Welcome!

All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients. 

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Welcome to The Quest for Stories, the place where I'm going to keep my nonsensical conglomeration of words.  I'm Amy, aka Miss Dashwood, and my main blog is Yet Another Period Drama Blog (which, for your information, will be abbreviated as YAPDB when I write on here.  I overuse acronyms.  You'll learn that soon enough).   I used to post occasionally about writing on YAPDB, but I was recently inspired by my dear blogging friend Alexandra to start a new blog, devoted solely to my scribblings-- and here it is.  The name for this blog was inspired by the quote you may observe under the title.  Writing is my passion, and finding the right stories to write has become a consuming interest for me.  (Characters are fun, dialogue is a blast, but as for the real story, with something resembling a plot?  That's where I meet my Waterloo.  I'm working on that.)

I learned to read at the tender age of four and a half, and since then a rare day has passed that hasn't seen me with my nose in a book.  When I was seven, I determined that when I grew up I would write books, so that I would never run out of good things to read.  Since then, my ambition to become an author has never wavered.  I've learned a lot in the ten years since I first decided to pursue writing, but I'm still hopping on one foot at the bottom of the hill, gazing wistfully up at the Austens and Gaskells and Dickens and Wodehouses basking in the sunlight at the top.   Someday, I want to climb the hill-- but I can't go anywhere unless I begin.

Writing isn't easy, it isn't all strawberries and cream, it isn't even always fun, but it's something I couldn't do without.  So here I am, filling my paper with the breathings of my heart, as Wordsworth would say.  I am quite frequently not at all in a humor for writing, but like my beloved Miss Austen, I must write on until I am.  Which means starting now.  Will you join me? 

Oh, and I quote my favorite authors (and other people whose works I haven't read, but who have written good quotes) with embarrassing frequency.  I just thought I'd let you know that.  Consider yourself warned.