In November of 2019 I lived in Las Vegas, where I had taken a position as a visiting assistant professor at UNLV. My family was 2000 miles east, but literacy jobs for newly minted PhDs are limited and the opportunity to work at a top research university was compelling. I had a little apartment, found a church I loved, and I explored all over the valley and mountains, finding new places for my running. My favorite run was to drive to Lake Mead (about 15 minutes from my place) and run through the old train tunnels all the way to Hoover Dam. It was about an eight mile round trip, but the novelty of running across state lines and time zones never wore off.
I searched for beauty in unusual places, hiking around petroglyphs, running through wetlands, and photographing plants and animals I couldn't see in Georgia. Weekdays I had meetings and classes on campus and research to keep me occupied. Evenings when I didn't have class were hard. Saturdays were the hardest. I missed my family and I wasn't there long enough to establish relationships beyond my colleagues at work and my sweet Bible study and choir sisters at church.
To fill my quiet times, I started writing on Substack. My first post, on November 18, 2019, set up my goals for my work on the platform: consider the love and grace of God as the foundation for how we treat one another. I planned to study the Bible, do some creative writing, and explore how to connect what I learned in my Bible study to current events in the world around me. Four years later, that's exactly what I've done.
I know I have grown as a Bible scholar. My fiction and creative writing is a nice outlet, especially with the friendly fiction-writing community on Substack. There are good people here. Generally speaking, though, my strengths are non-fiction philosophy and devotional writing. Hopefully readers see the heart of God as I publish faith-based writing most Tuesdays and my sense of adventure in the fiction I post on Fridays. In between those days, I write about things outside my wheelhouse. I had a blast doing a blog swap with Lisa Brunette in February. She inspired me to actually plant a garden this year. Since 2023 I've done monthly book reports, mostly to keep track of my reading, but also to boost friends and acquaintances who publish books. It's fun.
Because I have grown as a thinker and writer in the last four years, I want to spend the next few weeks revisiting things I wrote before the pandemic turned the world upside-down. How might I connect those passages of the Bible to current events now that the pandemic is over and we're living in a brave new world. I hope you join me in the journey.
Love you and your creative side, you personally and how you are always looking to elevate yourself professionally and spiritually.
So thrilled you planted a garden! What are you growing? I wish you best of luck in your writing journey.