Jack and I are holed up at the cabin this weekend so I can get back to my book. It’s been so long, it feels like starting over in some ways. And it’s true, there is nothing scarier than a blank page.
The good thing about the cabin is, no Internet. Which means I don’t fritter time “checking facts” and otherwise pretending to write when I’m really online. The only way to get online is to drive five miles down the road to the Lonesome Pine Grill, buy a cup of coffee, and piggieback on their wireless. Which we do once per weekend only.
Now is a good time to be off the Net anyway, as post-election vitriol turns into fingers that point, names that fly, and tit for tat that makes kindergarteners look mature. It’s all over but the shouting used to mean something was finished; now it’s just descriptive.
Never mind. I’ve gone back to writing. The world may or may not be going crazy. Books to sell, cats to rescue, safety pins to wear, life goes on. What’s scaring me is that damn blank page.
I’m trying not to make it a metaphor for America. For all the people who felt they weren’t listened to before the election, for all the people who fear their voices may be drowned out after.
There’s just this blank page in front of me, one I need to write on, to tell my story. That’s what comes next. Tell my small, sweet, simple story: cats, books, Jack, life.
Because we’ve all seen the power a good story wields. And what happens when stories go untold for too long. Tell yours. Nothing is scarier than a blank page. Fill it.
Wendy Welch: Books, Yarn, Cats, Opioids 
A blank page is also a clean slate, ready for something new! Signed..” glass is half full”…
Exactly…..
Hi Im trying to check are you the Wendy Welch I met as a story telling in Ireland many years ago, I loved your story about the quilts, I tell it and always say its your story, Im re starting a story blog and went to use it but again will say its your story would you be happy for me to do that I thin in light of the climate change its a great story.
my name is Fionnuala Mc Kinley
email bengie15@aol.com
Hey there! I am glad to hear you are still telling The Four Sisters. Blog should be back up this week. I’m running behind and my admin is being polite yet firm :]
I trust the page won’t stay blank for long and I trust it means you are writing another book as I loved the Little Bookstore of Big Gap. Unless I have missed one? I love stories and though I have written a short testimony of my life, maybe there is ‘story’ there too!!!!!!!
I did a couple of academic books, but this is the next “fun” one
…yes, DO tell Wendy Welch…I’m hunting down my hand-cranked pencil sharpener…
Wendy I have contacted you before, I am a storyteller in Ireland. I want to put some stories online and wanted to use your wonderful sort of quilts. I still love it. Can I use it if I say it’s your story I want to put some stories about the climate.
Fionnuala McKinley
Sure thing! Thanks