I know I blogged recently about life getting in the way of writing, and that is certainly happening to me more than ever. We are moving house and building one and working hard at non-writing projects. Clearly, my heroine, Celeste, doesn’t like it. She’s gone. I sit down at the computer ready to get at least a little bit done, in between the madness of everything else, but she just won’t appear. Hopefully she likes the new house a little better!
I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.
Steven Wright
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I have hopefully found the key in unlocking my creative process. It took me a month to work it out, but I think each story has to have a soundtrack, of sorts. My last book’s characters met each other as teens, were separated, and then met up again as adults. Subconsciously, a lot of Taylor Swift’s songs were listened to on repeat as I wrote and wrote and wrote. She sings of summer love and true love and growing apart and what could happen if two torn-apart lovers were reunited. Perfect for Sophie and Callahan.
Annie and Caleb are getting trickier, their story is more complex. Their emotional growth is deeper by its very circumstance. Now I’m going through my music libraries, finding lots of angsty, sad, hopeful and angry songs to get the ball rolling properly. James Morrison and Linkin Park are making the cut so far. Never thought I’d put those two together in a sentence!
Enough fun bloggery. I’m off to listen to some (i)tunes.
Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, aboloshing strife
~ Kahlil Gibran
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I swear there is nothing so divine, as a romance writer, than going away with your husband for the weekend. It was our fifth wedding anniversary on the weekend and we went to stay at a gorgeous old hotel in the city. Within minutes of me walking in the door, I could “see” a woman. No, alas, it wasn’t a ghost, although that would have been a good story. It was my muse, my inspriation. I became really excited and enthusaistc all of a sudden. My husband was checking us in and I was paying close attention to the process so I can use it in a book. I’m sure the receptionist thought I was a bit odd. Then it came to me that for some reason my heroine would have to leave this beloved old hotel, where she had spent most of her childhood. I could see her walking the halls, imprinting every painting to her memory, stroking the balustrade of the grand old staircase, the wood warm and alive under her fingers. She was vitally aware of the familiar soft thud of her shoes on the thick carpet. Poor girl, would she ever make it back here? “Are we going to have dinner here?” What? Oh! Back to reality.
The great advantage of a hotel is that it’s a refuge from home life.
~George Bernard Shaw
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I have finally conquered the empty Word page, which taunted me so cruelly for the last three weeks. Three pages down and I’m already heartbroken for poor Annie and struggling not to get to the part where she really blossoms and things fall into place for her. Ah well. I will struggle through with her, I suppose. At least we’ll have Caleb for company *wink wink*
The first and most important step towards success is the feeling that we can succeed.
~ Nelson Boswell
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Here’s the thing about working from home, be it as a writer, graphic designer or tupperware salesperson. Life can really intrude on your home office. I’ve started my next novel and was pretty happy with the flow and the characters that I had set up. Then BAM! Winter hits. Colds, coughs and indoor weather. It’s hard to scrape some “me” time out of it even for a quick Blog. I wish I at least had the opportunity to procastinate. Oh well, I’m here now. Let’s see what we can do. Hope everyone else is having a better time of it.
Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.
~ Anton Chekov
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So, I have my characters set up in my head. Check. The story itself is solid. Check. The conflict is real and full of emotional punch. Absolutely.
Plot all outlined and ready to go…
Ummmm. *Opens Word* *Grumbles about the boring, boring part of writing a book*
In other news, I read a really good book today called Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. If you like Fantasy and strong, female leads and swoon-worthy male counterparts, then read this book. Seriously good stuff (and an easy read). Of course, Poison is Ms Snyder’s debut novel, which makes me feel a little inadequate, to be honest. I expect the other two in the series will be just as good, if not better, than the first.
This whole last paragraph was pure procrastination. Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go.
Procastinators unite! Tomorrow.
~ Anonymous
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Books – the stuff of life. How many successful authors do you hear say they’ve always loved to read? I’ve always loved to read. (Hopefully that will make me a successful author? If only that were the only necessary ingredient). As a young girl, I loved Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. My taste changed as I got older, obviously. I grew into Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Georgette Heyer. But once I made a commitment to writing, treating it as a job, I stopped reading for pleasure. Then a wise friend said to me, “Writing is the biscuit, reading is the cream in the middle.” Wondering if she was referring to Oreos or Monte Carlos, I took her at her word. I now make sure I read at least one book a month, sometimes more to reward my good efforts. It does make a difference to the creative process, allowing my imagination to take flight without having to channel it into a story idea of my own.
You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me
~ CS Lewis
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged books, reading, writing | 3 Comments »
Taking advantage of WordPress’ amazing SocialVibe widget, Susan and I would like to urge you to click on the Invisible Children badge in the sidebar of this Web site. Clicking the Help Now button costs you nothing, as the more clicks we get, the more Body Glove will donate to this worthy cause.
Invisible Children is a charitable organisation working to bring an end to the brutal war in Uganda, where children are regularly taken from their schools and homes and “enlisted” into the army. The practice of using child soldiers is a severe breach of human rights, and we are pleased to be able to help in any way we can. As humans, and especially as mothers, we would like to do our part to get these children the help they need so click! click! click! that help now button (it won’t take you off-site).
To read more about Invisible Children, visit their Web site.
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I find inspiration in the strangest of places sometimes. An incident in my son’s swimming class spirals into an entire story. A trip to a local winery. Who would live here? Who would he love? Another story. Sometimes the mundane, everyday tasks of running a household can throw up the most amazing tidbits. Like grocery shopping. I trundle the heavy trolley into the fresh fruit and veg section. I glance around. A fat old lady leaning on her trolley and coughing heavily. No, that won’t do. A harassed mother telling her kids to please be quiet has my sympathy, but she doesn’t exactly look like heroine material. I glance surreptitiously to the side as I pile too much broccoli into a plastic bag. What I thought from the corner of my eye might be a hot young guy begging to be put into a romance turns out to be a tall, balding guy with a bulbous nose. I sigh. The skinny, gawky teenager who goes out the back to fetch me some fresh basil is the least likely candidate of the lot. But his name’s Justin. Hmm, Justin. That could work. Oh, I forgot to get potatoes.
You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
~Jack London
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Grocery shopping, Inspiration | Leave a Comment »
Argh! Susan has the finished third draft of my manuscript ready to send to me, only her Internet is being somewhat temperemental. I guess it’s not that big of a deal yet, since we’re not exactly working on a deadline, but it sure is annoying. And if we were working to a deadline, it would be somewhat panic-inducing as we both do love a bit of theatrics (I just made us sound like 50-year-old, 18th century women but it’s true, I swear).
I suppose it’s back to looking at sexy men and doing the boring stuff of storytelling. The plotting and planning.
Woe.
If you can’t beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing.
~Anonymous
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