"I'm still figuring that out, sweetie," I replied.
"Yeah, 'cause you're still a kid. I mean, you're a mom, but you're not a grownup."
You have to love children for their ability to speak truth without the corruption of logic.
I guess if being a grownup means having responsibilities, I'm practically ancient. If it means remaining open to inspiration, possibilities, and the endless attraction of a new project, I'm still a kid.
Recently I launched my author Facebook page, www.facebook.com/JenniferEifrigAuthor, and reinitiated a project that had lain dormant for a while: a novel in tweets. This piece of Twitterature is completely different and independent of my other novels, although it's firmly in the urban fantasy universe. The 140-character limit is challenging me to write in flash-fiction style, and the rigor of daily updates is good practice, like vitamins and exercise. The protaganist, Irving Bunch, is an over-thirty-five, out-of-work vampire hunter in a world where vampires aren't hunted anymore, except by the paparazzi. He meets a similarly dispirited wannabe paranormalist who's trapped in her day job at Starbucks, and together they will try to sort out their future before the big nasties find them or Irving's unemployment compensation runs out, whichever comes first.
Is it smart to embark on a project like this, while still working on the sequel in my "real" series? Probably not, and I'm probably nuts to try it. However, as my daughter pointed out, I'm still a kid at heart, and kids need to experiment as they "grow up." If they ever really do, that is.