Chore: Take laundry out of the washer and put it in the dryer. Check.

Finished, I walked away from the laundry room. But before I’d gone far, I heard something metal tumbling around inside the washer. Not a good sign.

I immediately checked the junk drawer for my pocket knife, which I use to cut open hay bales when I feed the animals. More times than I’d like to admit, I’ve forgotten to take it out of my jeans’ pocket before washing them. Also not good.

But that day, happily, my knife was in the drawer. Whew!

Still, I thought I better check the washer and see what the metal clunking was.

After all, I didn’t want to damage my washer, So I checked it.

All I saw were jeans with metal snaps. They must be the culprits. Not a big deal.

But, as I started to re-close the dryer door, a little voice told me I really should check it better. So I did.

First, as it’s a frontload machine, I tried to turn the barrel to see if I could locate the object. That didn’t work so well, since it was heavy with wet clothes, so I finally just pulled everything out.

Lo and behold, I found an important key I hadn’t remembered putting in my jeans’ pocket. One I absolutely didn’t want to lose or ruin. It and my washer were saved. 🙂

So, why tell you that mundane, every-day-sort of story? Because it made me think about intuition and editing—both in relation to my stories and my life in general. Often, some of the elements I need to fix or edit in those situations are elements that just don’t feel quite right as they are. If I ignore that intuition, it bugs me. A lot. But if I actually listen to that little voice, figure out the problem, and fix it, everything tends to work out for the better.

It was that principle that ultimately resulted in me taking a step away from my fiction–a very TINY step–and creating Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost: A Guided Journal (for kids who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). It’s also what keeps me moving forward on various other elements of my writing business.

For instance, while I’m writing and editing my novels, I’m also gradually working on a little online store of my independently published books. Right now, it sells my audiobook of A Murderous Charade and a printable template of Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Although I and those I’ve talked to about that journal prefer it as a published book that kids can write in as they learn, I made it a printable template too, because–you guessed it!–that little voice inside me keeps pushing me to do whatever I can to make it available to whoever needs it. Wherever they may be in the world. Templates seemed the best way that I could fill that need.

So, anyway, you can check out my little growing store here.