What Inspires Me?

If you had asked me that question many years ago, I would have thought that my inspirations would have strictly come from the depths of what my mind could conjure up.  But, to my surprise, the answer is Life!

Everyone has things happen in life, both good and bad, but it is how you choose to handle those things that lead to your outcomes.  But imagine, from a writer's perspective, what would happen if you created a character, with a similar issue, but different set of circumstances, and they decided to take an alternate route...how could their life drastically change and would it be for better or worse?

All of life is my creative pallate.  I gather ideas from family, friends, the news/media, books, television...the opportunities are endless.  If you stop and think about it, are our lives really any different than some of those seen on soap operas or television?  We have continual highs and lows and sometimes it seems that all we have is misfortune, but eventually we pull through and end up with some amazing things to celebrate!

I guess I should acknowledge my biggest sources of inspiration and support...my husband, son and mother.  They allow me to dream outside the box and let my imagination go wild.  I often run my story lines by them to see what their thoughts are and how I might look at things a little differently.  I recently was having an issue with one portion of my work in progress, book one from the Remembrance Series, called "I Remember..."  I was trying to reference actual events that happened within history and tie them to the events in my story.  However, my only problem was that it would shift the focus of  the book entirely.  My mother was the one to say, "Have you thought about just having historical references, but creating the events you need to have happen with your mind?"

I took her advise to heart and where I had hit writer's block for weeks, turned into an onslaught of words and a new direction that I did not think was even possible.

So if you ever catch me watching people intently, reading a book, enjoying a movie or television show and see me deep in thought...I just might be creating!  ;-)