I’m a story teller at heart.  I can’t help it.  I’m surprised people still ask me personal questions, because the reply is often long winded, detailed, and superfluous.  It’s just who I am.

But honestly, I think we are, as a species, story tellers.  More importantly, we are also story listeners.  Who doesn’t love a good story?  Our capacity to both create and enjoy a good story is part of what makes us transcendent.  Some of us tell our stories through the written word, through music, through humor, through art, through dance, through social media, or even simply standing by the water cooler.

And really, isn’t life just a story?  We all have our beginning, our middle, and our end.  We all have conflict, a climax, supporting characters, and various settings.  We recognize a plot twist, sometimes beforehand, but often after the fact.  We may be the hero, we may be the villain, but we’re probably a little bit of both as any well rounded character should be.

People often ask me where I get my ideas.  For me, the ideas simply happen.  Anything can trigger them, but it’s usually something from life itself.  Once the idea happens, it unfolds in my mind, it plays itself out, and all I have to do is watch it and write down what I see.  There is life within those ideas, life within life, and I firmly believe my characters take on a life of their own as a result.

So I hope you enjoy telling a good story, or listening to a good story, because to do so is to enjoy life.