While cooking bacon . . .

Just this morning, it occurred to me that when I’m doing something that doesn’t require my thoughts to be fully engaged, something relatively mindless like cooking bacon, that’s when my brain likes to whir and work out little problems.

Frying bacon takes about twenty minutes (for me cuz I like mine crispy) and all you’re doing is flipping the bacon over and over while watching it sizzle and shrink and change from white to brown. It’s interesting that without conscious thought, my mind will begin solving one little question after another pertaining to the story line of my next book. Kinda cool.

And often, at night, just as I’m dropping off to sleep, my characters will begin talking and coming up with some pretty darn good dialogue. So then I have to decide if I want to get up and write down what they’re chatting about or, try to remember it until morning. Yeah, I almost always get up and write it down. If it’s really monumental, something that I won’t forget by morning, I’ll tell them to shut up so I can go to sleep.

Author: Carolyn Kay Hanson

Carolyn was born and raised in Idaho. She has worked with animals for most of her life (prepare yourself, the list is long): cats, dogs, horses, cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, turkeys, ducks, chickens, guineas, and geese. She was married to a cowboy for twenty-five years and during that time lived on seven different cattle ranches. She learned how to give shots to cattle, brand cattle, castrate bull calves and close the head catch in time to capture the beast that was flying through the working chute like a streak of lightning. She also learned to back the truck up to the trailer hitch and get it right the first time. When a teen, she attended horsemanship clinics and schools, and competed in horse shows that included dressage and jumping. She owned and trained seven of her own horses. After having two children, both of whom she homeschooled until they passed the SAT with flying colors (which is absolutely no credit to her as they both reside in the genius category and continually leave her wondering what the heck is going on) she dove into homesteading, learning how to make her own bread, make soup stock from scratch, butcher chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep, and cows, and one year had so much fun canning everything in sight that when she counted the full glass jars in the pantry, she was shocked to discover there were over a thousand. Her knowledge of settings used as the basis of her stories is diverse due to the fact that she has lived in many different states including Idaho, Montana, California, Texas, Missouri, Virginia, Indiana, New Jersey, Washington, and Arizona. She now resides near Seattle. Her hobbies include knitting, crocheting, soap making, and, of course, writing. Oh, and her favorite author? P. G. Wodehouse. View all posts by Carolyn Kay Hanson