Since We're Moving...We're Having A Yard Sale!

You know how you do an internet search for something, like "Hot Tubs" and the next thing you know, you get ad after ad on every social media site you visit for hot tubs?

Well, turns out the same thing happens when you put your house on the market. The "Moving?" mail just never ends.

We are moving. Our house is under contract and we've found a house up north, Tremonton, to be more specific. My family and I moved on our street in 1970, fifty years ago. One by one, everyone's left, and now, we're the last Taylors to live on a street that was just a dirt road when we first arrived.

Fifty years, half a century.

First, my father left. Well, he didn't leave, so much as he died, and only four years after we moved there. He never saw the dream house he designed and built be finished. My sister and brother moved next, left for college, then got married. Then, my family moved into the basement where I grew up and we stayed there for six years. Once our house was finished, we moved across the street. 

That was seventeen years ago.

Next, my mother joined my father and passed away in 2007. We alone remained.

Until now.

This Friday and Saturday, we're having a yard sale. It'll start around 8am and go until around 2pm both days. It's going to be sort of a strange yard sale. We've got a lot of bookshelves, and I mean a lot. We don't have many clothes (yard sale killers...), but we have furniture, books, household items, and even a chest full of antique model trains and train tracks. And, we've got a huge entertainment center. You know you want/need that.

If you're in the area, check out the sale. You can get location information from our house listing site by clicking: HERE. Even if you don't need bookshelves, furniture, some clothes, books, household items, and antique trains (I'm not mentioning the entertainment center, because you need that...), and just want to say "hi" and "good-bye," stop on by. We'd love to see you.

Thanks in advance, and have a wonderful evening.

Letting You Babies Go...Submitting A Story

Being involved in the writing community for the past couple of years, you get to know a lot of authors. Some are machines, writing and submitting stories--it seems--every week. Then, there's others, like me, that write, but we're not so prolific. 

Tonight, I hit "Send" and I said good-bye to one of my babies. It was time to let go.

The fact that the deadline for submissions is the end of February means I'm running out of time. Still, I needed to get it in. It's a short story, around 3k words. I didn't spend a lot of time writing and editing it (a HUGE thanks to my writing group for their help...), but still, there's that moment, before I send anything in, I pause. Is it good enough? Should I have put in more work? Is it what they're looking for?

Time, of course, will tell.

Even though I haven't submitted many stories, it does get easier the more I do it. And it helps that those receiving the story--the editors are people I consider good friends. We've known each other for years, having both begun our literary journey at the same time. If my story's not good enough for the collection, they'll be honest with me if I ask them why. That kind of honesty is so important when you're so vulnerable after putting your heart on the line with your words.

Now, the waiting. I hope they received a ton of submissions, so many that only the cream of the crop will make it in the anthology. The book is set to be released at the end of the year, in time for Christmas, so even if it is chosen, I won't be able to hold the collection in my hands for several months.

It felt good to hit "Send." It's been too long. I need to do more of that.