It is Sunday evening. I spent much of this afternoon with my daughter Shannon pinning pictures of possible gatekeeper crystals to the Pinterest page for The Portal’s Choice. Shannon is my girl voice, my 17 year-old model for teenage female language and behavior. And she is graduating from high school next week and heading off to college. I am very glad to have had her so close as I wrote The Portal’s Choice.  Actually I’m glad to have had her close for the last 17 years. Still, I often wonder what I’m going to do when I get stuck writing The Forgotten Gate, book two in The Gatekeepers of Em’pyrean series and need a good word, or perfect phrase. She tells me to call. I will. But I know that she’ll be busy. It won’t be the same.

As I write, my two sons, Andrew, the oldest, and Jonathon, my youngest, arrive in the kitchen. Shannon will be back soon from a graduation party for one of her friends.  I am very happy that all three of them and my husband are here.  I remember sending Andrew to college and I recovered from that experience. I will survive my daughter’s leaving as well. And I will call them both when I miss hearing their voices. But for this evening, I am shutting down the computer for some quiet time with all of them out on our beautiful patio. Then, tomorrow I will get back to work on The Forgotten Gate while I have my female muse still in residence.