Misty Zaugg's Blog - Posts Tagged "character-generation"

Hi friends,

I'm typing up this update while sitting in the Orlando airport waiting for my granddaughter and family to arrive, so we can start our vacation together.

Check out the gorgeous sunrise from my flight here:



(I'll be alternating between my tips and writing updates from now on to make my newsletters shorter and more readable. Let me know what you think!)

We have plans to stay at an airbnb located a bit east of Orlando. We don't have a lot of plans, but let me share our tentative list down below and see what you think. We'd love some suggestions!
Our tentative plans for Florida:

First, as we all come from landlocked states (if you don't count the Michigan lakes), all of us are excited to visit the beach!

I'm reminding myself to reapply lots of sunscreen and stay hydrated! There are sand castles and a grandbaby destroying them in my future. :D

Second, we bought 2-day tickets to visit "Harry Potter Land" as my kids call it, or Universal Studios as it is officially called.

As I've gotten older, my tolerance for roller coasters has completely disappeared and now they just leave me feeling nauseated. So, I'm happy to take on grandbaby duty while my son and his wife enjoy being flung all over the place on coasters.

For any of you who know Florida, please share suggestions of other things we should see in the area east of Orlando.

I met the nicest flight attendant on the way here who recommended the following:
• NASA
• Port Canaveral
• Cocoa Beach

And finally, for my writing update: I got here this morning, and my family isn't arriving until early evening, which left me with time to write this email and another fun past time of authors:

People-watching!

Here are a few stories I made up based on people I'm watching right now:

A quiet, Hispanic woman stands in line with furtive glances around her, noticing everyone moving in her immediate area, and I wonder if she's got someone dangerous in her life.

A grandbaby flops his head on his grandmother's shoulder after eating while the adult daughter cleans up the food. This three generation family is obviously close, and I wonder what troubles they've weathered together and how they did it.

A young man with stars in his eyes treats his girlfriend like a princess, making me hope their new love will protect them both through life's challenges.

This is the perfect place to people watch. We humans are truly a diverse group with so many different situations and motivations. It only takes a few minutes to glean inspiration from the people around me.

So, be careful next time you're in an airport food court. A writer like me might just be adding you to their next story. :)

Enjoy reading this week!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Hi friends,

This week was such an awesome one for our family! Lots of smiles and tears. :)

First, I had an amazing time with my son's family in Florida and got so much precious play and snuggle time with my granddaughter.

The beach was gorgeous (and HOT!). Plus, we visited Universal Studios, Kennedy Space Center, and our church's Orlando temple. Thanks for everyone's suggestions! There wasn't enough time to get to everything, and we definitely have a great list for our next trip.



The other amazing event this week is the return of my adult daughter who has spent the last year and a half on a mission trip for our church!

The other kids spent the days before making signs, and the 7-year-old picked out balloons, a plastic lei and carried a bouquet of flowers to the airport.

When the day came, we rushed to the airport when the app said the flight was arriving fifteen minutes early.

After standing near the security exit for twenty minutes and watching every person who came around the corner, I checked the app again to find that the plane was now listed at it's original arrival time. (Apparently, it had to wait in line to taxi to the gate for a while)

Despite being eager to see her arrive, it was pretty fun to watch the other travelers' responses to our group with our big signs and smiles. We got a lot of encouragement and thumbs ups. One older war veteran in a wheelchair even shouted out his name and asked where his signs were. We gave him a welcome, too. :)

When my daughter finally walked around the corner at the airport, she saw us and started running, towing her carry-on behind her. As soon as she passed the "Do Not Enter" security line, my 7-year-old shrieked and raced to wrap herself around her big sister.

The carry-on got dropped to the side, and I got to hug her for the first time in forever. Her little sister wouldn't budge, so you can see the top of her head and an arm holding the lei squished between us. :)



It is such an amazing thing as a parent to see your children grow up into adults you admire and respect, doing hard things and finding success in the world on their own.

She is an amazing woman and we're all so excited to have her home . . . until she leaves for the fall semester of college. We'll miss her again. (Though I'll get her to do the paperback covers for my virus series before she goes. She's an amazing artist!)

And since this newsletter is supposed to update you on my writing . . . I didn't do any. LOL.

I took the advice of some of you readers and took a break from writing to spend time with family instead. Thanks!

I think the break and fun time with family will help me come back to writing refreshed and energized.

All the best and thanks so much for your support!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Hi friends,

I'm writing this ahead of time, because by the time Friday rolls around, I'll be in our minivan watching countryside swishing by out my window. We're driving out west to visit family for a couple of weeks and then leaving our daughter at college when we drive back home.

For those of you who haven't made a cross-country drive across the center of the United States, it really gives you a feel for how vast the countryside is: hundreds of miles of farmland or just empty grazing land. We do love seeing the towering windmills that have been cropping up along our drive over the last few years.

How exactly do I survive two long days of driving with a car full of kids, plus a quick update on my writing. :)

Thank goodness for electronic devices! They revolutionized long distant travel with young children and gave us adults even more stories to bore the kids with that start out with, "Back when I was a kid . . . "

I bet some of you can empathize with my memories of enduring long car rides as a kid in the '70s and '80s.

• The alphabet game - first one who finds the letters from A to Z wins . . . and everyone always got stuck on Q!
• License plate bingo: filling in different states we saw to get bingo.
• Teasing siblings until they got yelled at by parents.
• Asking parents how much longer until we get there.
• Eating tons of snacks.
• Drawing and coloring books
• Reading until you got carsick

And now, the kids can watch movies together, play games on phones, binge watch TV series, and listen to tons of audiobooks. All much more entertaining than my childhood memories.

However, falling asleep in the car hasn't changed much and everyone still wakes up with sore necks and backs from the awkward positions.

We still try to take time to turn devices off and play road games together, run a quick game of tag at rest stops or listen to audiobooks as a family. But with two full thirteen hour days of driving to get out West, binge watching a few movies is a great way to ease the boredom.

A few non-electronic ideas that are still fun:
• A clipboard with blank paper, a new pack of colored pencils (NO crayons. They melt in hot cars) and some of the following print outs:
• Custom coloring pages found with a google search and printed, like mermaids, dinosaurs, disney, or even adult coloring pages.
• Custom mazes
• Sudoku, coloring, crossword and word search books from the dollar store.
• A pack of origami paper with a how-to book of patterns.
• yarn and crochet or knitting needles with a new pattern to try.
• friendship bracelet kits
• magnet toy sets
• A bag of special treats that are given out when you get back in the car after a rest stop.
• A map of the drive so kids can follow along.

Hopefully some of these are helpful to any of you out there who are taking long trips this summer. What about you? Any fun ideas for long car rides?

As for writing, I spent a bit of time going over edits by some of my latest beta readers. Shoutout of thanks to Olivia and Jeremiah!

And we'll see if I can squeeze in a bit of writing time during vacation or not.

The plan is to get going again full speed once September rolls around.

Have a great summer out there! All the best and thanks so much for your support!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Ignore Grandma's advice at your own risk. Be Prepared Tip #14
Hi friends,

It was great to hear from those of you who lived in Nebraska! I'll be thinking of you next weekend when we make the drive back.

The family trip is going really well and my daughter who just returned from her 18-month mission trip has really enjoyed reconnecting with all her extended family again - especially . . . her niece! (Otherwise known as my most adorable granddaughter in the world.)



It's really so much fun to have a big family! Though, as those of you who are also a bit introverted will understand, I am finding it difficult to find some quiet alone time to recharge. Thankfully, I can hide and read a little before bed most evenings.

My prepper tip today comes from Grandma Zaugg, my mother-in-law, and the morning she took me to pick produce at her small patch of farm.

As she got out of the car that morning, she reached back inside and began pulling on a long-sleeved shirt. I gave her a questioning look, and she explained that she needed to wear them or her arms would itch terribly after picking veggies.

My first thought as I watched her? That's interesting, but I don't really need long sleeves.

I was wrong. LOL.

I really should have copied her, because by the end of reaching deep into squash, green bean, tomato and berry plants, my arms began to itch. As we finished up, the itching got worse. When I looked down at my inner arms, I saw them flushing red with fine scratches everywhere.

Oops! I washed them off with cool water and then rubbed hydrocortisone cream up and down. It took another half hour before they finally stopped itching.

So my prepper tips for the day?

1. Find friends and family with experience and learn from them.

2. Be humble enough to listen to advice.

What about you? Have you learned valuable skills and/or information from those around you?

I hope your preparations for the future are coming along well.

All the best!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website