This Monday, it’s all about the story.

In April, I was driving back from our beach vacation (little one was in the truck with her daddy).  Long drives alone are when I start to get the germ of ideas for stories.  And boy, was I relieved to get this one.  I was starting to think the well had run dry. However, as most of my stories work, the idea I got wound up being, well, nothing at ALL what the story is turning out to be.  My first chapter one never, ever looks like my final chapter one at all.  And that’s okay.  The idea gets me started.

The more I messed around with this particular chapter one and the more it changed, the more it became (partially) influenced by my life.  We moved back to my hometown recently, into my grandmother’s house, the house where I spent a large amount of time growing up.  Honestly, we never thought we’d live here, especially after she died three years ago, but here we are, loving every minute of it.  Funny thing is, I never thought I’d live in this tiny little town again.  Never thought I wanted to.  Now there’s no place I’d rather be.

And my character is learning that as well.  She’s come home… but for totally different reasons.  In fact, she left for totally different reasons.  She’s facing totally different obstacles and challenges than I am.  BELIEVE me.  The book is far from autobiographical, though some of the feelings about coming home are real.  And her grandmother in the story keeps morphing into the amalgamation of my grandmothers… and that’s okay.

Every time Scotty McCreery opens his mouth to sing, it shocks me.  How does that voice come out of that kid?  That’s absolutely crazy.  Anyway, this song of his rolls around in my head every time I sit down to write, because my hometown (actually, half of my county, if we want to get honest) is a water tower town.  And so is Aubrey’s hometown in the story.  It’s one of the reasons I had no trouble moving back… and one of the reasons it’s causing her a world of pain.

And one of the reasons I’m loving writing it.

(My apologies… youtube wouldn’t let me shrink the size, so it’s chopped on one side…)

-JB