I can't remember a time when reading was an obligation, not a love. Some of my fondest memories are of our family's frequent road trips during my childhood. My sister and I always had a box of library books on the seat in between us and we would devour them all as we drove up and down the east coast of the US. Our mother would occasionally demand that we pry our attention away from the page to look at the scenery outside.

Nowadays I find myself doing the same thing with my husband and kids, calling out "look at that view!" But usually I am trying to get everyone (and often myself, too) to look up from the ever-present glow of electronic devices. My personal screen addiction for the past few years has been devouring fan fictions - usually of my favorite childhood stories and movies such as "Pride and Prejudice," "Anne of Green Gables," "Star Wars," and "The Sound of Music." (One of my children has now also become just as absorbed in fan fiction based on favorite video games. Reading is reading, right??)

Anne Shirley entered my life when I was around 10 or 11 years old through the hard-backed books my mother carefully saved from HER childhood bookshelf. (She still has them on her shelf today...along with tourist memorabilia from a trip she and my dad took to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.) While I have enjoyed some of the TV adaptations of "Anne of Green Gables," nothing can compare to the mental images in my mind as I read Anne's poetic thoughts written in the original books. Lucy Maud Montgomery was such a skilled wordsmith to create this talkative, imaginative character!

Here in the FanFiction world, I have completely fallen in love with "By a Simple Twist of Fate," KLSCHEN's modern-day story based on "Anne of Green Gables." Because "By a Simple Twist of Fate" is presented from the POV of Rilla (Anne's youngest daughter), I often find myself wondering "what would Anne think about this?" So, with KLSCHEN's permission, I am hesitantly stepping out of my comfort zone and attempting to write "Anne's Diary: A companion story to 'By a Simple Twist of Fate'" in order to explore Anne's thoughts on her daughter's life in the public eye. Thankfully, the Anne that KLSCHEN has introduced us to is not nearly as verbose and whimsical as LMM's Anne. Therefore, my "Anne's Diary" will not need to be a work of literary excellence. I will simply try to share excerpts from some of Anne's diary entries where she expresses her motherly concerns, her fanciful musings, and (if her pen tip is "just right") her long-lasting love for Gilbert.