I’m between projects, a rare event for me. The books just released or releasing soon (A Gladiator’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Romance anthology, and Death at the Crystal Palace) are all finished, in their final form, and done.

A big sigh of relief when a book is final, but now I must turn to my next round of projects.

In my head are stories for the next generation of Mackenzies, Captain Lacey, Kat Holloway, and more. To get these ideas into story form instead of daydreams while I’m walking or doing dishes or working on dollhouses, I need to put pen to paper.

So out come the notebooks!

I have a large collection of notebooks that I pick up here and there (or are gifted to me). I get away from the computer, go outside or into a room that relaxes me, and start brainstorming.

It’s amazing how “Jamie sees a young woman” changes from dim, misty figure to full-fledged character as I start writing notes. My brain kind of wakes up and knows what to do. (Yes, I’m deliberately hiding what I wrote about Jamie Mackenzie. I’m scribbling, crossing out, developing his heroine. On the right is me thinking out what Shifter books are coming up.)

Here’s part of my journal collection. You can probably guess I love guitars.

I’ve started collecting notebooks as souvenirs from places I travel. Here we have (bottom right to left): from Portugal and Hawaii, and at the top from the Museo Art Nouveau from Salamanca, Spain. Such a beautiful, beautiful small museum. I went to Salamanca to look for the Napoleonic Wars and Captain Lacey and became entranced by the Casa Lis!

These notebooks are well used, not just pretty to look at:

Many of these are already full of my notes, sometimes rough drafts (I write longhand on airplanes or any time I’m tired of the computer).

All these rough notes have to be typed (by me), but they help me figure out where I’m going with the story or character before I become invested typing out the story on my computer (then my fingers fly).

I don’t write all my books longhand or plot them out carefully before I write. Heavens, no, that would be too organized.

But my notebooks help engage my imagination and give me a push in the right direction.

I suppose also if I’m ever accused of not writing my own books, I can wave these notebooks and say, “See this scrawl? It’s all me!” 🙂

Are you a notebook hoarder like me?