Ever have one of those days when you have the entire day planned down to the amount of rum you’ll drink? You know what village you’ll be pillaging, what treasure you’ll be stealing, what ship you’ll be borrowing. You even know what you’re going to wear. Well, since we’re pirates, we’re most likely wearing what we wore yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. What d’ya mean I smell? I just bathed a couple months ago!

Anyway, I understand you land lubbers like to bathe everyday and smell all pretty. Whatever. Back to my point. So, you know exactly what you’re doing, got it all planned out. And then something completely unexpected happens and it’s all shot to hell. This happened to me yesterday. Let’s just say if I don’t see the inside of a people emergency room or an animal emergency room for a long time, it’ll be too soon.

But I also have this happen in books whether it’s when I’m trying to write mine or trying to read just one chapter of someone else’s before I head off to the old hammock. In writing, my characters decide they don’t want to wait any longer, by golly they’re going to lock lips and there’s nothing I can do about it but type the damn words. Or when I’m reading and the author, having taken many classes and workshops and studied the craft, ends the chapter with the most surprising and exciting cliff hanger ever! I can’t just throw me legs up and swing meself to sleep after that. I have to keep reading. I have to find out what happens next.

Now what I need is to know I ain’t the only one this here stuff happens to. Do your books always go just as you planned? Characters are quiet and cooperative and wait patiently for you to tell them what to do? Are you able to put that book down and blow out the candle no matter how that author ended that chapter? Or are you stuck reading all night or until your candle runs out of wax? And have you ever been to an animal emergency room? It was actually kind of interesting…