Over the summer, I read a lot of juvenile fiction and felt really inspired and reconnected to my love of reading. My affair with fiction started way back as a child when our librarian (Hi Ms. Gold!) handed me a book by Beverly Cleary called Ramona and Her Father. There was no turning back – I fell in love with all kinds of stories and the characters within them.

About two months ago, I decided it was time to write again. To write for fun, for purpose, for myself. I am a writer at heart. I love reading stories and hearing stories, and I especially love weaving them.

That being said, I suck at writing. I don’t give it enough time in my life and it’s not even close to the top of Leanne’s Priority List to Survive Daily Life. I knew that I needed to set some kind of personal goal to get me writing again. I needed a plan and a platform. This is how Short Story September was born. My goal was to write one whole story in September, completed in four parts.

I have learned so much about myself during this process. I remember at last what it is about story telling that makes me swoon. The ability to let my mind take me wherever it wants to go – even in the description of the tiniest detail – is both exhilarating and challenging. I love to think up characters and make them come to life. And I just CANNOT get enough of unexpected twists (Hi Elya!).

So, if you like stories like I do, please read the very first installment of Short Story September and tell me what you think! No matter your responses, Dear Readers, I have made a promise to myself that this venture will continue, if just for my own sake. In the great words of Jo March,

“Late at night my mind comes alive with voices and stories and friends as dear to me as any in the real world. I give myself up to it, longing for transformation.”

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