FACE THE WORLD WITH CHILDLIKE WONDER

We have a large magnolia tree at the corner of our front porch. She's already blooming and it's only the end of February. Like me, she can never wait for Spring. A few days of sun and gentler breezes and she's ready to burst forth. I greet each opening bud like a child. "Oh, look!"

Calvin affectionately calls me "the dreamer." And I am. I've always been rather starry-eyed, full of wonder and "what if's."

Most writers are, I think. While we mentally dream of things or places, story ideas form. We all have time periods that call to us. In Susan Macatee's blog yesterday, she wrote of past lives, wondering if that's why certain eras and places call to us as writers. That got me to thinking: What if...?

What if my fascination for certain time periods and places had a reason, an emotional trigger? Is that why I love reading stories set in certain eras and countries? Or do I favor them because some skilled writer made me fall in love with the clanging of the swords, the buggy rides in the country or the swish and sway of silks at a ball?

Why do I love reading about the second world war, but not the first? Why did I love walking the streets of Paris, almost feeling at home there, when walking the streets of Berlin makes my pulse race and fear tiptoe up my spine? Or why I love the look of a man in a kilt? No matter his age...sigh. Sean Connery, you never looked better; proof positive that some men improve with age.

Could that be why most any man looks more appealing when riding a horse?

...Or not. Ah...sorry, I digress.

No matter our affinities for certain time periods or places, we infuse our magic of thought, our childlike wonder into our writings. We share the magic, but first we create it. We are word magicians, you see. May sparks of fancy and enchantment flow from your fingertips today. Write on!!!