One usually starts are the beginning. At some point or another at least. So let us start there, at the beginning.
I was a girl who was raised to read. I loved to read. And I loved mysteries. And so I continued to grow, as most girls do, and my love of mysteries grew with me. I became more interested in some, rather than others. Robberies and kidnappings didn’t seem all that much exciting without a murder or two. Murder mysteries of any kind became my favorite, and so I advanced from reading Nancy Drew and Boxcar Children, to Mary Higgins Clark and Agatha Christie. And so that is what I read now. Along with other wonderful mystery writers, like Kate Collins or Janet Evanovich, Mary Deihm, and others.
And so I knew, all along, that I wanted to write mysteries as well. I wanted to write them. But I had already started a book of my own, back in the eighth grade. And I worked and I worked and… it died in a sense. I’d like to finish it someday. But for now… I just can’t. A whole series, characters and all, completely planned out, just unwritten.
So I got advice from a pro, Janet Evanovich. I read her How to Write book from cover to cover and it gave me a kick. A kick right where I needed it. So I dropped the old baggage, swearing to finish it eventually. But I cut it all away, and sat and wrote over 80 pages of the new idea that had been attacking me for a year. And I got 80 pages in, but still less than halfway. I haven’t stopped but it too has… died. But not in the same sense. I can easily continue, I enjoy working on it. But something else has begun.
A new idea, a fun, amazing idea keeps attacking and attacking and no matter what I do, I keep planning and writing in my head. And the scary thought that I might forget comes haunting and I wonder, should I write? Should I wait? I know if I start jotting down ideas, another 80 pages will pop out of nowhere.
So where to now? I have a whole future ahead of me and I don’t know where to go. I am now a senior a high school, just starting my final year. I am busy beyond belief and I wonder, where to go? But I’ve been told over and over again and I try and I try to believe what they say is true.
This is just the beginning.
