A Writer's Journey Part III

Please welcome back author Peg Phifer with the continuing story of her journey to publication. Peg will tell her story in a series of posts the third Thursday of every month on this blog. (Apologies for my SECOND date error!  This is the FOURTH Thursday in August! Hopefully I'll learn to count soon!) Leave a comment after any post in the series to be placed in a drawing to win a copy of Peg's debut novel, To See The Sun.

In my last post, I ended with:

I'd been away from Milwaukee far too long to remember much about it. Besides, much I was familiar with had drastically changed. 

(If you missed Part I, click here.)

So, I moved Tori up north into an area I was more recently acquainted with.

The writer's journey is a crazy carnival ride. Pick a ride, any ride. Even the placid Merry-Go-Round keeps you going in circles. The more intense rides have you twisting and spinning in every direction, upsetting your inner "gyro's," as I like to call them.

Anyway, Tori leaves Milwaukee, a cast off and apparently unwanted wife. She flees to northern Wisconsin where her best friend, Maggie, has a summer cottage. With keys in hand, Tori enters her temporary home in the north. There's this Forest Ranger she bumps into—literally—and sparks fly. Then there's a horrid storm, then a forest fire . . .

But Tori still has a husband. How do I solve this so she can fall in love with the Ranger?

I tried everything. Her husband was dying from some horrible disease and didn't want her to see him suffer so he sent her away. Rubbish.

Nothing worked, and the more I wrote the more I realized I didn't know THIS area any better than I knew Milwaukee.

Finally, the old writer's mantra hit home. WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW. Okay, I thought that's what I'd been doing. But, it wasn't. Too many years had passed and I no longer had the familiarity of those places I used to call home.

Finally, finally, the Lord showed me where I needed to be: right here in my now adopted home town, Las Vegas.

So I (figuratively) packed up my bags and brought Tori to Vegas, changed her name, and worked from a whole different perspective.

And I've never looked back.

Next month, digging in and making it work.

Be sure to return for more of Peg's story on Thursday, September 20th, for more of Peg's story. Don't forget to leave a comment on any post in the series to be entered in the giveaway for a copy of Peg's debut novel, To See The Sun.