RockWall Cottage Chronicles
A newsy, sometimes amusing, usually interesting fly-on-the-RockWall view of my life as an author with updates from my Substack adventures.
The small cottage where I live and write has been affectionally named RockWall Cottage because of the rock wall that divides our side of the property from the side of the property where our friends, the owners of the cottage, live. (Learn More)
What Has Been Happening at RockWall Cottage?
We spent a delightful Christmas morning with our children and grandchildren. There were presents, laughter, stories, games, and breakfast yummies including sweet rolls that arrived from next door. There have been few Christmas mornings I have so thoroughly enjoyed!
There have been many relaxing, “What day is this, anyway?” days. I uploaded content two weeks ahead and could slow down and reflect on all that has transpired over the past year and what goals and dreams I might have for 2025. I rang in the new year taking screenshots of the Seattle celebration. While I would love to see this in person, watching while cozy in my bed was perfect. Happy New Year!
News, Highlights from Previous Weeks, What’s Coming, and Other Stuff
Welcome to new subscribers! It was exciting to watch you arrive every day. I am glad to have you here! I normally post each day with occasional breaks. You can choose which content you would like to receive. I have included those instructions at the end of this newsletter.
I don’t check statistics very often but was excited to see the number of followers and subscribers climb over 450! On February 12 of 2023, the count was 2. It has been less than a year since I officially launched. I am a continuing improvement kind of person and seldom set number goals (too many church contests and funding campaigns!) but it seems doable that this could reach 500. Hmmm. Meanwhile, this image is one I am completely happy with! (You can see it took me several months to get started.) Thank you to everyone who has joined me and shared with friends.
Over the final week of 2024, I sent out posts that will serve as way to easily access previously published series—some that newer subscribers missed. These posts will be collected under the Substack Series tab on the menu. It took some work but turned out to be an enjoyable way to review my year of writing!
I have some of the world’s best cousins—most that for various reasons I did not know well as a child so I am especially grateful to have them in my life as an adult. My series post for Hotel Candelabra was a hit with one of these cousins! You might also find this to be a great diversion (or distraction)!
Janyne, you are a gifted writer. When I found this in my email this afternoon, I made the "mistake" of reading the first chapter. Today's schedule was full, but I was captivated and just finished reading all forty chapters. Thanks for using your giftedness with such excellence!
Your cousin, Al
Speaking of diversions. I have proclaimed this month as Diversionary January and have stepped away from social media. Diversionary is defined as tending to draw attention away from the principal concern. I will be spending the month writing, doing puzzles, watching football, binging on Call the Midwife, sitting by the fire reading, and other sundry diversionary delights.
Along with writing here on Substack, I will be teaching two sections of another course for Tabor starting mid-January. I will also be be begin posting the series Pulpit and Pew: A Trauma-Responsive Conversation under the Trauma in the Pews Resource section. This is a collaboration that grew from the discussion in the previous class I taught. See the explanation here.
I will also be supporting the Religious Trauma Network (RTN) behind the scenes during Spiritual Abuse Awareness Month (the team has been posting blogs that you might find helpful. You can access them here.
Finally, I will be speaking twice at the end of the month: Broken to Beloved Annual Summit and Small Church Conference. I will be saying more about this in next week’s Chronicles.
Scott and I are looking forward to attending the Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference in February (in Atlanta). I encourage you to attend this if at all possible. It is valuable for any profession that involves working with children. I would love to see you there! (Click here for more information.)
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