Living the Dream

Dr. Walter and Carolyn Frank attended the Book Read

My “publicity tour” may have peaked last week. A radio interview, book reading and book signing were enough glamour for this prairie chick. New York television appearances will have to wait.

At one point, I lounged on a kitchen stool and listened to my radio interview being rebroadcast on KNDR, complete with book giveaway. I said to my husband, “Wow! We’re living the dream!” That was Wednesday.

Those summit moments are rare and must be treasured. Reality lives between them. The evening before the radio interview, when I planned to prepare for it, I instead became a Refrigerator Repair Assistant. An ominous drip had developed in the fridge, so my handy husband pushed it to the middle of the kitchen and cleaned the coils with the vacuum. My job was to turn the vacuum on and off, on and off. It took the better part of the evening.

Thursday I was back in the dream. I did a Book Read at Touchmark Retirement Center. I read a few portions of By the Banks of Cottonwood Creek. (Since it was a hot day, I read part of the snowstorm chapter.) The audience asked questions and I signed some copies of the book. It was a feel-good moment in time: A lovely setting in the chapel. A respectable audience of readers and writers from the community, as well as Touchmark residents. I hugged that moment for the rest of the week as I continued to “live the dream.”

Marvia Boettcher and Betty Mills at the Book Read.

It’s not all glamour, I told myself as I drove to K-Mart in 98-degree heat on Friday. I needed a couple bags of Tootsie Rolls for a book signing at Huntington Books in Mandan on Saturday.

I had no idea how unglamourous it would get. The plan was to be in front of the bookstore under a canopy for a couple hours. The Wild West Rib Fest would be in full swing just up the street. With throngs of people moving up and down the sidewalk, I even wondered if I should bring an extra supply of books.

It was hot on Saturday. So hot the chefs at the grill fest probably turned off their grills and let the meat sizzle in the sun. The temperature hovered at 105 degrees for hours. The book signing was moved into the tiny air-conditioned shop entry so I wouldn’t melt like a deserted ice cream cone. Traffic disappeared. People were probably sprawled in the lowest (coolest) level of their houses remembering how a few months earlier they’d yearned for summer. The dream fizzled instead of sizzled.

In wrapping up this post, a couple things happened: I had first included a Will Rogers quote: “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where all the best fruit is.” Last evening I decided to delete it, shut down the computer and went downstairs to read my devotional for the day. Then a very strange thing happened. The reading for the day was headlined “Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed,” a paraphrase of Luke 19: 26 in The Message. A few lines down was a challenge: “If you want ‘more than you ever dreamed,’ you’ve got to go out on a limb. That’s where the best fruit is.”

What are the chances of coming across that same quote on the same day?

The second irony happened this morning. As regular readers know, I get my morning attitude adjustment from the comic page of the Bismarck Tribune. This morning the Zits teenage character is “living the dream”! He finally got a job, at a supermarket. He is hoping to be promoted to smashing melons into a dumpster. Ah, we each have our own dreams, don’t we?

I can’t help but feel there are readers out there who need to begin living their dreams, whether it be writing the great American novel or smashing melons. So, dear readers, is there a dream burning in your heart? If so, why not seek the Lord’s direction and then begin the journey?

To hear the radio interview, go to http://kndr.fm/program/interview. Check out the community activities at Touchmark at www.touchmarkbismarck.com. In addition, you can find Huntington Books at Facebook.com/HuntingtonBooks, or better yet, stop in at this “novel” book shop on Main Street in Mandan.

Writing update:

The sequel to By the Banks of Cottonwood Creek is now underway. To devote more time to the book, Prairie Lighthouse posts will become less regular. However, I have a lot more topics in mind, so be sure to sign up on the website, www.gaylelarsonschuck.com, so you receive the blog post alerts by email.