We all know so many things…intellectually, emotionally, and even physically…but there are more things that we don’t know and most of them, we never will.  My genre, currently, is urban fantasy and there are vampires, witches, and various other fantastical creatures.  Aside from the fact that I enjoy the genre, I like the fact that I can make the majority of the book up.  We all know the lore surrounding vampires but over the years the characteristics and abilities of vampires have changed drastically.  They sparkle, they can go out into the sunlight, they are more human-like, they can reproduce, they can love, etc…  So, for a writer, it’s like a blank canvas that has an almost invisible silhouette drawn on it and I have a full palette of paint to use on it.  I can create entire worlds or take our current world and shape it any way that I want.  I can take everyday ordinary objects and make them magical.  I can do the same with animals or I can create my own.  In my book, Rapture, I took present-day Dallas and gave it a magical underground.  It’s fun.  It’s cathartic.  It gives me freedom when I write.  I wander around that world as I write it and I feel like an explorer because I’m actually seeing it for the first time as I go along.  Somewhere in Rapture, I took a wrong turn and I am not in the place I’d like to be.  That’s why I’m editing and rewriting it…retracing my steps and going off in new directions.  This trip is a bit more difficult than the original one but it’s still an adventure.  So, I am going to eat lunch and then jump back into my adventure.  I’ll see you later when I get back.