I confess that I’m a daydreamer. Big time. For much of my life, I used those dreams to try fixing whatever was going on in my life and make them turn out the way I imagined. Admittedly, that typically didn’t happen. But all that changed when I got serious about my writing and put my daydreaming skills to much better use in the fiction I create.

Author Stephen King put it well when he said writing is telepathic. That came from his book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” and when I read it, I totally agreed that, at least for me, when I sit down at my computer, the words come from somewhere else. I never work by outlines. I don’t plan ahead. Frankly, I don’t even know “who dunnit” when I start one of my Isabel Long Mysteries. I’m figuring that out along Isabel.

Often times, the next chapter will pop into my head when I’m driving or doing some mindless chore. I can remember once weeding my garden when I got a revelation about the relationship between two characters that I had to leave what I was doing and run inside to write — it also changed the focus of my novel, The Sweet Spot.

Currently, I’m writing Following the Lead, number six in the Isabel Long Mystery Series. I am only 15,000 words into it so the story line and characters are still fluid. It’s too soon to give details about the book except in this one a baby was kidnapped from her front yard fifty years ago and never found. At first, the baby’s father had since died. But then a much more exciting idea popped into my head as I was taking a shower — I kid you not — that the father was indeed alive and actually one of the gossipy old men who hang out at the town’s general store. Isabel has counted on the Old Farts, as she calls them although they don’t know it, for tips and background for her cases. Naturally, she’s wary about how she will handle news that she’s pursuing this case to the group. That was a fun chapter to write.

I write because I thoroughly enjoy the experience. And it is so gratifying when I can share that enjoyment with my books’ readers.

NOTE OF THANK: I am glad so many people downloaded Chasing the Case, no. 1 in my series, during the two-day freebie promotion Feb. 27-28. Thanks to a promo with BookBub, it was no. 1 on Amazon for free Kindle books in the US, UK and Canada and in three categories. Fellow authors tell me it’s a game changer. I hope so.

ANOTHER NOTE: I originally wrote this post for Jo Fenton, a fellow darkstroke books author, in May. Here is an updated version with a new title. Here is Jo’s blog: https://jofenton137.com

ABOUT THE PHOTO ABOVE: The Deerfield River running through my Shelburne Falls Village changes with the winter. Here the river has an icy, snowy texture. That’s the well-known Bridge of Flowers.

LINK TO MY BOOKS: https://www.amazon.com/Joan-Livingston/e/B01E1HKIDG