I could be just walking, or mowing the lawn, when an idea pops up. I immediately write it down or talk to my phone and save it. I let it simmer and return after a couple of days to read it with fresh eyes. Some sentences or paragraphs come from a character revealing what type of person he/she is. I take the character qualities and ask, “What if?” This is one of those out-of-the-blue moments that started a middle-grade novel work in progress

“As soon as my mother said, ‘Hannah, we are going to visit Mema in a swampy part of Louisiana to help settle grandpa’s will,’ I immediately started reading books about cholera, alligators, and moonshine. Especially alligators, since I didn’t want to be part of their food chain. Moonshine? Heck, I’m only twelve. But my mom says I drive her to drink. I don’t drive either, but I probably could if I had to.” 

In 1960, my earliest memory of a story was from a group of books my older sister had owned by the author O’Henry. The stories were short and the ending of each had a surprise twist. After hearing some, I wanted to be a writer of such stories.

When I got older, my father bought books for me entitled Masterplots, all twenty-four volumes. In two pages, the whole plot description and the associated characters of famous books were written. I still have them to this day.

Today, June 27, 2021, starts my first journey of creating a website, not about someone else, but about the little boy growing up writing words with white chalk on a dark-blue colored dormer wall, outlining plots, characters and ideas. People say, “Life gets in the way.” To me, life is full of experiences, the many people you meet on your journey, with all the sounds and smells included. The writers’ characters form, the plot thickens and in a well-written story, the reader will care and remember about each. As a writer, you can’t ask for anything more.