A proposed thesis . . . and what I propose to do about it

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in possession of a story must, indeed, find some means of telling it.

I am such a woman. I have many, many stories to tell. Most of them fiction.

However . . .

I find I have other sorts of stories running around in the back of my brain most days. Not particularly exciting stories, at least, they wouldn’t seem exciting to your average sword-and-sorcery-with-kissing reader (such as my typical target audience). But they are stories, nonetheless.

Stories about stories, as it were.

The process of bringing stories to life is, in my opinion, quite exhilarating at times. Every book I have written has a saga behind how it came into being . . . some prosaic, some dramatic, all containing their own tidbits of interest.

I have spent my entire adult life figuring out what it means to be a professional novelist.

I have systems and inspirations and tricks to make myself put words on a page when I just don’t wanna.

I have my favorite go-to creative writing manuals that I peruse ad nauseam, only to promptly forget in their entirety when I’m in the thick of a snarled plotline.

I have books that I believe are meant to be one thing, which fight tooth and nail to reveal themselves as something entirely different.

I’ve faced and survived the dread monster, Burnout.

I’ve faced and survived being dropped by my publisher.

I’ve watched a once-lauded penname die in pathetic obscurity and found myself in the unfortunate position of starting over from scratch.

I have Opinions.

I have Processes.

I have changed both my Opinions and my Processes quite without warning at times.

All that to say . . . I have stories to share. About stories. And nowhere in particular to share them. Or any idea whether or not there’s an audience out there who’ll enjoy them.

But, as proposed in the initial thesis above—storytellers must tell stories. So I think, perhaps, I must tell mine.

Thus I have decided to begin keeping a blog. A place to tell these little snippets, with hopes they will be amusing, interesting, inspiring (and possibly infuriating?) to some of you. I do not make these offerings with any intent to instruct, and the only information I wish to convey is that of my own lived experience. Nothing more, nothing less.

Do note: these tales will be told in no particular order or chronology. I give myself entirely over to the winds of the blogging muse.

So with that caveat firmly in mind . . . happy reading, dear friends.