N IS FOR NOTES

I am BIG fan of notes: notes on notebooks, digital recorders, post-its, voicemail, gum wrappers, dinner napkins, kleenex... and if you're at a restaurant bathroom and somebody in the stall next to you says some juicy something on her cell phone? Well, ther's always toilet tissue.

Who knew ideas were such slippery things, one minute leaping into the air, the next, lost, gone, down the drain?

Take it from someone who has learned the hard way: catch 'em while you can.

And yeah, some people may say you're on the verge of becoming one of those extreme hoarders on A&E tv, but really, if you don't keep them, what have you got?

Nada. Nothing. And it's not like you're the woman with the year-old eggs who won't throw them away because they're "so pretty." You WILL use these notes, at least some of them.

I have notes on character names, book ideas, things to do, things to double-check in a ms., questions to ask, snippets of dialogue and great words I simply MUST find a home for, and soon.

I bet you do, too...