Oops! I scared the children...

I had just finished writing a scene for Into Light where my characters were traveling through the woods on the remains of Interstate 70 through the Colorado mountains. Then I headed out on a trip with my kids that sent us driving along that same stretch of road. Excited by the way the chapter had turned out, I mentioned to the kiddos that I had just writted about this stretch of road in my book. Naturally, being curious children, they asked what I had written.

Well, the scene is a little spooky and involves some unseen threat stalking the characters in the trees beside the road. Since the kids are on the younger side (the 9-year-old, 7-year-old, and 4-year-old were in the car with me), I didn't go into detail, just gave a bare-bones description like the one above. Apparently, that was already enough to set the imagination spinning, because the 7-year-old immediately started scanning the trees, worrying about what might be out there. Before you know it, all the kids were glued to the windows, screeching at every little movement in the trees beyond the road. There's a lot of road through the forests on that stretch of the freeway... it didn't take long at all to make me regret telling stories! LOL

(For the record, I don't think they were REALLY scared so much as enjoying the idea of being a little scared... kind of like the elementary school version of seeing a scary movie. I'm PRETTY sure the boys are not scarred for life.)