Eden Ashe

I took the summer off. It was mostly involuntary, and it seemed like the more stressed my life became, the more quiet the characters in my head went, even when I was nearly desperate for a distraction.  Emma was concerned enough that at various points over the summer, she threatened to do something drastic to make sure they were all still there.  Again, I know my relationship with my characters is unusual and might seem odd, but I am not used to quiet in my head. There is always someone plotting something, or planning, or just jabbering at me until I pay attention to them. Stories are always there, on the backburner, working out plot points or untangling threads until it’s clear and focused enough for me to see fully. There is always something going on in my head, and when it suddenly went silent, I didn’t know if I should be grateful…or alarmed.

I miss writing. I miss being creative and building a world and watching it, and the characters I love so much, come alive. I miss the frustrating joy of letting a story slowly come to life. I miss arguing with my stubborn, larger-than-life males, and I miss watching my heroines twist the brains of their heroes. There is so much fun for me in character and story development. Even when I feel like beating my head against the keyboard to knock something loose, or those times when I’m sure all my creativity has simply dried up and stopped existing, there is not a lot that I love more than writing. My daughters, my husband, my family…my writing.

So why, other than my abnormally silent characters, did I take the summer off? I think because I needed to. It has been a stressful summer for my family. I lost a cousin in a three-week ordeal that devastated all of those that I love most in the world, and I worried about the health of my grandparents through it all. Death is never easy, and it leaves a hole somewhere thinking about him not always being there in the background. But I guess that is how it should be. There have been other dramas, and there were definite times I was sure over the last two and a half months that I was sure I was headed for a nice, quiet, comfy padded cell. In fact, if I could have taken my laptop, and been assured of an internet connection, I might have volunteered, just for a small, mini vacation.

Luckily, things have seemed to have settled out over the last week or so, and my lovely, wonderful characters have taken to driving me nuts once again with all their demands and needs. I still have not settled on a story to work on, but there are ones that are already finished that need to be edited for submission, and I might focus my energy on that for awhile. My Undying characters are the loudest in my head for the moment, but they are the ones I have focused on the most for the last year, and did the most development on. I have other ideas for other stories, other series, other worlds that will eventually need attention, too, so who knows where I will go when I settle into the new school year’s schedule. 6AM comes very early when you don’t go to bed until 4:00, but I will find my rhythm soon.

In the mean time, I will start posting excerpts of my writing soon, and here is the link to the online publication of my very first short story. It’s called At Last. Hope you enjoy it, and check back again soon.

Eden