Must Write

Now I have no excuses. My husband and three brilliant children gave me a Mac iBook for my birthday. That means I must write. Every day. Everywhere. Every little thing that pops into my brain. Okay, not everything.

My son told me that now, I can strap on my iPod, pack up my iBook, head to the coffee shop, and look just like a college kid. That’s sweet. But I think he’s overlooking a few other things, like a few gallons of botox, a breast lift, and some serious liposuction around the ab region, and I do mean region.

I am having a little bit of trouble with the new iBook keyboard and lack of a real mouse. Who knew a gal could get so used to having a mouse at the ready, but I feel like I’m physically-challenged using this finger thing. And every time I try to delete my klutzy errors, I hit the +/= key and end up with equal signs smattered throughout my writing == or wrutung, as I just wrote. So, now I can find a quiet spot, within wireless reach, and jot down my thoughts.

Of course, that’s been possible for generations. I mean, Jane Austen seemed to find a place to call her own and string together a few memorable moments. But, I haven’t been able to write more than a grocery list, things to pack, or maybe one really big idea on real paper for at least a decade.

If you’re trying to do the math that was when I was thirty-eight—I’m forty-eight now, which actually seems young to my fifty and older friends. I’ve found the best way to feel young is to have older friends.

Anyway, back to the writing. It’s not that I don’t have terrific material. As I said, I have three brilliant children. All three teenagers. Two are identical male twins, in their senior year of high school. For the majority of writing parents, that alone is enough to guarantee a book publishing contract. My daughter is fourteen and happy. I’ve found a lot of parents don’t want to hear that. Fourteen, female and happy just seems unreasonable to some. My husband is a successful voice actor who also does live and on-camera work, which clearly makes his work more important than mine. I work part-time at a neighborhood toy and science store.