I don't just want apple pie

My friend Kristy M. told me when she took a writing class at LSU her teacher told them, "I don't just want pie, I want apple pie, I want hot bubbly apple pie, I want hot bubbly apple pie with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese, I want hot bubbly apple pie with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese and a scoop of sweet creamy vanilla ice cream on top."
One of the most important parts of story telling is setting the scene. Letting the reader see, taste, feel, smell, and hear the world you have created. I sometimes just want to write the meat to move the story along but the reader also wants a full course meal to compliment the meat.

I fool myself into thinking I can't possibly read one more book but I have stacks of the them that call to me. Bookstores that beckon to me with promises of adventure, heartache and romance with just the turn of a page. Books that fill my head with the strange and amazing factoids that I will regurgitate at random moments while my family rolls their eyes. I love to reread favorite passages in books I've read. When I gasp my last they will have to pry my current reading material from my cold dead hands.

Writing is a gift. I love creating characters that I come to know as they write themselves into my stories. One of my favorite characters I've written is an oxen named Norg. His master has a power that allows animals to speak around him. Norg and his master have a wonderful interchange as Norg expresses his sorrow at having to be sold. Although he is sold early in the book I know he will show up latter in the story because I enjoyed writing him so much.

Be patient with me I am not consistent in anything and some times there are long pauses while I figure out the best way to lead into the next part of my stories. They are dancing around in my head always.

Writing always on my mind

Less than three hundred words written today but it felt marvelous. I keep telling myself to stay on task and get one of these manuscripts finished and then another story intrigues me and before you know it I have written nine thousands words on it. I stall on that plot and then visit my other characters that have been patiently waiting for me to continue on with their story and inbetween I read. I read like a glutton. Young Adult fiction like; 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', 'Ophelia', 'City of Ember', 'Inkspell', etc. I love to read the scriptures, non-fiction like 'Merle's Door', the back of a cereal box.
I love references in stories about writing. The latest is from Lloyd Alexander's 'the Arkadians'. Fronto, the Poet turned talking donkey, says, "Prose however is a different piece of business. Tales, anecdotes, narratives. All quite simple. Any fool can tell a story. take a few odds and ends of things that happen to you, dress them up, shuffle them about, add a dash of excitement, a little color, and there you have it."