saw.
The story of Sound of Music is all about new beginnings for
a family who didn’t believe in their country's decisions any more. Now that wasn’t my case.
I do believe in the US and all it stands for but I also know that goodwill
needs to be spread across the globe. So when my husband got the choice to move
here, in many ways it was a no-brainer. While
here, I’ve interfaced with people from many nations. I live in a building with
three embassies, Albania, Dominican Republic and Paraguay. Also in the same building are the
OSCE residences of Finland, Ireland and Spain.
Up the street is the Turkish embassy and down the street is the huge embassy of
France.
Sure, I didn’t, and still don’t, like the fact that I’m far
away from my family but this time has provided many new beginnings in the form
of my writing. Since my time here, I’ve been able to consolidate my social
media and get totally on track with it. I’ve also started a whopping 13 books,
finished 3, reworked some older ones and have been with a new critique group.
New beginnings can come in many forms and none have to be as
drastic as what the von Trapps and I’ve done. One doesn’t have to move far away
to get a new beginning. Every time we read a book, it has to start at the
beginning. Every time we, as writers, write a book, it has to start at the
beginning. And every time we start a new character that character has got to
start somewhere be it a murder scene, something totally unexpected or just a
normal but different day.
Beginnings abound every day. We as writers just need to
embrace those new beginnings and use them to our best advantage. What about you?
How do you embrace new beginnings?
Now let’s keep this round robin going. Please go to Connie
Vines blog and see what she has
to say about the subject of new beginnings.
Thanks and see you all next time!
Lynn
