I just arrived home last night and am already planning my return to the great Northwest.

You know, sometimes in life you are offered an opportunity that you’d be foolish not to just grab with full gusto.  When the stars have aligned so clearly you’d have to be completely blind not to see where you’re being directed.  When an idea is beating so hard at the inside of your brain you can barely keep up.

I went to Edmonds this trip for many reasons, not the least of which was to check out this studio I stayed in to see if I could be comfortable there for an extended stay to write my book.  I mean to focus exclusively, my entire life focus, on writing.  The conditions are very important to me and although I have options right here in AZ, there is something about that area that just ignites a fire in my creative whatevers.  Maybe it’s also just far enough away geographically to allow me the space to dive in to those dark memories I’m going to need to relive in order to write them.  It’s not easy.

Nothing is familiar to me there, in a good way.

I fell in love with the charming studio I stayed in.  It was just perfect in every way and the owner told me they are remodeling the bathroom later this month so that will make it even more perfect!  The decor is very much like my home–shabby chic meets IKEA.  Clean and cozy.  It will be the perfect place for me to expand my mind and dive in to get my memories on paper.  I wrote and wrote while I was there.  I can totally see me sitting there looking out at that expansive view, even on grey foggy days–or more especially on those days–and flowing with the voices as they come.

literally my view

It also hit me that if I’m serious about getting a puppy (and I am), I must seize this opportunity NOW for several reasons.  This studio, understandably doesn’t allow pets.  And I won’t really be traveling for awhile without my puppy once I get him.  Plus I imagine my attention will be pretty significantly taken elsewhere. 😉  So clearly I have to do this before that big life change happens.  I also realized that it makes sense for me to drive to Seattle next time in order to have my car and pack more stuff and guess what?  The breeder would be right on my way home.

If timing serves me well, I can go up there in January for several weeks then drive back and pick up my puppy on the way home.  It’s all just a little too perfect but I could use some order in my life that unfolds in perfection like that.  In fact, it’s a familiar style of living for me if I just listen and allow it.

My father will be in Arizona with John during January so I won’t be worried about him.  By then his life should be solidly shifted in to the new communities he’s getting involved with and he’s pretty well plugged in to a variety of support systems now and quite stable, thankfully.  That’s huge and something I never take for granted with all we’ve been through.

I have so much clarity about my book now that I didn’t have before.  I am making a goal to get most of a chapter completed each day I’m there (I mean when ALL you have to do in a day is think and write, this is doable, to me).  Then the hard part will come after I’ve gotten home which is editing and organizing it all.  I plan to join a writing group for help with that– for as long as it takes.

 

I really do feel like I have a strong story to tell.  As one of the presenters in the conference said to me “most people aren’t really kidnapped by Somali pirates who write memoirs but you were”.

 

I have a working title that I’m not ready to share yet.  It’s a basic guiding inspiration though.

I will just say this.  Once you start committing to writing something, the reasons you are telling the story start coming in, if you listen.

 

How many people have you met that grew up as a middle child, ended up with Missing Person’s reports on both of their flanking siblings–one lost to homicide, one to mental illness?  And that is just part of it.  Who lives to tell that story with a happy ending of sorts?

That’s my story and I’m ready to tell it.  And the time is now.

I have the means, opportunity, freedom and everything else and I’d be an utter blind and deaf person to not know this and seize it.

I’m looking at my calendar right now and blocking out the time.

Let me remind you.  I am not a professional writer.  I am a person with a dream, a story and some very basic skills.  And I’m still going for it.

What is knocking at your heart waiting to be answered and acted upon?

You know.