Sources of Inspiration

A couple of months ago, my good friend, Brad, the Black Knight of the Southern Realms, came to visit.  He used to live in DC, he hates crowds, and he was visiting at the height of the cherry blossoms, so finding something he's never done before and that he'd enjoy proved quite the challenge.

This is my friend Brad.  We're nothing alike.  Brad is a biker.  Brad saved me
from quicksand once.  We have lots of adventures.

I ended up taking him to Hillwood Museum and Gardens and fell in love with the place.  Hillwood is the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune.  She's like Richie Rich, if Richie Rich wore stunning gowns and had a thing for Faberge eggs and Cartier.

When she passed away, she opened her mansion up to the public.  What I like is that the mansion is in DC (you can see the Washington monument from the mansion's second floor), but you feel like you're in the countryside.  The grounds are so quiet and peaceful.  Lawn chairs are scattered throughout and visitors are encouraged to stay a while and relax.  It's a great place for a writer to figure out a plot point or to outline their next story.  And it's usually not that busy.  I went on a Saturday at the beginning of June and had whole swaths of the gardens to myself.      

Please, stay a while.

I had the rose garden to myself.

Diana the Huntress

Then there's the mansion itself.  Oh my word.  Do you need inspiration for your next book?  Come on in!  Post was an avid collector of Russian treasures.  Priceless art, a room full of ornate Eastern Orthodox crosses, Faberge eggs, a chandelier that belonged to Catherine the Great...Post collected All.The.Things and the things are beautiful.  

This is the humble breakfast nook.  Chandelier belonged to Catherine the Great.
Plates belonged to some Russian noble.  Your nook looks like this, yes?

The museum also puts her dresses on display on a rotating basis.  Do not miss this, especially if you're writing historical fiction set around 1920-1950.  The dresses are in her closet (which is the size of my condo) and it can be easy to walk past them.  There are also a couple of jaw-dropping gowns in the Cartier exhibit that make the costumes on Downton Abbey look Downton Shabby.           

A few tips:

* Suggested price for admission is $15 per person, but if you get a yearly membership for $50, you can visit as often as you like (and you get four guest passes). 

* They have plenty of parking, but I love to walk to Hillwood.  It's a mile from the Van Ness-UDC metro and you can see homes with the most interesting architecture on the way there.  Plus, the neighborhood has a ton of cute dogs and if you're lucky, they'll be out on their walks.

* Bring a picnic basket (Hillwood offers complimentary picnic blankets) and have a leisurely meal in the gardens.  You can get food at Hillwood Cafe or just stop at the Giant by the Van Ness-UDC metro and stock up on goodies.  

It's Like a Basket of Puppies

Story ideas, to me, are like baskets of puppies.  You're looking down at four or five little furry faces, all adorable, every single one demanding attention, eager, and ready to go, and OMG, which one do you choose to play with first?  And then one particularly precocious pup scales the pen and climbs into your lap and settles the debate for you.     

Pick me!  No, wait, pick me!

Yeah, it's like that, except my story ideas don't chew the furniture or have accidents on the carpet.

I always have shiny ideas bouncing around in my head.  Last year, after my final revision of Knights of Avalon, there were several vying for my attention - the Medusa story, the Apocalyptic Pizza Delivery Girl story, the Shangri-La story...  but in the end, it was Medusa who won out.  Probably because she can turn people to stone.  Also, she has claws and her blood is poison.  In a cage match, she'd probably beat all my other characters, even Justine.  

I had tried to write Beautiful Medusa before, in 2009, but I couldn't do it, I wasn't a strong enough writer and I didn't know how to handle the material.  Now, the story grabbed hold of me and refused to let go.  That's how I know a story's ready to be written, when I can't stop thinking about it.  It's all consuming, both the best feeling in the universe and the worst.  There's so much joy in building a new world, in creating characters and imagining their relationships.  If I had my way, I'd lock myself in the house for three months and just create, create, create.

And at the end of three months, I'd look like Gollum.

But I'd have my precious story.

My precious.

Instead of being able to throw myself into my new world though, I had these distractions.  Bothersome things like a job and family...  Human interaction is so overrated.  How was I supposed to concentrate on spreadsheets when there were people in my head, demanding to be heard?  That's the downside of getting obsessed with a story.  Until the story's told, the thought of doing anything else becomes unbearable.  Every day I woke up wanting to lose myself in my writing, but I had to force myself to take care of responsibilities that couldn't be ignored.

From December to July, I balanced my need to create with my need to pay the bills as best I could.  I fought for time to write and bit by bit, the story in my head became words on the page, until Beautiful Medusa was a real, actual book, a book that I love.

Then again, I love all my books.  Still, I've been working on my writing and I like to think that maybe I've actually learned something and improved after all these years.  I suppose we'll see.        

If you're curious, here's the query:

In a land wasted and wrung dry, where happiness is as rare as any jewel, sixteen-year-old Alessia considers herself blessed to be a Priestess of Athena. But when the girl’s extraordinary beauty draws the unwanted attention of Poseidon, her life becomes a nightmare. Cursed for defying an immortal and cast out of her home, the gods transform Alessia into the legendary Medusa and condemn her to live life as a monster.

Snakes for hair. A gaze that can turn a man to stone. Razor sharp talons at the end of each finger. All Alessia wants is to hide herself away from the world before she hurts someone, or worse. Yet to the kings of ancient Greece, Alessia's petrifying gaze makes her a weapon to be won at any cost. With the kings offering unimaginable riches to anyone who can bring them the head of the Medusa, the scared girl soon finds herself hunted by the all too clever hero Perseus and many others.

Struggling to hold onto both her life and her humanity, Alessia flees westward and finds the impossible: Sanctuary and a chance at love with a fallen god preparing to wage war on Olympus. But are his feelings sincere or is he merely using her? And when the war comes, will Alessia, the once loyal priestess, exact revenge on the gods who turned her into Medusa?

Based on the legend according to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Beautiful Medusa is a YA Fantasy complete at 92,000 words. Though the story can stand alone, there is potential for a sequel. Thank you for your consideration!

I don't know what's going to happen with this story.  I'm sure I'll get rundown with rejections soon enough, but right now, I'm excited and it just feels good to be done.

Interview with Forget-Her-Nots Author Amy Brecount White!

I had the pleasure of meeting Amy at the fabulous launch party for her YA novel Forget-Her-Nots. It took me a couple of days to work up the courage, but I asked her for an interview (my very first author interview) and she kindly agreed.

Besides the interview, which is below, I highly recommend everyone read Amy's thoughts on writing the novel that only you can write. It's one of the best takes on inspiration and originality that I've seen. Now, on to the questions!... OK, first the blurb, then the questions!

About Forget-Her-Nots:

When someone leaves three mystery flowers outside her dorm door,Laurel thinks that maybe the Avondale School isn’t so awful after all — until her own body starts to freak out. In the middle of her English presentation on the Victorian Language of Flowers, strange words pop into her head, and her body seems to tingle and hum. Impulsively, Laurel gives the love bouquet she made to demonstrate the language to her spinster English teacher. When that teacher unexpectedly and immediately finds romance, Laurel suspects that something — something magical — is up. With her new friend, Kate, she sets out to discover the origins and breadth of her powers by experimenting on herself and others. But she can’t seem to find any living experts in the field of flower powers to guide her. And her bouquets don’t always do her bidding, especially when it comes to her own crush, Justin. Rumors about Laurel and her flowers fly across campus, and she’s soon besieged by requests from girls — both friends and enemies — who want their lives magically transformed — just in time for prom.

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1. I've read about the inspiration for your novel, which has a truly unique premise, but I was curious about your inspiration for Forget-Her-Nots' main character, Laurel. Was she based on anyone you know? How did you come up with her?

I think all main characters have a lot of their author in them. (It's funny, because a friend from high school whom I haven't seen in years just told me she recognized much of me in Laurel, too! LOL.) Most importantly, I wanted Laurel to be someone most people could relate to. She's still trying to figure out where she fits in to everything and how to handle the tough things life has handed her. She's a strong person, but in her own way. I also coach my daughter's soccer team and played some myself, so the team aspect of Laurel's life was important to me, too.

2. The novel takes place at Avondale, a boarding school in Charlottesville, Virginia. I actually tried searching for this school online, wondering if perhaps it was real. Have you ever attended a boarding school? Is there a real Avondale out there?

I attended a public high school in Dayton, Ohio. There's a boarding/day school in Charlottesville, but I've actually never been there other than to drive through the campus once. (I did live in Charlottesville for four years, though.) Avondale is entirely fictional. I wanted a place that I could imbue with a rich history and amazing gardens. I didn't realize there were quite so many boarding school books out there!

3. You've mentioned that it took about 8 years to write your novel and get it published, and that, as with many books, it was a long and winding road. Can you tell me a little more about that journey? We can probably guess the high point of the journey, but what about the low point? The bumps along the way?

The low point was some difficulties I had with an agent. (Not my current wonderful agent, Steven Chudney.) I think I said somewhere that agent X "promised me the moon and left me in a ditch." I don't name names, but just be careful if an agent asks you to do revisions before signing. Be sure to get very good recommendations, although that's tough if it's someone new. I ended up wasting a lot of time and energy. The road was also bumpy in part for me, because I was writing something really original that was hard to pigeon-hole. FHN isn't a fantasy; it's not paranormal, and it's intergenerational. Lots of people loved the idea, but they wanted me to take it places I didn't want to go.

4. If you were going to create a tussie-mussie (a bouquet of flowers chosen for their meaning) for an aspiring author, what flowers would you use?

Oh, fun!! Snowdrops for hope, because you need lots of that to survive rejection. Rosemary to remember so that the events of your life will be vivid and memorable and inspire you. Red camellia for unpretending writing excellence. Mountain laurel for ambition, because you REALLY need to want to do this, and sage because I esteem and admire your efforts!

5. From what I've read, you've done a lot of traveling and a lot of gardening. After reading Forget-Her-Nots, where would someone go to learn more about flowers and enjoy them in person? Do you have any hidden gems to recommend, both locally (DC area) or nationally?

Any conservatory or public garden is a fabulous place to start, especially if the plants are labelled. Their gift shops might even have a language of flowers book in them. Locally, I love the U.S. Botanic Garden and conservatory on the mall. The gardens near the Smithsonian "castle" are always fabulous, too. I used to take my kids to Meadowlark Gardens near Wolf Trap a lot. Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, is wonderful, too. River Farm Gardens in Alexandria has some amazing heirloom plants and a fabulous view of the river. This is my favorite place to picnic.

Nationally, I love the gardens around Duke University in N.C. and also those of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Longwood Gardens and Winterthur in Pennsylvania are amazing to visit.

6. Finally, do you have any upcoming appearances, panels, workshops or projects you'd like to announce?

Sure! I'll be at Aladdin's Lamp in Arlington on 4/11 for a reading and signing and other fun stuff. I'll be at Fountain Books in Richmond on 4/17. I'll be signing and selling at the Friends of the National Arboretum Plant sale on 4/24. I'll do a May Day reading and celebration at Hooray for Books! in Alexandria on May 1st.

I've applied to some festivals, so watch my website for updates.

Thanks so much for having me, Melissa!!

You're most welcome and thanks for stopping by!

Finding Inspiration

People sometimes ask me where I get the inspiration for my stories, because of all the issues I might have with my writing, coming up with story ideas is not one of them. Truth is, I get my inspiration from every and anywhere... the graffiti on a wall, Ghost Hunters, Anime, a trip to Hawaii... but most importantly, I get my inspiration from art and history and I sometimes worry that not enough writers are paying attention to those last two.

I can't stress this enough to writers: I know you're told to read widely, to know the books in your genre, but there's a whole marvelous world out there that you should be exploring too. Visit a museum, tour some old ruins, read up on the French Revolution. Maybe you'll get an idea for your next book. If nothing else, you'll have expanded your understanding and broadened your mind, because ultimately, history is about people and how they react in certain circumstances, art is about human emotion given form. Gain a better understanding of both and you'll become a better writer.

I recently visited the Terra Cotta Warrior Exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in DC (all sold out, I'm afraid). Not only was it an amazing experience, getting to see statues detailed down to the soles of their shoes, with unique faces and hair-dos, but I got inspiration for a story I've been struggling with for over a year. The tentative title of the book is the Walls of Shangri-La, about a boy who lives in a walled paradise that no one has left for a thousand years. When one day a girl in a hot air balloon flies over the city, the boy becomes determined to find out what's outside the walls, even if it means imprisonment and the destruction of his family.

I already have one villain for the story, but with the way I have things planned out, I needed a second villain, bigger and badder than the first and I had no idea what to do. I was stuck, until I went to this exhibit. Now I think I'm going to base the villain on the First Emperor of China. Here are some things I learned at the show that I'm probably going to incorporate into the character and the book:

• The Emperor was extremely paranoid (is it paranoia if they're really out to get you though?). He built hundreds of palaces and slept in a different one every night. Once, when he was traveling and it was clear people had expected his arrival, he had his entire retinue of servants executed to make sure whoever had leaked the information would never do so again.
• There were numerous assassination attempts against the Emperor. In the most famous and nearly successful attempt, the assassin gained an audience with the Emperor after bringing him the head of an enemy general and a map of enemy lands. The assassin lunged at the Emperor with a dagger that was hidden in the rolled up map.
• The Emperor was a tyrant, but an extremely efficient and capable tyrant. Roads were improved, weights, money and writing was standardized, and weapons were mass-manufactured, which gave the Emperor a technical advantage over his enemies. Every weapon had a stamp on it saying where the weapon had been made and by who to ensure quality control. Parts could also be inter-changed, allowing weapons to be quickly fixed.
• The Emperor did not always kill rival rulers. Rather, he would bring them to the capital and keep them as prisoners in palaces designed to resemble their own palaces back home.
  

There are plenty of more details that I want to put into the book, like the decorated tiles I saw and Chinese symbology. As creative as I might be, everytime I learn about the past, I find something amazing that I could have never dreamed up on my own.