AUG 14, 2025
Dear Reader,
I’m deep in the word mines. This past week I’ve gone nowhere but the grocery store, and I’ve done nothing except write, eat, drink coffee, rinse, repeat.
I’m vaguely aware that summer is ending because I’ve seen kids with backpacks and Target has a school supply section.
Someone asked me a question this week, and it got me thinking about a dinner I attended with Mr. Melinda. Since my life revolves around the manuscript right now, I thought I’d answer it here. (Feel free to reply to this newsletter if you have a question. I’m pretty sure it comes straight to me.)
Where do you get ideas for characters?
The man who asked me that had built a business from the ground up with nothing more than his own drive and ambition. He was full of energy and enthusiasm and really didn’t like silence. In other words, he talked so fast and so much it was all I could do to keep up. He did, however, fully focus on me after he asked me that question. I had the impression he really wanted to know the answer. He made me feel seen, and understood, and he made me feel like I was the most interesting person in the room. THAT, my friends, is a character.
The three of us sat with two older gentlemen: one was a professor and one was an entrepreneur who’d made a fortune and then some. They played pranks on each other during dinner and giggled like schoolgirls over whether they would get caught if they tried to steal the bottle of wine off the table.
So how did I answer my companion’s question? I gave a nod to the rest of the table and said there. Those are characters. Then I grinned at him and said so are you.
He seemed very happy with that answer.
Until next time,
**Book News**
GaG — Current Word Count: 52,746. That’s definitely a lie. There are extra words floating around in there like bugs. I’m still in the process of re-writing the sections I shoved cruelly aside, but I like where it’s going now so I don’t think I’ll have to hack up the manuscript again. I hope.
Chapter Three Header: Spite Tea
Favorite Line of the Week: (since I’m starting over, this one is from Chapter Three)
“We’ve survived another week without being ground down under the heel of our family’s expectations. We are sisters united, not by blood but by choice, and by our collective ability to disappoint our families.”
I’ve discovered a liking for Matcha Latte. Darn you Starbucks!