Water is a magical force for me. A list of why I'm drawn to water is boundless like water itself. Water's fluidity, her life forms, her mysteries, and her color and reflections all charm the living daylights out of me.
Water refreshes my soul and floats my spirit. What frightens me is to know that water is perhaps earth's most endangered resource. Life requires water, and I require her to feed my creative spirit. I do not think I am alone.
When I am out in the world, I feel like a baleen whale swimming in the sea with my mouth wide open. My baleen is set to catch the tastiest of morsels, ideas to build stories on.
I've just finished an octopus story for young readers, and I am about to write another much simpler one for the very young. Like the happy flash of water dancing on this beach, I hope my story dances too. At least I know my octopus loves to dance, and who wouldn't in the wild and wonderful sea. I am about to tackle the first and toughest job of the writer, THE FIRST DRAFT! Like always, this task will take all the stamina I can muster.
First drafts are a messy, messy adventure. The ideas, like water, flow in every direction. I pick ideas out of my baleen and plant them in just the right spot, or so I hope. I am always cheered when I work on edits for this is a refining process just like sea washes the shore and reshapes a landscape.
So, I am off to the sea to see what I can see in the land of story magic.
