Like most writers, I assume, I have always found inspiration from my lifelong experiences. I am, essentially, a storyteller, and my stories, particularly about my crow Squawker, are based in truth and values I hold close to my heart.
As I get older, my writing has evolved from simple children’s stories to become much more value based. I find I have little difficulty creating new stories, even those not based in personal experience, because I am writing about the importance of family and personal relationships.
The actual writing process is fascinating to me. I have heard songwriters say their greatest hit was written in 15 minutes, that it came to them complete, in their head. That is often the way it has been for me. All of my stories come to me complete, but my most recent efforts, Squawker: Friends Aren’t Free, The Secret Angel Hat and my newest, unpublished as yet, Squawker: Free to be Me, came to me in a much more condensed almost publishable version. When things like that occur they have to be written, now, because if they are ignored the essence, or flow of the story disappears, never to be recovered. That is why, The Secret Angel Hat was written, in a fever, in the middle of the night, while I was trying to get to a ferry on time, and not lose the thread of the story while doing so. The same was true of, Squawker: Free to be Me. We were camping, everyone was involved in their own thing, and suddenly there the story was, in my head, in full detail, complete. There was paper and pen beside me so I just started writing. I had to! Those stories, that appear like that, in full detail, are my most inspirational and important works. They also tend to appear at the most inopportune times, but such is the writer’s life guess!