The Way of a Writer

The wind is blowing and the sky is clear, except for a wispy cloud stretched out above the Spring Mountains. And here I am sitting in my office…well, the corner booth at our local Carl’s Jr., where I can normally be found on any given day. Thankfully I have the franchise owners blessing. I am enjoying the 70 degree day vicariously…through a glass window! That is the way of a writer, the discipline of time!

I do get out to the desert and hike in the mountains several days a week. That too is part of my life as a writer. Hiking and climbing keeps me healthy in body and mind. That is important. I write in the early morning (two to three hours), head to the desert in the late morning (exercise for body and mind), and by mid-afternoon I am back for a couple more hours of writing.

There is a further benefit to getting out to the desert to hike and mountain climb. The beauty and intricacies of the desert stimulate my imagination. “The what of the desert?”

The desert has its own unique beauty, especially this part of the Mojave, with a broad variety of cacti, numerous wildflowers (at the right time of year), a multiplicity of desert plants, fascinating rock formations, an array of intriguing caves, derelict ghost mines, as well as interesting animals. There are wild mustangs and donkeys, a variety of lizards, roadrunners and cactus wrens, tortoises, rattlesnakes, and more. The Mojave Desert is a fantasy writer’s paradise…well, THIS fantasy writer’s paradise. However, fantasy is not all I write. I have written some non-fiction (The God Question and Mentoring Men in Ministry), a little poetry (published in magazines and anthologies), and a range of fiction works (Imagine Christmas, The Droll Child, Son of Cain, and Wanzalara’s Cottage).

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