That Lightening Bolt Moment

Okay, maybe it was not that dramatic.


On one of the first days of 1985, I laid on the couch trying to combat pregnancy nausea with a book of classic vampire stories. My two year old and eight month old were napping at the same time, a highly unusual occurance. I laid the book upside donw on my chest and decided to write a gothicy-style vampire novel.


Now, I had never written a novel, only short stories and one novella. Nor had I even written much fiction since my junior high school days, thanks to a series of illnesses in high school and a killer schedule in college. Since becoming a parent, I had not even read much fiction. I preferred the Bible, as well as books on pregnancy, childbirth, Cesarean sections (I've had six total), home birth (I've had none), breastfeeding (infants, toddlers, through pregnancy, and tandem), Christian parenting, and homeschooling.


Yet, by the time the kiddies had awakened, and I was soaping washclothes for diaper changes (Yes, I used cloth diapers, by choice), I had the rudiments of s story--a teenage girl falls in love with a vampire she meets by a remote lake--flowing through my mind.


Of course, the main character would be Melissa. That had been my name of choice for numerous childhood stories. Finally, Melissa would star in her "official" story. I decided to set her story in 1972 (I later changed it to 1975 simply because I wanted Halloween on a Friday) to give expansion room to the story. It was a slow growth.


The raising of six, lively, breastfed, homeschooled children left little time for writing. Drafts attempted in locked, toddler-proofed rooms offered little concentration. Those adorable little people who shared the space were more interested in tapping typewriting keys than playing with all the lovely, educational toys strewn on the floor. Many, many deleted scenes found their home in some landfill.


Yet, while other stories ideas have come and gone, this particular one would not go away. Finally, in 2007, I decided to write it as a novella for the seventeenth birthday of one of my sons. I figured it could write it in a weekend. I was wrong.