As a writer, I think my most important asset (or tool, depending on your perspective) is my imagination.

My mom has always said that I had a big imagination when I was a kid. I had an imaginary friend (Heggy)–we ate together, told secrets, and played for hours. I actually loved to play by myself when I was a kid. I could sit and imagine…well, just about anything. Even when I played with my best friend (the boy next door), imagination was key. Luckily, B. had a great imagination, too, and when I’d say things like, “Hey, let’s go dig for dinousaurs!”  Well, he was ready with a shovel. (True story:  To my mother’s horror, she did walk into the backyard one day and discover that B. and I had vanished. Closer inspection revealed that we had just dug a hole about twelve feet into the ground and were in the middle of discussing the merits of continuing to dig for dinosaur bones or changing our plans and using the new “hole” as a secret room. That was one unhappy mother…)

Anyway…back to present times…my son turned two in December, and, since then, I’ve noticed that his imagination has kicked into serious overdrive. The boy can pull a magic key out of his pocket any time, any place. He creates entire cities–complete with a library, Bruno’s (grocery store) and all of his friends’ houses–out of his wooden blocks. He builds castles, he phones his friends, he has dog parties. (Yep, I said dog parties–I blame Dr. Seuss for that one. )  I love watching his imagination develop–it’s a really beautiful thing. Each day, I wonder…what is he going to do next?

That wonder…that’s the feeling that I like to have when I read a book. I like to wonder–what is the author going to do next? Because when an author makes me wonder…well, I’m sure appreciating her/his imagination!

I must be off now–got a cake baking in the oven. (Can’t have a  dog party without a cake, now, can you?)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.