More Inspiration for Writers

Does this look like the "Entity" from Lost?

This Van has a story to tell ...

People ask where writers get their inspiration. I was checking email (read: avoiding the time-hole that is Face Book) and found this pic on Yahoo.

It's a 1965 Volkswagen van that was stolen 44!! years ago from Spokane, Washington. It was recovered on Oct. 19, 2009, from a shipping container at the Port of Los Angeles bound for The Netherlands.

Inspiration can be as simple and compelling as a photo of something from the past. In this case, the van shouldn't have been where it was found. My writer's brain says something's up. The shiny paint. The mint condition of the fenders. The pristine interior. My muse says this van has been hiding in a shipping container for 44 years at the whim of a crook who would now like it shipped to the Netherlands. BTW, the Netherlands don't extradite criminals.

The possibilities for the truth are endless. This van was rolling off the line the same year I was born! What are the chances the container and the van are the same age? Someone had to be paying attention and colluding with the criminal mastermind who pulled this off to make sure the van was moved around for the last 44 years and made it to that specific container for shipping. Right? The big question is why. And more importantly; who? (Yes, I'm intrigued. And impressed that someone has successfully hidden the van and the truth for 44 years.) Mystery/Suspense genre writers could easily build a story around this premise.

If you live on the Far Side of reality and enjoy writing Science Fiction/Fantasy, who's to say the van didn't materialize into that container from another dimension?? Hey, it was found in LA, remember? (Home of the spaciest people on the planet.) Or if you're really into the whoo-whoo, what if aliens beamed it up from a country back road in Spokane and decided to return it? Now? 44 years later?? Why?? Hey, stranger things have happened in California.

I could go on and on but you get the picture. I'm writing today. Have a great one!

Girls Night

Tomorrow is girl's night out. It's such a treat to be able to hang out with the women who are my "sisters" in so much. So, here's a tribute to all the "Girls" out there; wild girls, funny girls, smart girls, stuffy girls, sporty girls, girly-girls, tall girls, short girls, loud girls, quiet girls, young girls, young at heart girls, demure girls, rambunctious girls, goody-two-shoes girls and oh-so-bad-girls, casual girls, glamourous girls, rich girls, poor girls, famous girls, wannabe-famous girls and the infamous girls, girls who need a reason to get together and those who make no excuses for having fun.

Salute!

Celebration Time!!

I have no reason for posting this picture of Ben Browder. Just felt like staring at him for a couple of minutes. :) Okay, back to business, unless you need a couple more minutes with Ben (which I totally understand).

As some of you know, I've been serving as the PRO Liaison to RWA's Board of Directors for the last two years. It's been such a big part of my life but I'm happy to turn it over to the newly elected liaison. It was a great experience and I loved representing PROs within the organization. But it's time to move over and let someone else have a go at it. Good luck, Cyndi Morgan! You'll do a great job as PRO Liaison.

So, what does this mean for me next?

Writing!! Yes, I'm excited to use my spare time working on the projects I have circulating. Alas, my agent hunt as of this writing, is still fruitless. But I am ever hopeful of the right project landing on the right desk at the right time.

My new romantic thriller, Witness for the Damned, is coming along nicely. I've sent out Fool Me Once to an e-publisher and am waiting to hear back from the editor. In the meantime, it's out to a beta reader for a continuity read. I'm also working on revisions for Breaking All the Rules, short romantic comedy and a "re-vision" of Residuals, my urban fantasy. So, it's not like I don't have things to do, right?

My last article for the RWR is out this month and in it I thank all the people who helped me over the last 24 months. But I forgot some people ...

MY AWESOME CRITIQUE PARTNERS AND BFFs!!! I love you guys (girls). You kept me sane through some very hectic times. And you never let me forget what it was really all about. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, (etc., inifite and beyond).

Sandra Ferguson
LA Mitchell
Mary Karlik
Delores Shaffer
(You can check out their blogs listed on the right under "Author Blogs")

Until next time, Happy writing!

FlashFoward

This week, ABC added the latest entry of genre-bending Science fiction-time travel to its line up with FlashForward.

Following in the footsteps of Lost, this series seems to be more finely tuned. The characters have specific goals, other than survival, and the writers have managed to add emotional conflicts to support the external conflict of waking up after a world-wide two minute blackout.

I also like the pendulum of possibilites with the visions. The over-arching story is circling around why, which is a biggee. But this is a story which needs an ending. It was so obvious six months in to LOST that the writers had no idea where the plot was going. We all suffered through the growing pains of the plot right along with them. And I'm still not satisfied with how they ended it and definitely unsatisfied with the wrap up and re-vision of the series (and the year-long wait!).


However, I'm willing to suspend disbelief for now with FlashForward. I'm very interested in what the young suicidal doctor saw for his vision. And I'm wondering what was so bad that he wanted to die. I'd also like to know what the Benfer kid saw in her dream. And why she made the friendship bracelet for dad. The kangaroo jumping through the street was crazy! (very surreal) And of course, the guy walking around in the Utah stadium ...

I'm hopeful this will be a great show and sometime in April (29th or 30th?) We'll see the reason for all the chaos created. The next question is; will the show then switch gears and develop into a deeper conflict of who are the bad guys and can they be stopped?

Jump in, add your thoughts. And what would you do if you got a glimpse of your future?

Feeding the Muse ...

I took a break for a couple of weeks and now I'm working on my new wip, Witness for the Damned, a romantic suspense/thriller. This was a book I wrote a partial for last summer and plotted all the way through to the end; which was a good plan.

A lot of writers work on the fly but that's not me. With the list of other committments on my plate, my actual writing time is limited to weekends and the random evening when my kids have (graciously) done all their homework before they get home.

My hope was to spend the month of August and the first couple weeks of September getting the kids ready for school, aclimated to their new sleep schedules and firmly ensconsed in a routine so I could begin the fast draft to the end of this book.

But I'm finding it difficult, to say the least.

Sometimes, the muse just doesn't want to play nice. In fact, the muse doesn't want to play at all. So having a fully developed synopsis is a must-have.

So, how do you write?

What makes a couple a couple?

I'm revising a short rom-com this weekend and wondered what kind of cues establish "couplehood". I mean, when do you know you're a couple?? For the purposes of the book, I need to establish why my hero isn't into the whole state of "couplehood" and why he finds the process ridiculous. (It'll matter later when he arcs.)

(Yes, I know this is straight from the land of Mundania but there's not much else to do as I'm home with a stomach bug! Yuck! No solid food for the last 36 hours.)

So, I decided to put together some cues from my own "couplehood". Some are hokey. Some are sweet. Some are just plain weird. Feel free to add your own. I'd love to hear what others consider as a sign.

Here's what I have so far:

cutesy names for one another
connected at the shoulder (or hip)
matching sweaters (yuck!)