Day Five

I love the ravenous hunger that keeps me tearing through book after book, devouring the written word, craving the taste of the stories like cravings for different foods. Some books taste sad, some sweet,  some very strong, all delicious and addicting. I love when I close the book but the flavor remains, seeping through my consciousness. When I turn off the lights to go to sleep, the characters and stories stay with me, and I savor them.

It's that same hunger that keeps me writing, mixing words and phrases, whipping up new characters and conversations. A good story has a lot of ingredients! They must be measured out carefully in some stories, and in others, measurements aren't needed at all- just throwing in what tastes right.

I have several different stories being written and mixed and cooked in my head at any given moment, tending one after another, never leaving one alone for too long.

The one I'm working on most right now, we will call SC, and it takes place long ago. It may not matter much, but it's lead me to doing a lot of research about the time period. Okay, I'll let out the secret- it's about pirates! But not Captain Hook kind of pirates-- real ones. Real people fighting their own problems and doing some very bad things for lots of different reasons. Humans fighting awful diseases, and finding a sort of family on a ship, especially those with no real family left of their own.

Doing research, I'll let you in on a tidbit- the kind of information I've been searching for is most easily found in children and young adult books! Of course there are adult books about pirates and the times and real people, but it's the kids book that go into interesting factoids like scurvy and female pirates and how awful the lives of the pirates were! I found a few great kids books about living on a ship so long and having to do repairs and running from the law.

In SC, I follow the life of a female who falls into piracy! Of course, it's me writing, so I've thrown in a dash of my own story in there, too. Of all the stories I'm working on, it's the farthest developed, and the one I am most excited about. I've worked on it a little tonight, but I'm about to give up for now. It hasn't been the best few days, and tomorrow is my birthday and it simply would not do to be late for work!

Sarah