Why Do I Keep Writing?

People frequently ask me—how do keep yourself motivated to work on your Heaven's Wait project? After all, it has been several years, and the progress has been so much slower than I anticipated. For me, motivation has never been an issue. For whatever reason, the concept of Heaven's Wait landed in my head. Now that I know so much about the place and I'm so attached to the folks who live there, there is no question that I will move forward with this project until the larger story that lives inside my head has been told.

The great thing about fiction is that it takes you to places and worlds you never before imagined. I find it endlessly fascinating that the brain is capable of creating such realms. I never thought I would find myself working on a project such as this one. I'm sure many of you out there cannot imagine taking on such a project. But when an idea, no matter how outlandish, pops into your head, why ignore it? Just think of the fascinating places we could visit if all of us fell into a project such as mine, where you created a new world, as well as its inhabitants. We would have more interesting places to explore than time would ever allow. My guess is that literary fiction has already reached that point.

My biggest challenge and responsibility is to find a way to share with others the world that exists within my brain. Heaven's Wait is of no value to anyone if it remains locked within my head. As I've said before, if the lives of even a few people out there are someday touched because they learned about Heaven's Wait, its oddball residents, and the stories that emerged from their world, if I make a difference in another person's life because of my journey, then the road will have been well worth traveling.

I will keep on writing as long as a creative door remains open to me. I look forward to writing's companionship and the wealth of creative moments it presents to me.