Change and Creativity by Kait Carson

One of my favorite books and movies when I was a child was Auntie Mame. My Aunt Annie, a denizen of Greenwich Village and a contemporary of Marion Tanner, the real Auntie Mame, shared the same zest and philosophy of life. Aunt Annie also taught me that life is meant to be lived, and change is a good thing. Even unexpected change. Maybe especially unexpected change. Most of the family found her an embarrassment. I thought she was wonderful.

In this time of COVID-19, my husband and I had been living in Southwest Florida. I was crafting mysteries (not so often as I would have liked) and working more than full-time as a probate paralegal. With COVID numbers climbing in our county, and my entire office working remotely, hubs and I decided it was time to fly the coop. We have a home in Maine and becoming COVID refugees seemed ideal. So, I took three weeks’ vacation, we packed the house, rented an RV, and set off in our hotel on wheels for the Crown of Maine with our three cats and six conures.

I’d forgotten how much I missed Maine. It’s too far away to come for a long weekend, so we hadn’t visited in nine years. As soon as my feet hit terrafirma I raced up the hill to visit my woods. We have 167 acres of which 142 are wooded. The trail was overgrown, and mosquitos were gnawing at my ankles and I didn’t care. On the way back to the house I felt my creative well filling, a feeling that had been absent for eight of the past nine years.

It occurred to me on that walk that all of my short stories but one and all of my books but two had been written in Maine. They were polished and sold in Florida, but Maine had birthed them. Now ideas were bubbling so fast that I didn’t have time to commit them to paper. Instead, I fingered the audio recorder on my phone and started dictating. It was a delirious time.

The other shoe dropped when I got home and found a message from my office telling me that by moving to Maine, I had resigned. There was a brief moment of shock followed by a feeling of joy. I channeled my internal Auntie Mame/Annie and rejoiced in the opportunity. I could follow my dream and live my life as a full-time writer. None of those newly hatched ideas would go to waste because I didn’t have the time. Now was the time.

I’m excited by the possibilities. For the first time in my life I’m able to wake up and not only smell the coffee, but be part of the delicious mix of caffeine and richness. The first book of my new series has three more chapters to edit before it goes to beta readers. I’m writing a blog post earlier than the week before it’s due, and I’m surfing an embarrassment of story ideas for magazines.

Yep, life is a banquet – and I’m filling my plate.