It’s been a few years since I first started typing out the first few words of The Fire Ruby.

It was before we got the dog (Maisie - a goldendoodle - now 3.5 years old). Before the birth of my third child (a year younger than the dog - now walking, talking, and trouble-making).

I had notes in my phone, quickly jotted down each night after I told the stories to my 2 older kids. A skeleton outline. A beginning, middle, and end, for 3 books to complete a trilogy.

The idea felt substantial, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had taken 2 creative writing courses in university. One for poetry. One for short stories. I had written some poems on my own before that. But I liked telling stories…and my kids liked listening to them - a positive feedback loop.

And I had a lot of material to work from…I have always been a reader. David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, and Margaret Weis and Tracey Wiseman - some of my foundational exposure to fantasy. Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, and Frank Herbert - covering the sci-fi bases. Throw in some Michael Crichton, John Grisham, and Dan Brown. And, of course, my more modern go-tos…John Scalzi, Hugh Howey, Dennis E. Taylor, Martha Wells (I can re-read Murderbot again and again).

I started typing on my laptop, sitting in my den, after the kids went to bed, and it started to take shape…with some challenges.

The outline helped - it gave me a structure - but telling stories at bedtime is just a tad bit different than writing a book. The setting changed. A few new characters. More detail and subplots added to a make a complete novel.

At one point, after about 30,000 words, my computer crashed. The hard drive toast. Panic! There was no back-up! A quick google search and, luckily, I found a savior. It was all recovered. And there was good news too. It allowed me to re-evaluate what I had written. I changed the format, opting for multiple perspectives.

Then, another hurdle - writer’s block. Stuck until I realized I needed to restructure the beginning and add another chapter to make a character’s actions make sense.

Simply put, there was a learning curve.

Fast forward and now there is a complete manuscript ready to be sent out. Stay tuned to find out how it turns out, since I am sure I still have more to learn…

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It’s not just having an idea for a story…