When I was ten years old, my mother signed my sister and me up for a puppetry workshop at the local YWCA. With our grandmother’s help – she was a skilled seamstress – my sister created an octopus puppet and I created a mermaid and we wrote a little play in which the mermaid soothed the octopus’ grumpy outlook on life by adorning his tentacles with rings. Ever since then, I have been enchanted by puppets and puppeteers and have done a little puppetry myself. One year I was even the Puppeteer-in-Residence at the San Antonio Museum of Art for which I created a set of Greek god and goddess puppets and performed myths in the Greek Antiquities wing of the museum. I have lately been bit by the puppetry bug again, and rather than just daydreaming about it, I decided it was time to set my hands to the task. So here is the beginning of my first puppet in 2020 — a basic paper mâché head. I now need to wait for the paper mâché to dry before I add facial details. I’ll post updates so you can watch this new being come to life. What will be her story? I don’t yet know! But I do know that my next novel (only in its wee beginning stages) will have puppets in it.