I – Imagination, has anybody seen mine? It was around here somewhere.

Seriously, where did it go?

When I was 5-years-old I told my babysitter that her car smelled like lime Jello. She told me it was just my imagination. For the next however many years, I literally thought that an imagination was the smell of lime Jello.

That story makes me laugh. Moving on.

Growing up we lived in the sticks, the parental’s still do. I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to hang out with neighborhood kids. I spent most of my time playing with the dogs or in my own little world. During the NKOTB rage I would listen to my cassette tapes with the my bedroom windows wide open, singing my little heart out, convinced that Danny, Donny, Joe, Jon and Jordan had nothing better to do than roam the countryside  in a tricked out spy-bus listening for a someone they could ask to go on tour with them. They must have never been to my part of the country or they totally would have picked me.

After discovering romance novels the summer after 5th grade I was introduced to the majesty of Regency England where roues and rakes accidentally kidnapped debutantes of good family and got them pregnant only to be forced to marry the chit by her overbearing brothers. Of course after having the baby and one giant misunderstanding after another the thick headed rake would have to save his unwanted wife from the clutches of his mortal enemy and in the process realize that he loved his wife more than he’d ever thought possible and he would carry her up to their bedchamber where they would live happily ever after. Until they showed up in another novel as secondary characters.

Pretty soon, Barbie was called Constance and Ken’s name was changed to Rolfe and they would dance around Almac’s between sessions of love making.

Lately, my imagination has been much harder to stoke. Maybe it was the depression scaring it into hiding. Or could it be the mind numbing monotony of my current job?  Especially since I finished my thesis and didn’t have to think or write any more.

I pulled out my old flash drives yesterday afternoon and began reading through some of the files. Between the two drives, I have over 200 story ideas/character outlines/first chapters, and most of them are actually good! I had to tear myself away from a couple as my mind kicked into gear and I began reintroducing myself to the characters. I can feel my imagination right under the surface arduously making its way through the muck of my brain to grab a breath of fresh air and maybe take a look around.

Come on Imagination! You can do it! Just a little farther!

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