On the other side of the mountain...

The kids and I have hijacked our parents and run away to the mountains of Pennsylvania to our hometown for a week of vacation and a visit with our family there. Day one was mostly just travel to get down here and saying hellos.

Day two dawned beautiful. I watched the sun rise over the mountains, cloaked in mists and watercolors and it was gorgeous. Packing everyone up in the car, we headed off to wander the hills.

And my kids learned what fascinated me for years growing up...

The wonder of WHAT IS OVER THE MOUNTAIN?

I remember being a kid (in the years before school) and wondering, while looking from our yard up at the mountain (we lived on the side of the mountain so you could see up it to a point and that it went down but there was a mystery as to what WAS up it...) and thinking...

What was OVER there? Was there something wonderful on the other side of the mountain? Maybe a castle? Or a fairy land? Or a dragon, waiting to eat me alive?

Anything could have lurked up the mountain.

When school started (we didn't travel much...my mom didn't drive...so...I only had that yard, really, till school started) and I got on the school bus...

I was shocked to finally get to see the other side of the mountain.

And when they taught me that stupid song about the bear...who wanted to go over the mountain to see what he could see and all that he could see was the other side of the mountain...

Well, I was kind of pissed, really, that my mom hadn't taught me the song earlier so I would have KNOWN that the other side of the mountain was just more houses, mountains and fields...

Just like our side.

But as I told my son this morning when he looked out at the mountains and said to me, "Mom, I really wonder what is on the other side of that mountain over there."

What was on the other side of the mountain was possibility.

For one dumb, hick kid who never traveled out of her yard (and didn't know about traveling bears) ANYTHING could have been on the other side of that mountain. And wonder was born.

And imagination.

And a storyteller.

Speaking of a storyteller being born, my contest for my new release, Lips of Velvet is still running to the end of the month. For the details, check out the blog here.

I am also running another contest over at Lisa Pietsch's blog here. Check it out.

And I signed a contract with Decadent Publishing for their 1Night Stand Series!!

All in all...lots of exciting stuff.

Lots of possibilities.

Go find what is over your mountains.

Happy writing!