When you grow up in Georgetown, Guyana, you get used to certain things: sugarcane fields, hot days, and blood-sucking, vampire bats.  Tor the most part, the bats weren’t too much trouble but occasionally, they’d get into the house. My dad would go after them, broom in hand¦he’d disappear for a while, then come back with something black in his hand.

I knew what it was: his sock. He’d chase us around the house. My sister & I would squeal and shriek, screaming, œNo, Daddy! Don’t throw it”! Then, of course, he’d throw it and we’d laugh and yell as the sock hit one of us.

Even as he chased and we ran, 99% of me knew”KNEW”it was the sock¦but there was this 1% that wondered: was this finally the time Dad went all out and actually had the bat?

I’ve been watching television shows that I love and I realize there’s a 1% factor in the majority of shows I love: meaning 99% of me knows there’ll be a happy ending, but there’s the 1% that’s not sure¦I know Murdoch of Murdoch Mysteries will catch the bad guy, but how will he do it?  And what of his relationship with Julia?

In other shows, the X-factor percentage is higher. For anyone watching True Blood, well, none of us are sure what’s going on with Bill and whether Sookie will get any kind of happy ending¦and I’m thinking there’s a good chance (40%, at least) that something’s about to go horribly wrong.

I think part of being a writer is knowing your writing voice, and knowing, when it comes to tension and unpredictability, what your percentage is¦are you the 1% or are you more?