by Barbara McLaughlin | Feb 12, 2023 | Books and Trailers
Here is the new short video from the world of HW, Fun Facts: Heaven’s Wait’s Earthly Plants.
Heaven’s Wait’s beloved RJ PLOM had been a laboratory business officer in the UC Berkeley Botany Department before he embarked on his journey above. Knowing he would soon be leaving the mortal world as we know it, he packed up some treasured possessions to take with him upon his departure. Among his eclectic treasures were pictures of his family, a collection of VHS tapes, a good supply of Golden Grain spaghetti, and a fine collection of heirloom seeds that he had salvaged from the botany department once they were no longer needed. Growing plants from seeds was in his blood, and he couldn’t imagine leaving this world without them.
Once RJ settled into HW’s quiet Vowella Valley, he planted and nurtured his seedlings until Vowella flourished with beautiful and nutritious vegetation. The plants blended perfectly into the unusual environment and its own fascinating assortment of native plants, which was completely foreign to RJ.
But RJ was most intrigued by the fact that a few earthly plants had made their way to this faraway world before his arrival. How they got there, he didn’t know. RJ just went with the fact and moved forward in his new world.
Just for fun, here are Heaven’s Wait’s earthly plants in a short video. To discover more about the plants of HW, make sure to read the Tales from Vowella Book Series. See how many of the earthly plants play their parts, almost as characters, in the stories. Find the books in the footer links or at https://www.amazon.com/author/bmclaughlin
by Barbara McLaughlin | Jan 30, 2023 | Personal Life
There’s a place to which I escape…where creativity flourishes and I renew…my garden. To dig in the earth is to renew my roots to the planet. To share my little outdoor space with the birds, bugs, squirrels, and various other outdoor creatures in the neighborhood is to confirm my humble place in the world. I am just another creature in their midst, doing my best to make the most of my existence, just like them.
I love the solitude of my garden space. For the most part, it is my quiet retreat. But it can also be a grand orchestra of natural sounds, as the squirrels rustling through the leaves make me turn; as the swooping sound of the hawks’ gliding wings make me pause; as the birds, chattering in a wild chorus while they perch on the great assortment of garden gifts, catch my attention.
When I’m the only human there, I can allow my thoughts to take me to creative places. At the same time, I can watch a worm wander through the soil, aerating it for the sake of my plantings. I marvel at our collaboration.
There alone, my mind has permission to run freely. For a few moments, I let schedules and responsibilities take a nap while I allow my mind to tap into my creative tendencies, where writing ideas, music inspiration, family appreciation, new culinary concoctions, and thoughts on the greater world have room to breathe. Thanks, dear garden, for being there for me.
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by Barbara McLaughlin | Jan 22, 2023 | Books and Trailers
This week, we introduced Heaven’s Wait’s 5 main teen Vowellan characters to social media for the first time. Mok, Kip, Lek, San, and Dun took center stage in their own video shorts. The shorts gave viewers a chance to see who these characters are while their clan theme songs played in the background. We thought the shorts deserved a place on the HW website as well. So here they are, all in one place.
You may also find these video shorts, as well as other videos from our growing collection, on Heaven’s Wait’s You Tube Channel: https://youtube.com/@heavenswait.
A special shoutout to my music arranger, Aki Ross, and my illustrator, Julia Semionova for their invaluable contributions to these fun little shorts.
These teen Vowellan characters make their first appearance in Book 2 of the Heaven’s Wait! Tales from Vowella Series, Innocents and Curiosities. Find this book on Amazon.com by following the Innocents and Curiosities book link in the footer.
by Barbara McLaughlin | Dec 31, 2022 | Writing
It’s hard to believe, but the quirky, unpredictable Vowellans of Heaven’s Wait originated within the pages of a remedial reading workbook that I self-published way back in 1981. I used the workbook to tutor struggling primary students, and I sold it to local bookstores.
While developing the project, I named the five main characters of the simple stories within the workbook San Ham Bat, Lek Net Pet (surname later became Net Ken), Kip Fig Wig, Mok Fog Bob, and Dun Rug Bum. I assigned their names as mere examples of the five short vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, and u. I also heavily embedded these sounds within the simple stories to reinforce the usage of the short vowels. For example, San Ham Bat wore hats, carried bags, ate ants, slept in pans, and kept pet cats. His dad’s name was Mat, and his mom’s name was Lan. These other characters had similar traits based on their short vowel sounds.
Below are some examples of the original illustrations for the workbook, drawn by a high school student by the name of Jon Gudmundsson. He attended Kennedy High School in Richmond, CA, where my husband, Mike, was a student counselor.
Original Kip, Sil, and Mok
Original Dun and San
Original Dr. Jon and Mok
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I abandoned the workbook after the passing of my dad in 1984 and pursued other interests. In 2006, I came up with the idea of writing some little life-lesson stories, not only for fun, but to leave to my family as a sort of legacy. I realized I could resurrect the characters from my remedial reading workbook, leave the phonics lessons behind, and embellish the simple stories to make them whatever I wanted.
The simple stories grew, as did the characters’ personalities. Before long, the five original characters took on lives of their own. Suddenly, they had families and stories to tell within their own “clans,” as they came to be known. There were so many places to take these characters, as many as my imagination would allow. I found a multitude of interactions that were waiting to become stories, and I dove into the project head first. Since I had already established the vowel-based pattern, I named the collective inhabitants of their world The Vowellans and their little hidden community Vowella Valley.
I thought you might also like to see the visual progression of the illustrations for the central character amongst the Vowellans, 15-year-old Mok Fog Bob. He’s had a fascinating and transformative journey in Vowella.
Original Mok by Jon Gudmundsson
Barbara’s digital illustration of Mok in a home design program
Mok by Michael Trujillo for 1st Edition of Innocents
Current Mok Fog Bob by Julia Semionova
Today’s Vowellans are a colorful, animated bunch, full of fun, mischief, troubles, and real relationships. They are characters on a mission to find their true calling. I think you will find them endearing, interesting folks. Their adventures are chronicled in my new 4-part Book Series, Heaven’s Wait! Tales from Vowella. Find links to the books in the footer of this page to fully enjoy the Vowellans’ stories.
If you would like to receive alerts for future posts like this, I invite you to complete the email form in the footer. That way, you’ll know when I’ve posted something new, which is usually on Saturday mornings. B
by Barbara McLaughlin | Dec 13, 2022 | Books and Trailers
Disaster and Triumph is Book 4 of the Heaven’s Wait! Tales from Vowella series. As the title implies, a disaster like nothing the Vowellans have ever encountered hits the tiny community of Vowella. All that the Vowellans have learned from RJ PLOM and from their limited experiences is put to the ultimate test as they fight a battle for their very survival.
As the potential solution to the Vowellans’ dilemma lands in the laps of the teens of Vowella, Mok Fog Bob takes the lead. He hopes the lessons he has learned will guide him through the various struggles they are sure to encounter and give him strength to carry out all that is required of him. As the Vowellans find more and more problems to solve, Mok expects support from his peers. Will he get it? As Mok and the others are about to learn, nothing makes one grow and change more than working your way through a crisis.
Disaster and Triumph was the hardest story to get to but the easiest to write when the time came. I felt the Vowellans needed a decent amount of knowledge and experience in their back pocket before the challenges I was about to hand them became real. I think Books 2 and 3 prepared them for those challenges. It was exciting to finally dive into serious problems that the Vowellans would have to learn to solve. The more problems I presented, the better they got at solving them. I was so proud of how the Vowellans handled the various situations. I didn’t have to figure out the solutions. They did the work for me. And that made for an enjoyable writing experience.
There is more to come from the Vowellans as I embark on the next series from Heaven’s Wait: Beyond Vowella. But the completion of Disaster and Triumph marks the end of a long, emotional journey for me. Tales from Vowella took me too many years to complete. Challenges of various sorts caused constant interruptions to my work. But I journeyed on. I tucked hours in here and there over the years, determined to see the project to completion. And here is the result. I hope you enjoy the series. And please enjoy the Disaster and Triumph Book Trailer below. Barbara McLaughlin
To read more about Disaster and Triumph, Heaven’s Wait! Tales from Vowella Book 4 and listen to its music, visit the Tales from Vowella Book Page. To receive alerts about new HW posts like this, make sure to subscribe to our email list by completing the email form in the footer of this page.
by Barbara McLaughlin | Dec 12, 2022 | Books and Trailers
Wonders and Truths, Book 3 of the Heaven’s Wait! Tales from Vowella Book Series, continues the Vowellans’ journey to discover their purpose in Heaven’s Wait. Glimmers of change are starting to appear in the Vowellan community, and Mok Fog Bob and his life-long friend, Kip Fig Wig, are tracking those changes.
When the Vowellans experience a few striking, unexpected phenomena, their awareness of their behaviors intensifies. They slowly begin to let go of some of the old ways that have been in place for generations. As new challenges arise for the Vowellans, relationships begin to change, in most cases for the better. There may be hope yet for the community to see true change and growth. They will need it, since RJ learns that eventual challenges lie ahead for the Vowellans. And he must do what he can to prepare them for the unknown.
In Wonders and Truths, I knew it was time to push the naïve, innocent Vowellans toward a new level of being. Though they were still in their isolated environment, the Vowellans had much work to do to further themselves as individuals. The idea of Mok and Kip building a list of the Vowellans who have become aware of their behaviors sat well with my story consultant. It made for an interesting sub-theme, allowing the reader to anticipate who will be added to the list. The list concept fed me ideas for determining who qualified as the storyline progressed.
And it was time for the innocent, long-standing relationship between Mok and Kip to progress to a new level. Hoping to capture the natural, naïve progression of a teen relationship within such an isolated environment, I leaned on the simpler tone of my own youth. In those days, new feelings had more room to emerge without the outside influences of today’s overly-connected world. I love these characters. Barbara
To read more about Wonders and Truths, Heaven’s Wait! Tales from Vowella Book 3 and listen to its music, visit the Tales from Vowella Book Page. To receive alerts about new HW posts like this, make sure to subscribe to our email list by completing the email form in the footer of this page. You are visiting heavenswait.com
