Inspiration

Happy Valentines Day!

On this day of lovers, I'd like to share a little about the inspiration behind the lovers in some of my books and WIP. And maybe hear about what inspires you in your writing.

Sometimes it's "What if" questions that bring about that first spark of an idea.
What if a woman lost her memory and met her lover? Well, in Lost Memories, Honie's angry as hell when she sees Mace again.

Pictures
I've had a few character and location inspirations based on pictures, but recently I saw a picture of a gargoyle done by a digital artist and it sent my mind spinning with the ideas. The story is now in the line of ideas waiting to be written and it's diverged from that original picture. And those gargoyles, well, they're not anything you'd readily recognize as those stone guardians against evil.

Theme and story calls

When I see the call lists for things like bounty hunters, pirates and cowboys, well those can kick start an idea. I wanted to do a sort of space cowboy story. That's originally what I intended when I started writing Lover's Return, but the story and characters changed on me. Jericho and Charleigh just didn't want to stay in a wild, wild west sort of setting. By the way, Lover's Return releases on the 15th. Just so you know.

Television

I've gotten a few kickstarts from television. Watching a documentary about feuding families sort of combined with one of the above theme and story calls and gave me some of the conflict and background for two lovers from fueding families. Yes, another story waiting to be written.

Okay, now what inspires you?

Plotting, news, ideas

Okay I've been away for a while.

I'm going to busy in the next week. I need to do a big check and update for my website.

I've got some research to do as well as some work on my world notebooks. I'm updating my character names list so I don't use the same name for two different characters. Of course I'll also be working on my active WIP.

I'll be beginning revisions on Primal Claim (tentative title) soon (the primal short I wrote.) I want to get it ready to submit to my editor ASAP. Which means, I can move something up onto the active WIP list.

Lately, I've been especially inspired. Ideas for new books have been flowing. There's a Feiral Ancients story, a sort of story inspired by gargoyles, and more on the Primal series. A few of them are going to be rather long so they'll go into the queue to be written after I've fleshed out the characters, conflict and world. I'm plotting another short story at this moment. That will move onto the active WIP as soon as I'm satisfied with the plot and characters.

Lover's Return

Here's the uber sexy cover for Lover's Return. Gorgeous!

On top of this I have some very good news. A release date.

Lover's Return will be releasing on February 15!

I know I'm looking forward to February.

Her Mates Embrace Cover and update

Above is the cover for Her Mate's Embrace. Isn't it gorgeous? I love her eyes.

I've been writing. I've started hand writing a story. A menage I'm calling "The Bears" for the moment. I'm liking it. It's definitely different than sitting at the computer and tapping at the keys. I'm also working on other stories on my computer. A while back I had a corrupt file problem with Their Familiar. I lost some of the work I'd done, but I'm back and beyond where I left off. I'll also be beginning work on a new Primal short soon. I'm looking forward to jumping back into the world of the Zarain.

At the moment, I'm finishing off the second round of edits for Her Mates Embrace. I just need to finish this read through and get it back to my editor. Well, got to get back to that read through.

Happy reading!

Good news here!

It's now official! Ellora's Cave had contracted Her Mates' Embrace. Woohoo! (Did you know kitties give you the strangest looks when you squee aloud?) Cover art to be shared and drooled over whenever I get it.

 HME is a Santir shapeshifter story set in the same world and around the same time as some of the Primal Attraction series. I'm anxious to get started on the edits for this but have a little pre-edit work to do beforehand. Remember Tyson from Hunted Intensity. The two heroes in this book are his Ardin, his leaders.

In other news for me, I finished a short story, Jericho's Return. It's a futuristic, set on a colony. Jericho returns to his home colony to reunite with his lady love, Charleigh. I need to revise that. I'm making progress, sometimes snail's pace, on Their Familiar and Rana's story. I'm putting together details for a Primal short story. I want to get back to that world. I'll be sending an update to my webmistress soon to update the website with the latest.

Step into a world of Love and Adventure

Rebecca
Rebecca Airies

Revisions--my take

I look forward to revisions. I'm not one of those people who finish a book happy with it as it is. By the time I finish the last scene, I know of at least a few of the problem areas. Sometimes when I write the end, I'm wondering if it's the worst stuff I've ever written.

Revisions give me a chance to overhaul all those problem areas, the inconsistencies and fill in all the details I left out when I was in the zone writing.


Here's some of my revision list.

Let it rest at least a day. Everyone needs a little distance when going back through their work.

Keep your character descriptions and world notebooks handy (Don't forget to put the little stuff in there. That's the stuff that hangs me up for the longest when I have to go back and look for it, especially in the sci-fi, fantasy books where I might have a non-english word for it.)

spelling and grammar

consistency and readability- consistent description and characterization (especially in a series. Believe me I noticed when a character in a series I read suddenly turned up with a different color hair and a different personality.)

character growth and characterization

Use the senses to bring the reader into your world.

Keep an eye out for being verbs. Choose action over is, are, etc.

If you notice a word or phrase used too much, start cutting. It's probably in there around 1400 times. (Okay, an exaggeration, except maybe in the case of 'right now' in Embracing magic which I'm currently revising.)

At least once, read your book from start to finish as if you were a reader. If something throws you off on the read through, it will throw others off.

An odd bit of inspiration.

Inspiration can come at the oddest times. Tonight, while I was doing the dishes after dinner, is one instance. I'm currently finishing a rather massive WIP...still. (Seriously, this WIP doesn't seem to want to end. Although I know it's going to be a huge undertaking to revise this one because it sort of changed directions on me while I was writing it.)

A chant or some kind of spell came to me. Not a full story idea even a scene, but definitely something inspirational. Here's what came to me.

Made of Stone, ye claim
Hard to the core, rock within and without
From heart to thy name

Strength and steel can win a fight
They cannot heal the pain ye wrought
The chaos ye caused ends tonight

Made of stone, ye claim
So shall ye be
Stone, ye shall remain.

I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm going to tack it up and give it some time to let the idea solidify and form fully. (And I don't know why it's got this Old English thing going on.) Just the words call up some images and ideas but maybe it will twist into something a little different.