A few more chapters before I head out of town for the weekend. I’ll be on the road for a few days, so nothing new until next week–sorry. But then next week school starts for teachers again (having to pay bills ruins all my fun), so chapters may be a little more sporadic. Sorry again.
Warning for the chapters below–you might want a tissue, especially for chapter 13.
Five more chapters for you! (My summer’s rapidly ending, but it’s so ridiculously hot here in the tropics, I might as well spend my days in school, anyway . . .)
Days like this, I wish I were in Yellowstone National Park, where I imagined many of these scenes in these chapters taking place. Unlike here, in Yellowstone the nights are cool, the bugs not so plentiful, and there are no gators in the water. (One of the many reasons I don’t camp here.)
My summer break is rapidly coming to a close (we start school again in early August) so I’m trying to get out as many chapters as I can before then.
These chapters make me want to go camping . . . but only for a few minutes, then I’m over it. (She cranks up the air conditioning because July in Florida is brutal–but never below 78F because the electrical bill is even more brutal.)
I took a little time off to try to edit my earlier recordings in an attempt to make “real” audio books (still in the process). Listening to myself read the entire first book again took a while, and then I was deleting errors, and all of that made me sick of my own voice (again).
But I wanted to get Book 6 going, so here are the first two chapters of Flight of the Wounded Falcon. And because there are a LOT of new characters (it’s been 25 years, after all) in the form of children and grandchildren, here are a few charts to help keep everyone straight.
Family Lines and names: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15acqWtGlRtTMyoOFzgjVi4lxCc66m224hbZXvrW5x_w/edit?usp=sharing
Or look here for MAPS and FAMILY LINES https://forestedgebooks.com/books-6-8-maps-and-family-lists/
Another book is finished–whew! I will begin Book 6 in a few weeks, I promise. Here are the last three chapters of Book 5, SALEM.
I was floored a few years ago when Bethany Cousins emailed me saying she’d been inspired by the books and she and her husband wrote a song about the series! Recently they redid it, adding more harmonies. (I LOVE the bridge! Gives me goosebumps.)
She graciously let me use it, and today I tried my hand at making a VERY basic music video with the lyrics. Yeah, I won’t be doing this professionally, but boy, it was a very fun way to spend the evening! (Yes, I also know there’s a missing “n” in Darkness. I’m trying to figure out how to fix that.)
(Most of the photos I took in Yellowstone, Utah, and even Florida; the others, such as the very first one, I’ve purchased the licenses for.)
Lyrics below: V1
Darkness covered our steps
The woods were calling us deep into the night
What once meant danger has now turned Into the safest place to hide PC1 The impossible came to be before my weary eyes
C
When I found my life
Over the mountains, beyond the trees
My heart found a home
When I stepped out into the valley
V2 I cannot begin to count the years
That I have searched for something more
A life spent fighting for the truth
And now I’m hiding from the world
PC2
But I’m already forgetting what I left behind
C
When I found my life
Over the mountains, beyond the trees
My heart found a home
When I stepped out into the valley
B
Here is peace, here is mercy
Long-awaited happy ending
Promises of something different
This is what it feels like to come home
How could I ever wish for
Anything more than this
It’s everything the Creator intended
This is what it feels like to know
We are a family
We always have been
C
I found my life
Over the mountains, beyond the trees
My heart found a home
When I stepped out into the valley.
Some great moments, and some reeeeeeeallllly awkward moments.
With school finishing this month, I’ve not had as much time to record as I hoped. I have BIG dreams for the summer, which means I’m completing underestimating how much time I’ll have during my 9 weeks of summer break . . .
Here are a few more chapters which I love, love, love.
Have I really not updated for a month?! Sheesh, I’m sorry! Subscribe to my YouTube channel and you won’t miss updates in the future, when I get distracted or neglectful.
Forestedgebooks.com 