Why the Turtle?

 

Yep, there’s a baby sea turtle on my home page of this web site. And I want you to know it’s not just because I happen to think baby sea turtles are one of the most adorable creatures ever to grace Planet Earth.

 

The real reason I chose this particular image of a baby sea turtle is because, in one straight shot, this picture tells a whole story.

 

You see the protagonist right from the start – the baby sea turtle. And right from the start, you love her. You might love her at first because she is off-the-charts cute. Like every cell in her perfect tiny existence is tugging at your heartstrings. But then you look a little longer. She is so much smaller than the vast and beautiful world around her. She is drawn to the sea. She doesn’t exactly know why, only that she must get to it. You know that her odds of getting there are very slim – hungry predators like sea birds and crabs devour baby sea turtles. And yet, despite the odds, that baby sea turtle is never going to give up.

 

And, for me, the story of this baby sea turtle is the story of what it’s like to be a writer. The sum of everything she has to worry about along the way doesn’t add up to the necessity of where she is going.

 

Oh, and the young adult novel I’m currently working on has some pretty cool turtles in it.