Sitting at the kitchen table, my daughters were coloring pictures. A normal activity for a lazy Saturday, absolutely. After their full second week of kindergarten, coloring had become regular.

As I walked by, to admire their work, I commented on Abby’s picture. The page itself was made up of three bears, each dressed in summer attire, sitting side by side, watching fireworks. She’d colored each bear and their clothing, in various shades of blues, reds, purples and greens. Each shoot of the fireworks was colored in a separate color.

None of that is worth noting necessarily, but the quality of her work was.

She’d stayed between the lines, exquisitely so. I was so surprised at the care she was taking that I had to ask her about it. Why, on a lazy Saturday, would she take so much time to create her beautiful images?

Because Ella, one of her classmates does it.

Now should this occur at age thirteen or above, I might take a greater look at the detail behind it. But at five, this was a fantastic revelation. She’d learned, from a friend, how to color well and was taking the same care at a time when her friend wasn’t even around.

Should I be surprised?

Nope.

When I started writing Mirage, I regularly posted my word count to my personal blog (not this one, not my photography one either). I also posted it to Facebook and in doing so, got all this amazing “Go! Go! Go!” feedback that helped me press on with the writing! No one had read a word of the story, they didn’t even know the premise, but they were encouraging me to continue.

And continue I did. In under 60 days, I wrote 101,059 words across 361 formatted pages. Granted it was a first draft and I spent another month editing before submitting it to my readers, but I did it.

Now, as I write Little White Lies, I’ve realized I’m working at a slower pace and wonder if it’s because I’m not as forthcoming with the details of the work.

As such, I’m going back to the peer pressure method. Let everyone I know in on the secret, starting right here … Little White Lies is currently 7,963 words … and growing.