Kyla is a writer who has been away from the craft for many years but is now working to get back on track. She grew up in a small New England town and has spent time in every northeastern state as well as some states along the eastern seaboard. While the northeastern states share similarities, each offers different experiences. Kyla has yet to venture too far beyond North America, but she's also explored Mexico and a few Caribbean islands.
Early in her writing ventures, she published two stories in magazines. They were first attempts at marketing her work—one nonfiction and the other romantic fiction. This early success deluded her into thinking writing was easy. She's pretty sure anyone reading this is laughing because, as every writer knows, nothing about writing is ever easy. She's not naive and understands her published article and short story were simply strokes of beginner's luck. It's been crickets since, other than the thanks but no thanks standard rejection letters.
She often feels like Snoopy, the cartoon character from Peanuts. In his mind, he's a world-famous author who doesn't understand why "the editors" are constantly rejecting his manuscripts.
As Snoopy would say, "I'm a great admirer of my own writing." Kyla considered using that quote and having it engraved on her headstone, but that's when she thought she was actively dying - another story for another day.
For now, she'll continue working on short stories to improve her rusty writing skills. Chemo treatments have caused some brain fog, but the thinking cells tend to return over time, and life goes on as usual.
The Reedsy short story prompts provide motivation to keep writing even when inspiration isn't always there. Kyla's muse visits less often than she did in the past. Still, it occasionally does show up, usually hungover from the last evening's party - like a drunk Santa going through the motions. Sometimes, her muse could be more helpful and less incoherent.
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