'Tis The Season... For Nanowrimo.

In the spirit of Nanowrimo, I have committed to do two things. For one, I am going to meet the 50,000 word goal, and all of those words will be going to the Sentinel Series. The best part about that is that I only have about that many words left on Blood and Water. Good news, right? The other thing is that I have accepted the challenge to do a writing prompt for my blog every day. If you have suggestions about what you would like me to write about, feel free to email me at cjethingtonbooks@gmail.com and I will see what i can do. 

Until then, let's get started, shall we? 

#1. What Made Me Start Writing.

If you've read my author bio, you have seen that I claim to have been making up stories since before I could write. This is all true, though I'm surprised I remember it. 

When I was four, I used to make my mom create homework assignments for me so that I could sit at the table and do my "work" while my older sisters were doing their's. Normally, it would be math problems and coloring. This was back when I liked math. In other words, a time before my alphabet and my numbers joined together to confuse me. 

Anyway, one day, my older sister was talking with my mother about a creative writing assignment she had to do for school. I wasn't sure what she was talking about, but it sure sounded like fun. So, like any other little sister would do, I eavesdropped. 

My sister broke into an elaborate story about a little girl with an imaginary friend. Even now, I can remember the way the imaginary friend's red hair flew around her head like flames. She had green eyes and would cause mischief everywhere she went. This was back before we ever saw Drop Dead Fred, by the way. I imagined the types of mischief the red-headed girl would cause. And later on, I wished that I had an imaginary friend of my own. 

In case you were wondering, I have many now, but never had one when I was younger. 

Over the years, I must have written a story about a little red-headed imaginary friend at least twenty times and in every medium and genre possible. Eventually, that character spawned many others and she faded into the background. 

Before anyone feels the need to point out that this was plagiarism, let me say this:

A little while ago, I asked my older sister if she remembered that story and if she had been annoyed by me copying it throughout our childhood. She said she had no idea what I was talking about. That actually made me feel a lot better. 

That same sister (let's call her Wendy because, well, that's her name), inspired me more than she will ever know with my writing. She not only gave me the little red-headed imaginary friend, but she instilled a love of fairy tales within me. At one point, I even decided to write fan fiction of her favorite show when it ended. It was awful and she never saw it, but it was exceptionally good practice.