The other day Donna asked me, How was your day? I replied, Productively unproductive. Getting a “final product” off my desk and “out the door” makes me feel productive. On that particular day, I went through five years’ worth of downloads from my downloads folder, moving files to where they belong or trashing them. So, I was very productive—cleaned my downloads folder. However, I did not get any projects closer to going out the door. So it felt unproductive.
As you know from our last blog (All plans are tentative…), Donna postponed her trip to help receive and celebrate the gift of books from Christianbook International Outreach (CIO). The timing was incredibly providential as Donna’s mom, Mary, ended up in the hospital, and Donna accelerated the time frame for moving Mary into assisted living. Donna’s time (and to a certain extent, my time) has been full of hospital visits, rehab visits, doctor appointments, phone calls, packing, moving, figuring out assisted living, etc. So Donna has been very providentially productive with her mom; however, as far as things “out the door” go, not as productive as hoped.
In the past, we have mentioned that we are working with some colleagues on a book about culture that has been in the works for years (2025: Purposeful–doing what we do with purpose). The hope was to have a manuscript (or at least the first couple of chapters) submitted to a publisher in the first half of 2025. However, after consulting with a friend who has published books, we have decided to release a pre-publisher, pre-publication, proof for review and to evaluate interest. The ultimate goal of this proof is to secure a publisher by receiving comments to improve the book and, hopefully, find influencers and organizations who will commit to endorsing, helping promote, and buying copies (pre-sales) once we have a publisher. We have been productively preparing this proof. However, neither the submission to the publisher nor the proof is “out the door.” So it feels productively unproductive. By God’s grace, we will finish the proof by the end of August.
Praise God with us that Mary is settled in her new place. Pray with us for the timing of the books from CIO, and as we prepare our proof.
Mary and Donna