A few months ago, I took story prompts from my Esteemed Patronesses over at Patreon. Irene wrote, “I want to see someone with their mother. Maybe Nev and Penny with their daughter, if they have one?”
I loved the idea immediately, but it wasn’t until I listened to Brené Brown’s interview with Glennon Doyle that I was able to find my story structure.
I remember when I wanted to touch up the paint on my old car, I looked up the color in my documentation and bought the exactly correct shade from the dealership. But when I put it on, it didn’t match at all! Then I realized–the paint on the car isn’t the same color it was when it was new! It’s been out in the world all this time, metamorphosing.
This was a bit like that. I wrote In for a Penny more than ten years ago; I’ve been growing up all this time, and Nev and Penny and their friends haven’t, so nothing I write about them now will quite match. In some ways, this story is maybe a self-indulgent exercise in letting them grow up too, just a little.
But I loved writing it! As Penny learned, there’s nothing wrong with indulging yourself now and then! Hopefully I’m indulging you, too.
You can read the story over at my Patreon, here.
The post is open access, so you don’t have to be a patron to read it (although of course if you wanted to support me, I’d be obsequiously grateful!!…sorry, it’s Mr. Collins jokes full time over at my Patreon).