Incandescents From Love

I grew up mostly in northwest Oklahoma in a little town called Seiling, home of the most famous meteorologist, Gary England. We lived about five miles south of town on a dead-end road in an underground house. Although I was born near Savannah at Fort Stewart, it was my favorite place to visit when I was 15 to see all the places my parents lived when I was born.

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I was different from my family in many ways, but the same in a few. My imagination was as big as the Atlantic Ocean, and I spent many hours, especially in the summers, playing in the Mimosa Tree and dreaming of what my life would become. When the leaves fanned out, I was hidden from almost anyone who was not directly under the large branch I sat in. I often made my little sister play with me, though that wasn't as much her thing as mine, living in an imaginary bubble of the world I was accustomed to.

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Since I was a small child, I took care of my siblings, my stuffed animals and dolls, my real animals I had as a child, and many cousins as well. My nature was and always will be to nurture others, to help them know their worth even when I didn't always know my own. My friends when I was a child were like my sisters, though they weren't always the same as we moved around some throughout my years until I was a senior, moved to Binger, and met my husband. Although my friends and I have reconnected through the digital world, it isn't the same as playing on the playground, having sleepovers, and planning our whole lives around what we would become. Just know that anyone who ever became my friend has a lifelong one in me, even if we don't get together much now.

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Becoming a mother is the greatest achievement in my life. My husband and I have raised three beautiful daughters who are smart, caring, and loving. They each have a son, and that brought a whole new level of joy we could only have imagined as grandparents.

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My first novel, The French Fry Girl, is going to be published this year. I wrote it in the fall of 2020 and never intended for it to take this long before publication, but I want it to be perfect in every way. The ins and outs of writing a book and promoting it take longer than actually writing the book in 30 days during National Novel Writing Month, which occurs each November. Fifty thousand words in 30 days. Anyone can join. I finished two days early with over 52,000 words. After my daddy died in December of 2022, the only way through that, other than God, was to write. His obituary was six columns long in the newspaper. Then I added seven more chapters to the existing 32 chapters with an alternate ending. I read a lot of alternate-ending books as a child, and I loved them because, as in life, no one is stuck with just one outcome if they choose another route.

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When we get stuck in a rut, the only way out of it is to make a plan and chisel at it little by little until we see another path and follow it. I have been perceived by many a certain way my whole life, and many have not taken the time to truly get to know me or try to understand that I have not had a perfect life, nor do I pretend to. But I have always had the ability to see another side of things. I walk my own path and never conform to what someone thinks I should be. I don't follow trends or styles because everyone else does. I do what I choose and what I like without regard to what society says I should be.

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I am very proud to finally be publishing my first novel and would love to hear feedback from anyone it may help along the way. Perception is often deceiving as we compare ourselves to what others put on display. It doesn't mean they are fake if they don't put every thought and feeling out into the world. It often means they have found a way to push through and don't want sympathy or a handout. They simply want to live and be happy and will spend their time in the pursuit of that happiness, no matter how long it takes. My husband has the ability to know that God is happiness, and he knows there isn't much we can do about the bumps in the road of life. I have yet to achieve that level of acceptance, so I am always going to be one who finds ways to better myself no matter how long I live. I pray you find the happiness you are searching for in the best way you can and do not bring harm to others to attain it.

DSAGE ~aka Rainelle Quinn~