When Inspiration Strikes... You Listen

Early one morning, in March 2017, I woke up with two lines in my head:

"My name is Lilac Sophia Carpenter, and I'm sixteen years old. I'm going to be sixteen years old for the rest of my life."

That's how the main character for Lilac in Winter introduced herself, her voice so strong and so clear, I couldn't rest until I shared her story.

So I didn't.

I wrote the first draft in three weeks, her story pouring out of me day and night. Up until then, the brain fog from Lyme had been so severe, I was forgetting basic words, and the fatigue so great, it was all I could do to get up in the morning. But for those three weeks, there was clarity. There was energy.

There was a reason for it.

I can recognize now what I didn't understand then: I channeled this novel.

It took a few years before I finally published it in March 2019--practically two years to the day of when I opened up that blank document and began typing. I queried it to agents, got some requests and feedback, and added Nathan's POV as I polished it, but for the most part, Lilac in Winter remained the same as when I wrote it in that three week writing flury.

That same month--March 2019--I knew I wasn't done...

I remember driving along a wooded road, a dusting of snow on the ground. All of a sudden, there he was:

Nathan.

"“From the second I met her, I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with Lilac Sophia Carpenter. Turns out, life had other plans.”

The sequel to Lilac in Winter was born. Nathan wanted to tell his side of the story.

But it was complicated. I was essentially writing a series of books backwards, untangling interconnecting family histories that spanned the decades all in one town. How did I get here? How did one precocious twelve year old girl named Annie somehow spawn five more books stemming from her story?

In February, it all started coming together.

This morning, at 4am, I woke up with Nathan and Lilac present and ready for me to write again.

So I wrote.

And wrote.

And now I'm 3500 words in on a messy, note-ridden sequel. This isn't the polished prose that streamed through when Lilac was sharing her story. It's bits and pieces of a puzzle that I'm putting together as I go.

But somehow, for Nathan, it makes sense that this is how it's happening.

And if I trust the process, I know it will all come together as it's meant to.

Here we go...