I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me – the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own . . .

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                                                                                       ~ Anais Nin​​​​​

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Ms. Nin said it so well. When I sit down to write, I create characters whom I would like to know, if only they lived in the real world. I come to know them quite well, then find something for them to do.

 

For example, the professors in Tales Along the Way Home were merely characters with whom I enjoyed spending time until the attacks on 9/11 prompted me to put my emotions about that dreadful day in a story. What Kristen's friend told her about her experiences in downtown DC was what I experienced that day. The writing is rushed, for I included it just the way I had written it in my personal therapeutic writing. No doubt, the voice on the telephone in Tales was just as rushed.

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Here's an interesting thing about Tales - at least to me: It happened when the professors stopped for lunch at a family restaurant in Shawnee, Oklahoma. In my mind's eye, it was a well-known restaurant (I won't say the brand name). Some years later, I chanced to live in Shawnee, albeit briefly. Guess what. There was one of those restaurants in exactly the location as I had pictured it in my mind's eye! No, I had not been to Shawnee before then. 

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If you haven't read Tales Along the Way Home, I hope you will. It is available on Amazon Kindle. You can learn more about it under "Books."

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