Little People Stories

The other day, I picked up four boxes of my childhood in the form of Fisher Price Little People items: the house; airport with two airplanes and helicopters; the little town with its post office, barber shop, police station, fire station, theatre, restaurant, garage and dentist office; the castle with knights, coach, horses, dragons, king, queen, princes and princess; the schoolhouse and the garage. Plus all of the cars, trucks, boats, chairs, tables and Little People themselves. Talk about a walk down memory lane!

I played with these toys for hours as a child, making up countless stories about the people and places. With these Little People, I traveled all over the world and had numerous adventures, laying the groundwork for my adult life as a writer. Now, my children are playing with the Little People and all of their accompanying stuff. I hear them making up their own stories about the lives of these toys and it warms my heart. Perhaps one of them will grow up to tell stories, too.

Having spent my childhood developing my imagination has served me well in my chosen vocation as a writer. Even though my life as a professional freelance writer is writing stories about real people, products and events, my still-active imagination allows me to dabble in fiction stories, too.

Right now, I’m attempting to write a novel in a month as part of National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org/), which challenges you to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. My work, a cozy mystery, is entitled “Cinderella’s Slipper”: Can a gal with two left feet find the dancing partner of her dreams and solve a murder-mystery?

Thus far, I’m at 26,255 words (hey, I have four children, including a 5-month-old baby, so I think I’m doing pretty good). My husband reminds me that the month is more than half over, which is not very encouraging, but hopefully I’ll be able to spend more time at the computer over the Thanksgiving holiday and meet the deadline of November 30. I might just barely squeak by, but whatever I end up with, it’s been a great experience, one that has rejuvenated my fiction writing life.

Until next time,


Sarah