All Rileyed Up

Earlier today, I came across the book Imagine a Night by Sarah L. Thomson and illustrated by Rob Gonsalves.

While the cover gave me the slight heebie jeebies, the rest of the book is visually stunning, filled with illusory, surreal images that remind you of the many possibilities the imagination has to offer when given the chance.

Coincidentally, when I visited Maternal Spark today, Heather referenced her love of Dr. Seuss and Oh, The Thinks You Can Think, and asked as her Monday’s Muse that readers take the time to ponder.

At the moment, I’m thinking about those Rob Gonsalves images and pondering an essay in Literary Mama, Motherwriter by Barbara G.S. Hagerty, about her coming to terms with her identities as a mother and a writer. About her love of writing, she wrote:

“What’s so mesmerizing about spending the whole day in a room alone, with just the company of words? It’s the limitless, unpredictable meander of the imagination, the infinity of possibilities, the surprises delivered from various regions of the brain: memory, hunch, and inspiration.”

I love that phrase, the unpredictable meander of the imagination. Indeed, I find that to be my favorite aspect of writing – the journey from what I intended to write to what I actually wrote. I love the feeling in the middle of a freewrite when the story takes over for itself and I think to myself, whoa…

I didn’t see that coming.

Maybe the reason I like the unexpected twists and turns of bringing a story idea to fruition is because I love the unexpected twists and turns of life itself. My mother once me that I’m her unpredictable child. You just never know what I’ll come up with next. And for those of you who know me, you know this fact about me couldn’t be more apparent right now.

See, I’m in the middle of a huge change. It’s so huge I still can’t grasp it enough to write about it. From the outside perspective, I’m moving, I’m starting a new career, and I’m going back to school. When I delve a little deeper, though, I’m nervous, I’m excited, I’m scared, I’m confused, I’m unsure, I’m completely sure, and then some. So in order to be manageable with all these different emotions vying for attention within me, I have to take a step back and look to the bits of wisdom I’ve learned from others. I have to let my mind wander… let it bask in the anticipation of the unexpected.

See this and other Rob Gonsalves pictures here.