Back to Writing

What a difference a week makes. From winter back to fall. The skies are cloudy in Southern California, but there are no snow flurries or need for a heavy jacket. The days are even quite as short here. Sunset is about fifteen minutes later here than in Chicago.

Any extra light is welcome.

I finished doing the proof reading of On the Hook and sent in the corrections. Now it is back to full force on writing the next book in each of my series. Well, not exactly full force. It is more like fitting writing time around everything else. Though sometimes that works very well. There is something about the now or ever feeling that can inspire my imagination and the words seem to fall off my fingers. And sometimes not.

It is always so cool when something surprising happens. I was working on the next Yarn Mystery and Casey had gone to the hospital with one of her retreaters. She was trying to find out her retreaters condition and was talking to the doctor. At first, it was pretty cut and dried and he was just a background character with no personality. But then he - I keep calling him he since I still haven’t given him a name- suddenly starting having a real conversation with Casey and he became an individual person.

I had Casey ride in the ambulance with her retreaters and thanks to Writers’ Police Academy, I knew what it was like first hand. Writers Police Academy used to take place at a technical community college in Greensboro North Carolina. They had s a whole training program for paramedics and EMTs, which included having a fully functioning ambulance. As part of one of the workshops, I ended up riding around in it with some student EMTs.

I was surprised at how roomy it was inside, but the biggest surprise was the what the ride was like. I expected something smooth and gliding, but it was anything but. And somehow not having any side windows made it worse. I had to focus on the two little windows at the back to keep from getting too nauseated. Oh, and we took turns sitting next to the dummy patient. I was glad when the ride ended.

I always knew it would come in handy someday.