Hello! Maybe I should blog about procrastination, as not only has it been too long since I’ve updated here but I’ve also neither been writing nor researching my next story the last several days… need to get back to that! Ugh! Maybe next time!

Anyway, today I thought I’d write about why I (and others) write. I began thinking about this after visiting with my grandmother, who is fighting cancer. (Speaking of procrastination, I had been putting off that visit, I imagine out of fear – the fear, I suppose, of her illness, seeing her sick, when I think of her as being so strong. Also, I believe I have been afraid that seeing her that way will verify her frailty, make it more “real” to me.) The visit went well but, of course, had me thinking of the people I’ve lost in my life. These losses have influenced my reasons for writing over the last few years. For instance, my mystery series “Juniper Jackson Investigations” started as a way for me to deal with the death of my father when I was 20. I have a lot of unresolved issues there, and writing is a way for me to work through them.

Obviously (okay, maybe it’s not that obvious but), I have reasons for writing other than the need to work through various psychological/emotional issues. Mainly, I love to write. Though I haven’t always known that I wanted to write, I discovered it was an option when I was a teenager. I loved reading and spent the majority of my time doing so. I suppose writing was the next logical step for me. Now, not only could I escape into the worlds created by others, I could escape into my own worlds; imaginings I had not been able to openly entertain since I was a very young child. Of course, I may not act them out as I did at that age, but my characters can! My favorite stories involve otherworldly people, creatures and/or scenarios, and much of what I write does as well.

As with many writers, writing is a compulsion (this is also the case with drawing) for me, and when the mood strikes (and if often does), I must write (unfortunately, laziness/procrastination often derails this). Also, writing can be an obsession, of sorts. Most days, whether I’m procrastinating or not, my writing is all I can think about (I’m choosing to view this as a positive thing). And writing can also serve as a diversion, which I suppose is the opposite of my Juniper Jackson series. In that particular case, I am working through issues and thinking about that aspect of my life quite directly. However, I also write to take my mind off of my everyday life and its obstacles and anxieties.

This leads back to writing as an escape (which is part of why I love writing, as I stated above) and back to another reason why I write… and why I hope to one day be published and have others read my work: I want others to enjoy reading my books as much as I enjoy writing them… and hope that they can use them to escape the realities of their lives as I have, at least for a little while.