Kidnapped!

I'd like to say that's where I've been: kidnapped. But it'd be only partly true. And really, how can you be partly kidnapped?

So the reality is that I've just been slack. Well, up until the last day or so. That's when the kidnapping happened.

I've been snatched up by a short story, maybe a novella. (It's not finished yet, and it's hard to tell which it is from the shape in my head--I won't know how long it is until I finish it.) A couple of years ago, I had a dream that left me with one vivid image in my mind, a dragon with scales made of beautiful purple-black feathers. The image has haunted me and I've long thought I wanted to write about that dragon.

Apparently the Girls in the Basement were listening, though grinding slow, because the story came to me last week, almost complete. I needed names for the characters, but as soon as I thought that, a way to generate names revealed itself. The dragon's name came all at once, not made up the way the others were. I've never had a story come to me like this; it feels like a gift.

Actually, if you think about it, it really is a gift, one I accept with gratitude.

Since receiving the gift, I've written any number of notes to myself as I work things out, I've shifted the world of the story from somewhere early modernish to somewhere 19th century-ish, and--at the urging of those who have heard the whole story--I've begun a first draft. I'm on vacation from the day gig, and most of my holiday obligations have been taken care of, so the plan is to finish a first draft by midnight on Christmas Eve.

We shall see how that works out. At any rate, I've been kidnapped by a story, and I expect to remain a captive for a little while yet.