In the morning I go to run around the city with my mother. I head to a fabric store near my home and ask if I can look at dresses. This shop offers white canvas bags and cotton fabric for $10 per square meter. I buy a basket and head back home, having decided to try to sew something new. It has been quite a long time since I last sewed and there's no time like the present.

Maggie Moon reads from her novel, Nightingale. Maggie Moon reads from her novel, Nightingale. See more videos

I whip out my sewing machine and get right to work. I am thinking of the shirt I wore with my boyfriend in Spain, the one I wanted to make myself. The colors, the texture of the fabric. I envision the entire experience I want this new piece of fabric to be — totally relevant to the time of my life now.

Once I have sewn my masterpiece, I hang it on my wall, hang my keys around the wrists of the buttons. It's a tiny piece of material now that's come to represent so much of my creative output.

Adapted from The Nightingale and the Sunshine,