Hatching A New Story

The first days we had hens in the new coop, July 2008.

A publisher is interested in a book I proposed but he wants to see a few more writing samples, two of the three I sent being more personal and abstract than he'd like in the kind of collection of essays I'd proposed. So I spent most of today writing a 2500-word essay about why I wanted chickens. 
It's a story that begins before I'd even met my Nova Scotia Country Boy but only days before, as if the stars were aligning to bring a long-term plan to fruition. Thankfully, I blogged extensively about my first five years here and printed up those posts before ending that blog in 2012 but I'm also blessed with a decent memory and an ear for dialogue so even if I have to fill in the blanks, the conversations sound genuine.
Write what you know and write from the heart. Whenever I stumble, I sit back in my chair and let the story come back to me in its own words.
What's interesting is that as I delve into history and memories in order to write these essays about becoming a country girl, I'm embarking on a new series of columns called "My Year In 4-H". So I'll be creating new  experiences, and writing about them, at the same time I explore what brought me here in the first place.