In the quiet of the room, the writer picks up a pencil. She turns it slowly between her fingers, eyeing this incredible receptacle of her ideas. She holds the smooth, yellow stick, tapping the lead point on the paper, until she is ready to release the words ...

     fluid words ... like falling ... flying ... floating ...

     sharp words ... like flung ... slap ... jagged ...

     connecting words ... like while ... because ... since ...

the nouns and verbs and adjectives and adverbs that flow from her mind, through her arm, into her hand, and out through the pencil.

Then if she wishes, she can undo it all, erase the thoughts and feelings and unspoken words. She has found a magic pencil. She lets the tip go skipping across the page, lets it happen, writes her heart out. She believes in its perfect form, as writers should. She knows the mystic power of the lead-tipped stick.

At a Southwestern Society of Authors Conference, I met with an agent. Afterward I headed for lunch. When my tea arrived, I picked up the tea bag and read the quote, "A # 2 pencil and a dream will take you anywhere" -- Joyce A. Meyers. Aha! Writer's Kismet. Serendipity. This philosophy was the recurring theme running through the book I was working on, Writing the Wise Woman Within.  I picked up the yellow #2 I had laid down by my plate. I sensed the power of relevance to juxtaposition. And it came true. Yes, the woman I'd  just met became my agent and the quote became my mantra. Thank you, Joyce A. Meyers. As I work with writers everywhere, I tell them, "I can supply the tea bag. I can supply the pencil, but the writer must supply the dream." Take the pencil and write with it. Or put it next to your typewriter, your computer, or behind your ear. It symbolizes the magic of the writer and her words.

Connie