February 2020 IWSG

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by. These are the co-hosts for February 2020’s Insecure Writers Support Group brought to you by Alex J. Cavanaugh and his team of co-hosts: Lee Lowry, Ronel Janse von Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes Catrina Constatine and Tyrean Martinson. 

Be sure to stop by their sites and give them some love for all their hard work this month! 

February 5 question Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it? 

Not specifically. But 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.

Question Are you currently working on a new novel?