I won't go as far as to say that writing is the love of my life, but each story I've written is like a small affair to me. There's the day we meet, that brilliant moment of inception when a simple premise enters my mind. I spend the day, the week, months thinking about the story, planning out our possible future. The actual writing process is like getting to know her, seeing what the story unfolds into, how it responds to what I do. Sometimes the story is aggressive and takes its own course, other times it's a connection that's lost before it comes to fruition. I look back on old pieces I've written, sometimes ashamed of what I've produced. Other times I'm nostalgic, and even envious of that something that I can never enjoy as an author again. I've got some pieces on the backburner that may never come off. And sometimes I set it all aside for the more important things in life. But it will always be there, and I will always find new affairs to obsess over. And that's what writing is like to me. That's why I do it.

-7/30/12-

Here we are, back so soon. I've updated this one quickly (on schedule), since it's mostly a setup for the next chapter.
Oh, and we've officially crossed the 60,000 word mark! Not that there's anything special about that number, just the way the site categorizes things. I'ma keep on writin' and go for the big one: 64,000 here we come!

Ric Pike