I didn’t know Sandra well but often had great chats to her at our Auckland chapter group meetings. In fact, I did a blog post not two weeks ago about our last meeting, where she talked about essence and identity – a subject that gave me a number of lightbulb moments about my WIP. Afterwards I had a chat to her about Desire and whether or not I should send something there, and she was so lovely and encouraging. Then she confessed that she was almost going to tell me that I was close [to selling] but that she wouldn’t because she’d always hated it when people had said it to her. I still remember laughing about that.

But what I’ve also been thinking about today is how she told us a little bit about the story she was working on. It sounded so different and fresh, and it’s just so sad that this story will remain untold, as will all the other stories she had yet to write.

When something sudden like this happens you do kind of evaluate life and where you’re heading. You think about your dreams. About what you want to achieve. About what’s holding you back.

And I think the main thing that’s come out of this for me built on what Jane Porter said at the closing of the RWAus conference a couple of weeks back…

Your stories are yours. No one else can write them for you. No one else can write them like you can. You own them. And if you don’t get them down, they will remain untold.

Don’t let them remain untold.

Deepest sympathies go out to Sandra’s family and friends, and to the rest of the RWNZ