Ever been excited about an idea? Felt it grow in your bones until it has to come out?
Right now, I am working on a novel. Three years ago, I quit work to write stories (children's, teens) but I got sidetracked filling my mind with all kinds of creative endeavors. I did the movie extra thing. I started blogging. I started teaching. I sold kitchen products. I got into politics. I started making real money writing through various endeavors from storytelling to interviews to reviews of products of all sorts (and I am still doing this because I do need to pay off this new laptop sooner than later!).
It's kind of like the omelet my father-in-law ordered at the Valentine's brunch we met them for yesterday. The meal was a buffet and you stood at the omelet bar telling the cook what to mix with the eggs. I ordered bacon, cheese and spinach. It was so good I couldn't eat it all. My father-in-law came back to the table with his plate and told us that his was the junkpile. He had just about every ingredient in it. When you think of a junkpile, you think of a jumble of discarded things. His was a delicious creation of all kinds of goodies chopped and prepped to be thrown into a cooked heap of deliciousness and he ate the whole thing. I have a feeling I wouldn't have liked it but it was his thing and to him it was good. But, someone had to chop those pieces and someone had to stand there and cook them. He simply had to decide what would taste good.
But now, a novel has burned its way through the junkpile of my subconscious and I find myself dreaming up conversations in my sleep. I get to be the sous chef, the cook and the creator. As plots thicken in my mind, villians flirt with heroines while I curl my hair for Sunday church. And, I run downstairs and add post-its upon post-its to my storyboard.
And yet, life goes on. I still have to make a living. I love teaching. I need to write (for a living). And, yet this story is writing itself.
So, what's all the excitement about? Think blogging with a sinister side: ego involvement, competition for brand recognition, a media mogul so driven for content he will endanger the lives of his own children for it, a mom so driven to protect her privacy and yet she can't help herself vlogging about it, another mom blogger who turns out to be a dad, and several more characters caught in the middle when the story peaks at the annual blogging conference. Who really is the bad guy? That's what I am trying to find out. I can't wait to read this story. But, oops, I have to write it first.
This book is ultimately about the things in life that give us a false sense of security (blogging and beyond) and those who really give us a reason to be insecure. What security measures are valid or reliable? Where should we put our faith? On whom can we truly rely or trust with our lives – here and eternally?
Throw in a couple of hidden cameras and you've got internal and external conflict brewing for the world to see.
But now, to catch the gold dripping from my mind and mold it into preciousness. It does me no good on the floor. It takes work to form molten gold into something of value. Time to get out my tools. It also takes risk, confidence and a journey.
Have I given away too much? I don't know but I do hope you will get excited with me. This will be one heck of a fun ride.
