What Fork To Follow?

“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” – Yogi Berra

In the past 52 months, I’ve written over 200 stories encompassing a bit over 130,000 words, highlighting the choices I and others have made on life’s journey.

Even in the course of evolving this website, there were more choices to be made. A lot of forks in the road. And as the late Yankee Hall-of-Famer suggested, I took them.

I decided to take one of the forks British writer and lay theologian, C.S. Lewis describes in boarding a bus on a drizzly afternoon and embarking on an incredible voyage through Heaven and Hell, albeit not as dramatic.

My voyage allowed me to further explore my life and experiences – and lead me to meet others whose choices revealed the forks in the road they took. Often with joyous results. Other times, sadly, not so much.

All of it gave me greater compassion and understanding for the choices we all need to make everyday. A real blessing.

Then I came to another fork, one that led me to begin writing my first novel: two forks for only one person; more on that in a minute.

My novel’s working title is Bark Out Loud. It’s the story, “… of a woman who flees her canopy of privilege to earn her own fortune by monetizing man’s best friend; with help from a homeless partner and one unlikely hero – then, finding the perfect place for the ideal life – is given only twelve months to prove her worth. Can the unlikely hero come to her rescue again?”

Choosing to post my first novel on Choices Do Matter seemed like a good idea – at the time. Now I fully comprehend the meaning of, “Rough Draft.” These chapters are rough, not finished, under construction. Not meant for safe travel.

“Write your book all the way. Tell the story that you want to tell.”

It will take time to refine my novel-in-progress, to breathe fresh air into the lungs of each character as you read their stories. Yet, there is value in showing my work from the start. It will show progress, and that will be good. Like the before and after images I see in the weight loss ads on TV.

This leads me to another choice; another fork. I’m taking this one too.

I’ve decided I don’t need to be showing my preliminary work on social media, but I need to share it with people who care, who want to follow and not be forced to scroll on.

So, here’s the deal. If you want to keep reading my raw, unfinished, unpublished novel, just let me know (see Epilogue). You’ll get an email with the next installment.

From time to time, but no longer weekly, I will write a new Choices Do Matter story – again highlighting my choices and experiences – as well as others in the community. As always your conversation on these topics will continue to be encouraged and very much appreciated.

When everything is ready, and all the stars are aligned (well, mostly aligned), I’ll turn the novel-in-progress into a novel on paper. I’m not sure how that will happen yet; it’s another step on the journey. I’ll take that fork when I get to it.

Then, or maybe before, I will go back over the 200 stories from Choices Do Matter and put them in some order to be printed in a book (another for you to hold).

So, that’s the fork I’m taking – for now.

As always, the conversation starts here.

“In the ordinary choices of every day we begin to change the direction of our lives.” – Eknath Easwaran

Epilogue

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