A maple stretches one scarlet branch flamboyantly in front of a cluster of green wild cherry trees. Fall is creeping in slowly this year, gradually shaking free of the blistering hot summer days, it eases in with October’s cool refreshing nights. Rain that evaded us for weeks has been pouring down in torrents. Grass springs up emerald green and stone walls are soft with moss, ready to show off orange and white pumpkins. Flower beds are spent, ready to be trimmed and tucked under a bed of fallen leaves and snow.

Fall days and long, cool evenings call out to the creativity in me, nudging and connecting ideas that cannot possibly synchronize on a sunny day in June. Every tinted hillside seems to spark an idea that I hold close until I can record it on my phone or paper. They accumulate like fall leaves. Too many ideas for a lifetime. Too many ideas for a hundred books or more.

I love to stand in the wind when leaves are swirling, wrenched from their anchors to dance and pirouette in the breeze. Can you feel it? Inspiration flows around us every day just like  orange and scarlet leafy messengers. We only need to pluck it out of the air and make it our own. Autumn’s inspirations gather in my brain like vibrant fallen leaves destine to produce a fertile wealth of winter tales, to be told by a roaring apple wood fire while blizzards howl outside.