Could I write a manuscript, too, please?

So it's Monday morning, the office is (unsually) quiet, and now that I've jinxed myself, the masses will come pouring in, just the like rain. Half my office is gone, and frankly, I like it that way. Susan came by this morning with the first few chapters of "The Susan Chronicles" and I am madly in love.

Hopefully she won't care that I'm sharing this, but...the backstory is that Susan went to college at ECU back in the 80's and while she was there, she met three other Susans and they all became best friends. Their lives collectively are like telenovellas but better, and she's turning that all into a book, but with only three Susans. So far, one of them is dead but we don't know which one, and then we find out how the three Susans meet each other in college.

Have you read "Charlotte Simmons?" Rush out immediately and read it. It might take you 6 months, but it's so worth it. Then, when you're finished, rush out immediately and get Curtis Sittenfeld's "Prep." Shorter, also worth it. And maybe by then Susan will have a few more chapters done and I can keep you posted on what happens to the fictional Susans.

Five years ago, my former BFF Melissa talked me into writing about society in Eastern NC. I got about four pages in before we had a (huge) falling out and somehow that left a bitter taste in my mouth. I've never been able to really write fiction, (yes, John Gregory Brown, we know how much you hated everything I ever wrote), but creative non-fiction is a no-brainer for me. I desperately want to escape into fiction, find a character, explore him or her, and be surprised about where his or her journey takes me and the reader.

There are so many reasons not to, like grad school, my regular job, my night-teaching job, my life in general. But then I remember the days back at Sweet Briar, in my deepest, darkest depression, and how writing was a catharsis for my soul...really, like no other, not even cigarettes, and oh how I loved them.

So Susan, you and the other Susans have inspired me. Perhaps I won't start writing, perhaps I'll give in to all the excuses I can find, and perhaps I'll just be content reading your manuscript, which I hope to goodness turns into a phenomenal published novel. In the meantime, I'll keep blogging and I'll tell myself that this kind of writing is just as good for the soul.