January 2019 IWSG

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by. These are the co-hosts for January 2019’s Insecure Writers Support Group brought to you by Alex J. Cavanaugh and his team of co-hosts: Patricia Lynne, Lisa-Buie Collard, Kim Lajevardi, and Fundy Blue. Be sure to stop by their blogs and give them some love. 

January 2 question - What are your favorite and least favorite questions people ask you about your writing? 

My favorite question about my writing Where do I get my inspiration. And I'm off and running.

Inspiration is Everywhere I never have writer’s block. Why? Because I find inspiration wherever I go. The inspiration for my novel, Salem's Daughters came from the nocturnal cats at my parents' one-hundred-year-old house, who learned to stand and use their paws to open doors. Sleeping in my old bedroom while visiting on vacation, all I saw and heard was the old glass style door knobs rattling, then the door opening before the cats dropped to the carpet out of my sight. Spooky! 

The next day we drove the two-lane roads of southern Michigan. The scenery along the north branch of the Kalamazoo River was beautiful. With vivid imagery, my parents told me of their childhood and their life and times as kids growing up there. 

We happened upon a very old dilapidated farmhouse and barn that looked so creepy I thought the property might very well be haunted. During that twenty-four period the cats, the incredible imagery along the Kalamazoo River, and the spooky old ramshackle house and barn was all it took, and Salem's Daughters was born. 

It’s that easy to be inspired with ideas from your everyday surroundings if you simply learn to recognize what’s going on around you! 

What’s my least favorite question people ask about my writing? If I will read their non-researched and unedited manuscript. I am nice but blunt and tell them they can give me a synopsis of a page or two and I’ll tell them if I think it’s a good idea. But no way am I reading 100 pages of loose random thoughts.

Question What did you do for New Years Eve? here's what I did.