I love writing for children because it makes my imagination muscles big and strong. Take for instance last night when my husband gave me a kiss before bed. (Don't get worried this isn't going anywhere crazy. Imagine the bedroom with two twin beds, if it helps). Anyhow, something stabbed my lip. Was it a bug with a sword?  Did his nose have a dagger, I wondered.  Had he recently transformed into a vampire?
            The truth was even scarier- a mutant mustache hair! If you are young, you may not realize men occasional grow super thick, sharp hairs kind of like Wolverine (of X-Men fame.) Although, come to think of it, I've only kissed this one man so it's quite possible this does not happen to all men, and I am in fact
Look at those hairs.
Being a hippo wife would be tough.
(by mzacha via sxc.hu)
married to Wolverine.
            My flexed imagination leads me to my second thought: would it be better to be married to a Vampire or to Wolverine? A Vampire may be trying to kill you on purpose on account of the delicious A positive pumping through your veins versus Wolverine would likely kill you accidentally when steel blades pop out of his appendages.
            My imagination is really getting distracted now with a third thought: why is it so exciting to think of the life or death struggle of being married to a mutant while being married to someone actually trying to kill you would be totally not cool?
            When I'm writing, the first thing that comes to mind is often a bit boring. For example, what's behind the door? (1) The mailman delivering the mail. So I try a second. (2) A mouse prince scaling the house to rescue a mouse princess. Usually by the third try I've got a much more interesting and surprising situation, though I sometimes gets too weird- like: (3) A mutant mustache hair with an evil plan to make the world hairy!

            How do you stretch your imagination muscles?