Ah...I love ooh, shiny new ideas

I'm actually writing something else. Or I was. But then my sister happened to ask me what our address was when I was in middle school/junior high, because she was trying to find it on google maps. I doubt the house is still standing--I found some possible sites, but I don't think the house is there, or maybe I didn't find the right spot. (It was a postal route address.) What a horrible place that was! An old farmhouse, the kind with doors to the outside from every room, and in a terrible state of disrepair. Sort of symbolic of my life at that time... So I never thought I'd come up with an idea that was actually light and funny and entertaining based on that place. But...this shiny new idea has invaded my mind, and even though I had plans to watch a movie tonight and do other things, ahh...I just keep thinking up more things about the story. See, this is why I write. It's not because I want to have written a book (um, okay, sometimes I do wish it was done!), not because I want to Be An Author, like something to check off--go on a cruise. Check. Climb a mountain. Check. Be on [insert popular talk show here] for writing a book and becoming Famous! Rich! Check. Etc. Um, no. I write books because these ideas come crawling out of my brain, and I didn't even know they were there. And sometimes they are scary and sometimes they are wonderful and usually they are surprising. And I try to get published because sometimes they are so surprising that I want someone else to get the same feeling I have when they read those ideas.

I've written only one rough chapter, and taken several pages of notes. But I had a bunch of kids over today to play with mine, and the subject came up, and even the neighbor kids were engaged by the idea. And they aren't in the habit of Humoring the Mad Writer, so...