There are those times when sitting at the keyboard feels like something other than work. It is very close to magic. You feel your characters. You know your story. You find the words. You’re in the groove.
It’s been a long time since I’ve found the groove. I’ve searched for it. I pretended I’d found it but I wasn’t fooling myself.
Last weekend I found it again. Not sure where I found it, but it was there. It took me a long time to realize where I was but when I did, I knew I couldn’t let it get away again. So I took an extra day off for this long holiday weekend and I’m hoping I can keep it for an entire five days. If I can keep it, this will be a very good weekend indeed.
I know why I lost it before. I wasn’t writing every day and I let it get away. In fact there were weeks when I didn’t write and you can’t find the groove if you stay away from it for so long.
Now that I have it again, I hope I can be smarter and keep it and write. Every day.
M. L. Doyle has served in the U.S. Army at home and abroad for more than two decades as both a soldier and civilian. Mary is the author of The Desert Goddess series, an urban fantasy romp consisting of The Bonding Spell and The Bonding Blade. She has also penned The Master Sergeant Harper mystery series which has earned numerous awards including an IPPY, a Lyra Award and the Carrie McCray Literary Award. Mary is the co-author of two memoirs; A Promise Fulfilled; the story of a Wife and Mother, Soldier and General Officer (Jan. 201) and the memoir, I’m Still Standing: From Captive U.S. Soldier to Free Citizen—My Journey Home (Touchstone, 2010), which was nominated for an NAACP Image award. Mary's work has been published by The Goodman Project, The War Horse, The WWrite Blog and The Wrath-Bearing Tree, an online magazine for which she serves as a fiction editor. A Minneapolis, Minnesota native, Mary current lives in Baltimore. You can reach her at her website at mldoyleauthor.com.
