"Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable." ~ Francis Bacon

So yesterday this girl showed up in my mind. Normal teenage girl. Not a witch or a demon hunter or a werewolf or even a vampire boyfriend to speak of. Well, there might be a ghost in her house, but really, that's not the important part. She came with a name, a Dad, a job, a story. I typed up the first 5 pages or so of rough story yesterday and this morning I'm working out the rest of my notes.

So far, I like it. I mean, it's shiny and new, which makes it a fun toy. I'm not going to work on it too much more now unless something major pops into my head, but it's nice to get the ideas down while they're flowing. And it's a good ego boost- getting stuck on chapter 31 in W&F has been driving me nuts, but knowing I can still just write and that even though a lot of it's crap that there are kernels of good ideas there really helps.

I know I've got a lot of work to do before the end of this year (not the least of which includes the not-so-creative thank-you notes for my wedding...), but at least with ideas like this one coming to me, I know the last couple years of good, hard work hasn't just been a fluke and that I just need to keep going.