Musing on Writing

Sometimes I wonder if other writers have organized methods of writing, and whether they write one book at a time, and how they know when they’ve come to the end, and how they feel about exposing themselves in their words.

The Characters Throw a Launch Party!

“The mirror’s open, yet people are peeking in. What’s up?” Emma Mamsey’s eyes are wide and shining as she looks around our secret garden. The books are closed and readers should be asleep. “Looks like a party. What are we celebrating, Mrs. Breeden?”

“The writer’s launching a website.” Amalie Breeden’s voice runs up and down the scale as she bustles around, getting things ready.

“What’s a website?”

Amalie shrugs. “How should I know? That’s what happens when The Writer mixes up our times. Ask someone from Dancing On Glass, or Walk Back The Cat. They’re much more modern than we are.”

Let the Good Times Roll!

Last weekend, my husband Jimmy and I spent five days in New Orleans at the Tennessee Williams Festival. We live in the metro area of the Big Easy – north of Lake Pontchartrain, 20 minutes from the city over the causeway. But we stayed at the Royal Sonesta in the French Quarter, where the festival was headquartered because there are parties and plays and all kinds of things going on at night during the festival as well as daytime–music, plays, dress-ups at the New Orleans Historic Collection museum on Royal Street.

It was colder than usual, but beautiful sunshiny days. There were street musicians everywhere, so you almost had to dance down the street. Flowers, balloons, red and white lucky dog carts, crazy hats, mimes, weird costumes. A random food festival popped up all down Royal Street with booths and samplings from every great restaurant in town. We even have the coolest police station in the middle of the Quarter. It’s the only police station I’ve ever seen that has an outdoor cafe attached to it so you can rest and do some people watching, and blues drifting from a speaker in the courtyard, and sometimes BBQ’s and boiling pots of seafood outside!