The Magic of Paper

September brings many things to love. There’s the final harvest from our vegetable garden, the glorious arrival of Pumpkin Spice Coffee, and the opportunity to enjoy some quality time outdoors without frying to a crisp. 

Best of all, the month of September is perfectly placed between my two favorite seasons, Halloween and Back-to-School.

Back-to-School? Yup, it's officially classed as a season in my mind, and I look forward to it. Like the classic Staples ad used to sing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year..." 

Yet it’s not because I have kids heading off to class and I'm anticipating some peace and quiet. I have 2 dogs, 30+ chickens, 2 roosters and a neighborhood with many ATV enthusiasts, children, feral cats, and a drummer who lives next door. “Peace and quiet” is definitely not in my future.

Nope, the real magic of September is in all the wonderful office supplies that go on sale just as the delightful Halloween decorations appear!

And my favorite? 

PAPER!

Lined, unlined, reams, pads, loose-leaf, you name it... I’ve never met a piece of paper I didn’t like. It’s purest zen for me to wander the aisles of Staples or Office Depot, inhaling the heady combined scent of all that marvelously pristine stationery.

Don't even get me started on sticky notes.

At any given time, there are enough supplies socked away in my crowded office to outfit a small classroom. But the appeal of it has nothing to do with school (my apologies to teachers everywhere) and everything to do with 

P-O-S-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y

Truth:  Ever since I was a kid, I’ve found an amazing bliss in simply contemplating the sheer potential of all that magnificently blank material. I find myself smiling, my brain kicks into high gear and my imagination begins whirling away at the very thought of ALL THE STORIES just waiting to be written. 

It’s a library that hasn’t happened yet, a bookstore on the verge of existence. 

See? Magic.

And in that magic lies every writer's hope: that if I work really hard and keep my mind open, maybe, just maybe, some of the magic will leach out of the paper and into the words I write.


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THE GRIM SERIES by Dani Harper

The fae are cunning, powerful and often cruel. The most beautiful among them are often the most deadly. Hidden far beneath the mortal world, the timeless faery realm plays by its own rules—and those rules can change on a whim. Now and again, the unpredictable residents of that mystical land cross the supernatural threshold…

In this enchanting romance series from Dani Harper, the ancient fae come face-to-face with modern-day humans and discover something far more potent than their strongest magic: love.

See ALL Dani's novels on her Amazon Author Page

Where Do Writers Write?

We often wonder how a story gets written. But do you ever wonder WHERE it was written? Thanks to today's technology, authors are no longer tied to a typewriter and a desk. 

In this post, some of the Here Be Magic authors have shared their favorite writing locations, unusual places to work, and sometimes getting the work done any which where you can! 

...

MAUREEN:
"Usually you can find me writing in my home office in front of my window but since I have a laptop I take my writing with me everywhere. I'll write in the living room, on my standing treadmill desk and even at lunch time at the day job.

"A few unusual places I've worked on my laptop include my car while waiting for the kids activities, on an airplane and at the beach." ~ Maureen  L. Bonatch

JODY:
"I am best in my nest. I confess, it’s a mess. It’s a couch, I’m a grouch, I don’t like to go out...

"But when I had young children, the strangest place I ever wrote was in the after school pickup line on an Alpha Smart because my laptop was too big to fit behind the steering wheel. I am not what you’d call a flexible writer when it comes to my work setting." ~ Jody Wallace

P.G.:  
"My favorite place that I've written is on the deck of a cruise ship. We took a cruise to Hawaii during spring break one year and the trip included 4 days at sea. This was back in the day when my kids were still at home, so normally I'd have been on mom duty. But not that week!

"I saw my family at meals, of course, and after dinner as well, but other than that... the kids were safe, supervised and happily occupied. My husband was off doing his own thing. And I got 7 hours a day of uninterrupted writing time--not to mention a perfectly gorgeous view of sky and sea, as well as unlimited coffee delivered right to my table. It was glorious." ~ P.G. Forte

LINDA:  
"I have a sweet little Chrome laptop that’s small enough to fit into my purse. I take it EVERYWHERE with me, because you never know when you’ll get stuck somewhere for any length of time.

"I’ve found myself writing at the automotive shop when I needed to get my car’s tires rotated (2 hrs.), or the oil changed (45 min.) I’ve written while waiting at the doctor’s office, and once while stuck at  a railroad crossing, waiting for the train to go by. I’ve gotten as little as a couple of paragraphs done, up to a whole chapter! But every little bit helps, right?" ~ Linda Mooney

DANI:  
"At home I have an exercise bike with a desktop plus an office. In spite of that, its the kitchen table that seems to get used the most. Away from home, it's always been "have laptop, will travel" for me. In the car, in the library, in a coffee shop, in an airport, at a campground picnic table... Name the place, I'll try to write there.

"When we lived in Alaska, we were commercial salmon fishermen. My hubs built a tiny little desktop in front of the mate's chair in the wheelhouse for me, and that worked fairly well during downtime if the ocean wasn't too rough. One time, a big wave caught us broadside and green water swamped my open window while I was typing. Like any true writer, my first instinct was to SAVE THE STORY! I slammed the laptop shut just in time! I was soaked, but my work survived." ~ Dani Harper

NICOLE: 
I don't have a formal home office, rather my laptop is set up in the almost-never-used dining room. (And on those rare family dinners when I do use it, I have to dig it out from under a blizzard of paper first.) But that's only half the picture. I plan out my novels and edit them longhand while curled up on the much comfier living room couch. ~ Nicole Luiken