The hills rolled by and the trees scattered across the plains like little soilders waiting in attention, and although they were just hills or just trees and it was just another blue sky day … I was in no ordinary place, I was on Prince Edward Island, the birthplace and inspiration of the famed author, Lucy Maud Montgomery.

I can’t tell you what a “thrill” it was to walk through the green gabled house where the fictional character “Anne” was born, to traipse down “Lover’s Lane” with my eight-year-old son and husband, and to creep through the “Haunted Forest,” all the imaginations of Anne. The heavily wooded patch and trail led to Diana’s home, at least in the book it did. But in real life it led to an 18 hole golf course where two elderly gentleman were tediously searching for their stray ball.

This experience in my small life gave me the will power to keep going on with my writing. I really do teeter back and forth about all the time and brain space writing takes away from my family and my life. I should celebrate the fact that I’m a creative soul but truthfully it seems like a real burden to me more than half the time and then the other half of the time there’s this compelling drive to not just write but to be published.

I asked my husband why he thought I wanted to be published so badly. Was it my ego or some other terrible flaw in my personality? He said something that I thought was profound and very helpful to me on many levels. He said, “You have a need to touch people; that connects you to them in an intimate way.”

Isn’t that a lovely way of putting it?

So today I’m back in front of this computer, pounding my fingertips on this keyboard, hoping to create or write something that will touch all of you. 

What I said before about resting from writing never happened. In fact, I think I’ve been writing more the past 10 days than I ever have. The SCBWI helped me find a critique buddy, a nice stay at home mom like me … named Grace, who gave me some excellent suggestions for BAREFOOT.

Although I did have a “rest” of sorts when we went to San Diego last week. I’ll post a picture of me and my hubby (our son was busy with his cousins). We got to see our family. Here are my thoughts about that:

Family is a place we go to remember who we are. They know all of our stories and sometimes there’s nothing new to talk about when we’re all together, and still somehow … it feels right.

It feels like HOME.