Amanda Hocking

I live in a fantasy world where at some point in the future I will either not be working or recouping from working or involved in something else that is occupying time. It’s in this time that I will complete very exciting activities, like finally putting together my Lego Death Star, re-reading all of The Dark Tower books from start to finish without interruption (other than for sleep and bathroom breaks), finally complete Arkham City (including getting all those damn Riddler trophies) and watch the original version of Blade Runner plus the various director’s cuts to compare all the differences.

Most of these things I have planned to do for sometime, but I still haven’t done them. Admittedly, I’ve made time to catch up on TV shows and read other books and even put together other Legos. It’s the largeness of these particular projects that I feel like I need to set aside time to work on them.

And I never have a chunk of time that I feel good about saying, “I will not write or edit or outline or spend time with family or clean the house or walk the dog. I will only devote myself to this thing that really doesn’t need to be done except for the fact that I want to do it.”

This past fall, I really let time away get away from. Life happened in big and small ways, in both happy and sad, and I let it take over my schedule. Life has a way of rearranging everything and giving you what it thinks you need in lieu of what it thinks you want. And it’s very often right.

But now I’m being more cautious about my time management in the future. I have plans, and in order to achieve them, things need to be in a certain time. I’m trying to bring my fantasy world back down to reality.

One of the greatest fantasies in my imagination is that I’d love to go back to school and learn how to do prosthetic make up and make animatronics and puppets. The biggest thing stopping me – other than time – is that I know I have no aptitude toward those things or anything artistic. But I would really love to do.

Creatures are probably my favorite things. From Hoggle and Ludo in Labyrinth, the aliens in Alien, the skeksis and especially the landstriders in The Dark Crystal, the pale man and the faun in Pan’s Labyrinth, the tauntaun and Salacious B. Crumb in the original Star Wars trilogy, Tim Curry in Legend, the shark in Jaws, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, and damn near everything in Jim Henson’s The Storyteller series. I love creatures that come alive.

In looking forward to what I want to work on and write about in future projects, I see a lot more monsters. I love the romance and the paranormal elements I’ve worked with, but I definitely see more horror and creatures.

It’s because I know I can’t create these things in real life that I write about them. They dominate my imagination. They fascinate me beyond all reason. I’ve seen some of the puppetry and creatures in real life, and I could literally just stare at them for hours.

So, if there ever comes a point where I do ever take a break from writing or all of  you stop reading, I think I’ll go back to school for that. Even if I never got good at it, I’d be thrilled to to bring coffee to the guys that actually make these things real, as long as I could watch.