I have been reading one blog post over and over again lately. In Neil Gaiman's Journal, he wrote a wonderful post called "Why write?" celebrating the moment the story comes to life for a writer.

The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it's about and why you're doing it and what these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising ("but of course that's why he was doing that, and that means that...") and it's magic and wonderful and strange (Neil Gaiman's Journal).

Since I have been struggling with a very uncooperative story that hooked me but refused to reveal to me any of its secrets, it used Neil's epiphany as inspiration. I know that moment, but it often hard to get to. I struggled on. I begged each character to reveal something to me about themselves. I wandered through the lonely wastes of Abbey grounds, knowing full well that everything that lived there was hiding from me. Every now and then something would move out of the corner of my eye, but it was gone before I could see what it was.

Then yesterday at about this time one of my characters sat next to me and opened up about is life:

drinking a yummy Pinot grigio, listening to Cradle of Filth, and writing a bio for a vampire. Life is good right now :) (my twitter)

I don't know if it was the research, the Pinot grigio, the music or what it was, but for the first time on Blackwood Abbey, I had that feeling, it made sense. Not all of it, but I could see the world a little clearer. We walked together, this vampire and I for most of the night. He told me his life story, and in so doing, shared with me the world that he lives in.

Pessimism is strong in me, so I did not accept this as a break through. I assumed that the adrenalin from the Tornado warning had mixed with the wine in some unreplicatable convergence, but I was wrong. Today, three more denizens of the Abbey have come to me to share their stories. I can see the world, and the story clearly. I hope the others will come to me tomorrow.

I have felt the magic Neil captured so well. I can only hope that my talents are up to par to wield and maintain the magic that has begun to flow through me.

(from my Amazon Connect Blog)

It is official, I am a/the Municipal Liaison for South East Missouri for National Novel Writing Month for this year! I hope I do a good job with all these new responsibilities. I think I am the only one in SEMO, but I am not 100% on that. We have announced our events on Facebook and Good Reads, and as soon as they get the calendar up on the site, I will add them to the Official NaNoWriMo site.

I am really looking forward to NaNo this year, but I am tossed up about which story I am doing this year. This happens to me every year. Soon the story will make itself clear. Even though I have been wanting to write a fantasy story, space opera is rising up in me again. Only time will tell who will win.

See you all in the furry of NaNo.

(from my HQ Blog)

I have a story, a fantasy based murder mystery. I love the story, but need a setting. I am lost in possible worlds, and I am trying to sift through them all.

Originally it was going to be a contemporary fantasy, but now I really want it to be in a secondary world... I might try a crosshatch, but I am not sure if it will work.

The problem is with my imagination. I am having a hard time limiting the setting to what is believable to happen on earth in the present day and age. The real problem is that I really want to write a fantasy steampunk tale.

This foray outside of my usual space opera is exciting, but is creating a lot of fear in me. I have not tried to write fantasy since I was in high school. I am taking some time to develop a steampunk world and see where it goes. The idea of pure fantasy excites me.

(from my Amazon Connect Blog)