Unexpected

There are a lot of unexpected things that happen in a life. In the lives of my characters things seldom turn out as they originally planned. Male or female, human or dragon, they are forced to think quickly and launch into alternative plans. As the creator of the characters, I can say that my life is filled with the unexpected.

There are three ways to look at a forced change of plans. “Oh no, how could this have happened? Who did this?” Looking for someone to blame has never helped any plan move forward. “Where does this leave us? Are we done, can we quit now?” Quitting seldom gets you to the end goal. “Huh, what can we do to move this forward now?” This is looking to formulate a plan and keep moving.

If you are like me the initial reaction is usually a combo of all three and then when I am done with the “Oh no, “ stage of processing, I move to planning to get out of trouble and keep moving forward. Of course, I have had a LOT of practice because my life is filled with interesting unexpected turns, bumps, and detours. In that I gave Grabon and Heron the same traits and abilities. It is one of the reasons I like them so much.

My best example of spinning wheels when the unexpected comes to call was when I found myself in the hospital in need of emergency surgery. I just needed time to plan to be absent from work, to make sure everything else was all right. Hooked to a nitro drip and trying not to have a heart attack, I was worried about my routine. Friends and my wonderful husband handled all that while I was sent floating on a sedative wave of contentment.

Nobody planned to live through a pandemic at the beginning of the 21st century, yet I hope we all manage to survive. Just like my characters, I hope we make the adjustments needed seamlessly and deal with the unexpected in productive ways. It is very easy to get caught up in other people’s drama games and distractions. Keep moving forward; protect yourselves, your families, your community.

Oh, and read a book and leave me a review. 😁