I’m finding my anchors. My theme songs. My stolen smiles.

            I don’t know how the others do it. I know in theory. They type. Yes, I understand that. They follow formulas or they don’t. They follow a story map or they go by their gut. But I still don’t know how they create. How the ideas formulate in their head. What drives them. What inspires and breaks their soul. What means something in the end.

            All I know is what drives and inspires and breaks and means something to me. That’s all I know.

            It’s a beautifully complicated thing diving into a four-book series. I should know a little more having finished The Solitary Tales, but I know better. Every creation is its own entity. I can believe and hope and strive and do my best, but I know. I know there’s no way to predict the end result.

            I can tell you this. It’s another teen series. It has nothing to do with Chris Buckley and Solitary. But, then again, it might have everything to do with that. But Chris doesn’t make a cameo. This is a totally different story. Every book is mapped out. Each character has been named and is starting to form.

            Tonight I spent an hour just trying to figure out the main character. I know him but I need some actor to latch on to. Someone who will help bring life to him. I finally figured it out. Yes, this is what I do in my spare time. I joke because I don’t have spare time. But this is what I do for fun. Just like creating stories and writing. I still love it and still love the process. Deadline or no.

            So what can I tell you? Well, I’ll share this. There’s a bit of Stevie Nicks. There’s a Hispanic world. There’s an 80’s love of The Cure. There’s a soccer and maybe-possibly football player. There is a town death. Then another. There is a love for another that’s isn’t requited (but is it ever?). There’s the town of Hidden Cove. There’s the summer and then the senior year. There is a shadow spreading over this town and this growing love. But there is a marvelous, awe-inspiring, wonderful, and glorious trajectory that is taking place.

            Soon you’ll hear more. Next year the first book will come out. We’ll see where this takes us. I think you’ll be delighted and surprised and hopefully moved. Moved at being at the edge of seventeen. 

            “I went today, maybe I will go again tomorrow

            And the music there it was hauntingly familiar

            And I see you doing what I try to do for me

            With the words from a poet and the voice from a choir

            And a melody, nothing else mattered”—Stevie Nicks