“Honey, what’s wrong?” He asks alarmed.

“It’s Abby.” I reply.

He sits down and you can see the confusion written all over his face. He’s franticly trying to remember without asking me which side of the “family” this relative is on.

All the while still maintaining his sympathetic look, he asks. “What happened to her?”

Ah, the opening I’ve been waiting for and I’m off! I begin telling him how I want her to do this, but she looks down her nose at me and stubbornly shakes her head no. Then I ask her kindly if she will meet me in the middle and she has the nerve to smile, because she knows she has me right where she wants me-over a barrel. That is when I agree to a 60/40 compromise on what I wanted her to do.

I let out an exasperated sigh. By this time I’ve worked myself into a lather.

“You know,” I say “she’s forgetting who created her!”

Insert blank look on husbands face here. Girls have you ever seen your husband’s face when the buddy next door gets the golf clubs he’s been eyeing all year long? Yep, that’s the one. That’s the look I get. The one of disbelief because he’s just realized that I am not talking about a relative in dire need, but a character in my current WIP. Of course, he doesn’t think I notice that his look has now changed from concern to amusement, but I do. He wants to smile but he doesn’t. He just politely stands up and bends down, gently placing a kiss on my head as if to say “you poor tortured soul.” I grin to myself because I know I am home free-again! He’s left the door wide open and as I follow him into the kitchen he hears my voice trailing behind him.

“And honey, just wait until you hear what William is trying to pull!”



The moral of this story you may be wondering? It’s simple really. Let your characters be as real to you as the everyday people in your life. The ones you love and depend on and could not do without and oh yeah, every once in a while give them that 60/40 compromise because they are what makes the beautiful world we create for them go round.

Welcome to our blogging site where you'll find our views on anything and everything depending on which one of us is blogging and what the day calls for. We're friends, writing partners, friends, plotting partners, friends, mothers, friends ... well you get the gist.

Back in the day- a time when laundry wasn't the only thing hanging out in the backyard - women would venture out to their clothes line for their daily dose of gossip, forming lasting friendships that withstood the test of time.

Although times have changed, women still gather together to share and form friendships over our own sometimes unique clothes lines - at dance class, little league, work or online and yes, even still in our own backyards while hanging out the wash. Friendships are forged sometimes in the most unlikely of places, but no matter the place the bond is still the same. This blog is a tribute to the many versions of todays women - the writers, mothers, wives, sisters, aunts, grandmothers and the single ladies! And of course you guys out there are just as welcomed!!! We hope you visit often and enjoy the friendly atmosphere here at Over The Clothes Line.

We can't tell you whether we'll be talking about our families, our writing, or the latest gossip, but we can tell you to stay tuned in here at OTCL for everything from our tales of waxings-gone-wrong to shopping catastophies that could only happen in a small town in South Carolina or Mexico!

So we hope you'll come back every day to see what's hanging out on the clothes line!