Where do ideas for new stories . . .

 So, where do ideas for new stories come from? 

My historical fiction series began with a college class called The Economic History of Great Britain. Sounds pretty uninspiring, right? My first day, the room was quite crowded with about 70 students. I found a seat toward the back and by the door (my habit: Always sit as close as possible to the exit). 

The teacher marched in, looked at all the students, zoomed in on me, and said: "Why are you here, taking up the spot of a male who will need this class to become a wage earner and head of a family?" Yes, I was the only female in the class, working on a double major, English and History. And, yes, I successfully completed the class, earning an "A". 

That class focused on the Industrial Revolution and the ways the lives of simple farmers were transformed. Landowners evicted these hard-working families, replacing them with sheep as the wool suddenly had become a profitable product, very much needed for the new factories. 

Standing Stones, set in 1840s Scotland, introduced the fate of one such family. I'm very pleased to report that Standing Stones now has over 1,000 reviews and led me to write 3 more stories based on the McDonnell family and their adventures in Scotland, Australia, and Canada.

So, stories can be inspired by external events, books read, or even a visit to a museum . . . .

A few years back, we spent a month in France, independently traveling. One special day, we visited the Musée de Cluny in Paris to see those very famous six lion and unicorn tapestries, woven sometime around 1500. Magnificently detailed, each tapestry illustrated one of the five senses, with the sixth tapestry a mystery, named To My Only Desire (roughly translated). 

The writerly part of me asked, "What if?" What if there were a seventh tapestry, hidden for hundreds of years? And so began my story, The Seventh Tapestry, my first art crime mystery.

Stop back by later this week to find out how twice, now, a vivid dream has awakened me -- and inspired a story!

Hope you enjoyed Valentine's Day -- or, as my daughter would ask, Did you celebrate Cheap Chocolate Day on February 15th?

IWSG: Running like a rabbit . . .

I'm late. I'm late! Just like that rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, down the rabbit hole I go, working my way through a to-do list that's way too long! Including a special writers' Zoom meeting on Wednesday that I missed entirely. Sigh.

For February 5, the Insecure Writer's Support Group challenges writers to answer this question:

Is there a story or book you've written you want to/wish you could go back and change?

The short answer is no. I did have a story that I set aside to finish Unleashed Pursuit. That side trip into the world of a runaway female cop, chased by bad guys and good guys, popped out into the world early January, 2025. Telling this story was a lot of fun, and feedback from readers has been positive. Check it out . . . and as indie writers say, consider leaving a review?  Go HERE.

So, happily, I'm now back at work -- and writing! -- on Sandra and Neil's Honeymoon in Egypt, a follow-up art crime mystery to The Seventh Tapestry. Would you be surprised to learn that Sandra and Neil discover artifacts have been stolen from that brand new Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza? 

Typically, it takes me about 2-3 years to write a story. I'm trying to apply 1) outlining, 2) deadlines, and 3) a daily word count to finish Honeymoon (currently at 34K) by December 2025. Of course, it does help that we visited Egypt a few years back. I still remember touching the pyramids at Giza and walking underneath one of those pyramids.

May you have a good month, whether writing and/or reading! 

Despite continued snow and winter that's longer than it should be, we will persevere! Right?

Consider visiting the awesome co-hosts for the February 5 posting of the IWSG: Joylene Nowell Butler, Louise Barbour, and Tyrean Martinson.  Say hello, leave a comment, and celebrate each day!

2025: Time to set those goals!

I'm filled with enthusiasm and a sense of thankfulness over the great receiption of Unleashed Pursuit, just released last week, already with 3 reviews! But, now it's time to set goals for 2025 -- a mix of writing and personal commitments. 

Here's my preliminary list, including deadlines (aargh!):

• Complete the first rough draft of Honeymoon in Egypt, an art crimes mystery, currently at 30K. Book 2 following The Seventh Tapestry, (now up to 149 reviews!) by June 2025.
• Continue blogging 2x/month.
• Send newsletter 1x/month.
• Read and review other authors 2x/month.
• Participate in writing groups (Zoom 4x/month, Spokane Authors 1x/month). Maybe resume working with the Internet Writing Workshop?

Am I being too ambitious? I truly don't know.

    Source: lolalambchops  

• OTHER:
• Go swimming and/or some other physical activity 3x/week.
• Continue making comfort quilts for those who need them, probably 1x/month.
• Come up with some way to make cooking easier (I really don't have a clue).
• Celebrate family commitments with activities 2x/week.
• Face down the MARKETING challenge (again, never sure what works or what I 'should' do to encourage new readers). 
• Do I offer a freebie for Valentine's Day? Hmmm. What do YOU think?

Ah, the truth is that I don't feel ready for 2025. Family illnesses are distracting, and I feel like each day brings a new and unexpected challenge. My favorite saying these days is that real life is much like fiction -- full of plot twists! I hope to support those who need me in the coming year -- and keep writing.

May 2025 be a good year for us all -- and, hopefully, a little less complicated!

 

Source:  Pinterest  

IWSG: Someone to admire . . .

2025 begins with many challenges. We'll need courage to face some of them down. Right now, the television news are focused on those horrific fires in Los Angeles. I can't help remembering the time I worked in LA's downtown financial district and lived in a small apartment off Wilshire Boulevard. Now a minimum of 80K people are evacuating what looks like four fires. I'm grateful to be living now in the snowy Inland Pacific Northwest, otherwise known as eastern Washington, even if we did get another inch of snow this morning.

The January 8 challenge question from the Insecure Writers' Support Group asks us to describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

Whew! This question sent me down a rabbit hole, for my mother was a Hollywood starlet, beautiful, charismatic, and an alcoholic. I did not admire her. 

When my Aunt Liz offered me a chance to come live with her to go to college, I left and never went back.Yes, I admired and respected my aunt then, at 17, and now. Without her, I would not have begun that long journey to earn my degree and then a master's. I wouldn't have taught community college, with a special awareness of how education can change lives.

Liz was an artist and a beautiful person in her own right. Her paintings, more than 50 years later, still hang on my walls, inspiring me to be that person who sets goals and follows her heart. 

She overcame challenges as well, which truly began when she overheard her mother comparing her to Marion, my mother. "She's the leftovers," said my grandmother. I think sometimes that Liz spent the rest of her life, working to prove she was not the 'leftovers.' 

Her next challenge was becoming a recognized artist in a time when women were expected to be housewives. Once, she was shown a cupboard full of glasses, all in a tidy row. "This is what you should be doing. Not painting."

Yet she found time and resources to support me and my writing at a time when there was no one else. I will never forget her.

On the brighter side, I'm pretty excited to let you know that  Unleashed Pursuit is now available online. Click HERE to pick up your copy for half the price of a cup of coffee!

When newly appointed detective Cat Russo goes undercover at a shady nightclub in Seattle, she doesn’t expect her friend and partner, Sophie Morales, to be murdered. Threatening phone calls from strangers and a mandatory suspension push her to go on the run.

When she meets Officer Kevin McDonnell in a small town on the Oregon coast, Cat begins to believe she can solve Sophie’s murder. She’s determined to return to Seattle, despite everything that can go wrong.

Early readers have found Unleashed Pursuit a gripping read. As one reader said, “Just when you think that Cat is finally going to be safe, another heart-stopping twist occurs!”

A special thank you to Alex Cavannagh, the force behind IWSG, that online writers support group that allows us to catch up on what other writers are doing. And more thanks to this month's co-hosts -- Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp (that's me!), Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles! 

Why not explore what 95 other IWSG writers are doing on this monthly blog hop! Click HERE.  

We cannot change what is happening in this crazy beginning to 2025, but we can work to make our world a better place. For now, I'm hoping for better news from Southern California.

IWSG: Beginnings and Endings . . .

First an update. November was fun. Yep. I wrote every day, just a little over 10K words on one of my current projects, Honeymoon in Egypt, an art crimes mystery now at 32K, and met my goal for National Novel Writing Month. It was especially rewarding to simply draft, relish the details, develop the story, and not worry about editing. However, December begins with renewed focus on my other wip, Unleashed Pursuit, currently at 62K. Those generous beta readers came through with with serious editing challenges that will require me to drill down into conflict and find new ways to build tension. OK, I'm intimidated.

This month, IWSG's challenge question asks: Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories? Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or as a reader?

At least, this question is easy. Depends. Most of the time, I do like writing HEA. Don't we need that some of the time? Just because my characters wind up happy, we all know real life will present us with challenges, and not all of them end well. But why not let that challenge emerge in the next story, as in the beginning? When I'm reading, does the story satisfy on all levels? Ending with a cliffhanger often reads like a carrot, as if the writer were saying, "Come on, read the next story!" But if I really care about the characters or the story, cliffhangers don't bother me!

Now, I'd like to go see what others have written.  Hmmm. Is that a cliffhanger?

Other challenges. You already know that quilting is a balance to my writing. So, this month, I'm back working on the design for an Australian quilt. All of the patterns I've found are geometric, so that's where I started. 

But . . . aboriginal art is about a journey, whether real or internal. I'm playing around with combining the geometric with some kind of a circular design. Let me know what you think!

Circling within, so internal, but not a journey?

Perhaps an unplanned journey, not a map?

And December is my birthday month. This year, I'll be 81. That's pretty much an achievement in itself, but I wonder: How many books/quilts/time with family do I have left? For now, I hope to cherish each day and persevere! And thank YOU for being part of my writing life.

NOTE: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) day, an informal blog gathering of writers who share updates and encourage each other.

Why not join in? Check out the IWSG website to read what 97 other writers are up to. Leave a few comments. Share what's going on with your writing life on your blog. Special thanks go to Alex Cavanaugh and this month's co-hosts for encouraging us all: Ronel, Deniz, Pat Garcia, Olga Godim, and Cathrina Constantine!

May the coming month be a good one for us all.

IWSG: What brings you joy?

This month's challenge from the Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) asks writers to respond on their blogs to the November 6 question: 

What creative activity do you engage in when you're not writing?

I've quilted for so long, I can't imagine not quilting. Making quilts for others -- family, friends, and comfort quilts for those who need them, is a perfect balance to writing. Playing with fabrics (colors, shapes, patterns) is much like playing with words. Sometimes, we're never really sure what will happen if . . .  Like this "Arizona Sisters" quilt (my own pattern) I made for a dear friend to help her remember the wonderful times we've shared traveling from snow to sunshine.

My grandmother made quilts. When I was about ten years old, she taught me how to sew on a treadle machine. In fact, I made money through high school sewing outfits for others. When my daughter was born, I made my first real quilt -- and still have it today, though it's somewhat worn. When she was old enough, I taught her to quilt, a joy we share even now.

My office is a bit of a mess. One side has bookcases filled with books and my writing workstation. The other, my sewing machine, all ready to go, with the closet filled with fabrics, somewhat organized by project and/or color.

Writing Update: Good news! My police procedural mystery, Unleashed Pursuit, is in final draft and out to beta readers. I'm excited for those comments that will come my way in another few weeks. Meanwhile, I belong to a Zoom Crit group; each week, we tackle another chapter. Progress is steady . . . but . . . that's not really writing.

So, I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and set my goal (to write 10,000 words) for Honeymoon in Egypt, book 2 in my art crimes series. Now, I'm having fun.

The story begins in Cairo among the pyramids, featuring newly married Sandra and Neil who are tasked to find missing artifacts from the Grand Egyptian Museum. Here's my new cover that I made with PowerPoint. Do you like it?

Are you writing with NaNoWriMo this month? Please let me know by e-mail or in comments below.

NOTE: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) day, an informal blog gathering of writers who share updates and encourage each other.

Why not join in? Check out the IWSG website to read what 101 other writers are up to. Leave a few comments. Share what's going on with your writing life on your blog. Special thanks go to Alex Cavanaugh and this month's co-hosts for encouraging us all: Diedre Knight, Lisa Buie Collard , Kim Lajevardi, and JQ Rose!

May the coming month be a good one for us all.

October brings a new read . . .

These sunshine days are ending. Fall leaves turn trees into works of art, rich colors from brown to bright yellow, splashed with red. Been busy this month. Finished the first rough draft of Unleashed Pursuit, now at 62.5K, with many revisions ahead. A friend invited me to a poetry reading in November. What should I read?

So I dug into back files to find a nearly forgotten travel memoir of that amazing trip around the Horn of South America, some five months on the road. The result, South American Journey, a mix of poems, photographs, travel notes, and memories, perhaps more poignant today since we are less able to travel.

Here's just one poem from South American Journey, hopefully to brighten your day with that sense of faraway, yet very familiar places in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

For Richer . . .

As I walk along Sao Paulo streets,
the people stroll, no rush here,
arm-in-arm they wander as slowly
as if they were in a museum,
talking softly as they go
from one block to the next.

Later, I stroll as they do,
past orchids growing wild in trees,
bougainvillea, impatiens pink and white,
and margaritas, yellow hibiscus, nameless others;
the smallest yards tell me stories
of fallen palm trees,
clipped shrubs, and forget-me-nots.

I climb the yellow brick stairs to the Museo Pinacoteca,
walk past portraits of another era, painters
as unknown as flowers, 

who see with brushes
grasslands, mountains and the people there,
who sit in transplanted Victorian living rooms, 

some sighing in sadness.
some singing with joy.

Parque Anhangabau, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Columns from the Teatro Municipal

October is close to ending. On Halloween, fewer and fewer children knock at our door so I can surprise them with my witch cackle. I wonder how many will come this year. November brings the election (I'm holding my breath) and Thanksgiving, my favorite family holiday. 

May we all have much to be thankful for. 

NOTE: After some work on revising and formatting, and some heavy lifting to get those files out of the dark back drawer, South American Journey is now available on Amazon and free on Kindle Unlimited. Let me know what you think . . . and if you're so inclined, consider leaving a review.