This popped into my inbox this week. I glanced at it and thought, “Hrm.” I didn’t delete it as I do sometimes, nor did I immediately cut and paste it into a draft for this blog. It stayed in my inbox and I’ve opened it a couple of times and reread it. At first, I chuckled. I mean, invisible friends? I’m a writer and, like old souls, we enjoy spending time alone doing our work, ie. writing stories. My *best* friends are invisible. The people I interact with on a daily basis are invisible. They all live in my head. Well, not really because I have a small brain and it would be awfully crowded in there.

As a kid, I had a special invisible friend. His name was Loyal (procounced Loy-al, like Roy Al but with an L). He was fae. Like Tolkien’s fae. Except his hair wasn’t as long. He hung out with me in my bedroom, at the libarary, walking to and from school, and out in the yard when I had no one else to play with. He was a cool dude and yeah, he probably was the mental model for Ariel of Penumbra Papers fame. Here’s what the Universe had to say:

The reason old souls enjoy spending time alone, Silver, is because they never really are.

Much love from your invisible friends,
The Universe
©www.tut.com 

P.S. I see you, Silver.

My dad always told me I was an old soul. I guess maybe I was because I was a weird kid. I loved to read books. I pretended to be a horse. I threw a tantrum when my brother tried to mow down the mushrooms in a fairy ring in the backyard. (My dad told my brother to mow around it, FTW!)

As a writer, I’m thankful for my invisible friends. Yes, they are very real to me. I’ve been known to sit at my desk and carry on conversations with them. Sometimes, those discussions end up in their book(s). Sometimes, it just gives me more insight into their characters–what makes them tick; what makes them happy, sad or mad; what’s in their backstory; and how they want their story told. I suspect that most fiction writers have some sort of invisible friend. And I bet non-writers might have tthem too. There’s a sense of calm and peace there, when I’m alone (except maybe for Jake, Pete and occasionally Loki) in my office staring out the window when I take a break from staring at the computer monitor. And I’m thankful for them.

So that’s my meandering thoughts this morning as I preparte for another day of catching up with the story and edits along the way. Ronan just brought me a cup of coffee (bless his invisible heart) and has informed me that, “We need t’talk.” Oh boy. It’s going to be an interesting conversation. What are you talking about today?

Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo July 16
Starting word count: 107,476
Ending word count: 107,634
Chapter(s)/total words edited:  2/4,976
Net word count change: +102/+56