I love writing when an image forms in my head and the story starts running. Catching it and putting it on the page feels amazing. And I love writing when I make it a priority, when I spend dedicated time on it, and it’s as important on my schedule as any business meeting. Completing my first NaNoWriMo last year forced me to create even when the words weren’t coming easily. And by month’s end, I had a larger body of work than I’d ever created before. Again, amazing feeling.

A perfect place to keep my hand-drawn diagrams and notes: my Grimm journal, a gift from my family who know how much I love monsters.

Those ladies and the river that ran through their lives is still filling my head.  They kept talking and talking to me last November.  They were especially excited to tell me about the really nasty things that happened by that river.  Now comes the harder part, slogging through to edit the first draft.  Some of that is fun, but it’s work figuring out how to tackle this size story.  I recently attended a workshop by Jamie Morris on that helped me organize my thoughts.  Framing the story’s structure is showing me where I need to add more detail, and points where I want to make sure to bring the characters together. So I’ll be wading back into that river again, taking care where I step, of course.  You never know what you may find in there.  And I’ll be sharing my writing story here, and some of my stories and poetry, as I go along.