Category Archives: Inspiration

Late to the Downton Abbey Party

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I love Pinterest. Now I have a place to save all those wonderful images I find and want to keep for future reference. Bookmarking/Favorites doesn’t give me the necessary visual for why I bookmarked something and storing them in a folder on my hard drive doesn’t give me the ability to click the picture and be taken straight to the Internet site where I found the image. Most of all, I love seeing what those I’m following are finding on the world wide web that may inspire my writing worlds. That’s how I discovered Downton Abbey.

One had posted a picture of a castle and titled it Downton Abbey. I was quite confused because I knew the place depicted was Highclere Castle in Berkshire. So I did a quick Bing search and became even more confused. I called my bff, Tracy (of Cotton Creek Soap Co.), and asked her if she knew what this show was all about and why I’d never heard of it. Turns out my cable t.v. package doesn’t include any BBC channels, but the show’s being aired on PBS.  Excellent news, but I’d already missed all of season one and most of season two.

Yesterday, I found the episodes to view online and I’m SO hooked! I love everything about this series drama. The storyline includes the goings on of the upstairs family/downstairs servants, is rich with awesome visuals, and each episode plot is compelling.

I have a lot of catching up to do before the next episode of season two airs. If I’m not seen around the nets for the next several days, you’ll know why. ;-)

Diagram of a Frigate

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Research! It leads me down paths I never expected to travel. In Sweet Liberation, Lady Joanna spends a great deal of time on the earl of Sener’s frigate.  I needed to know the layout of the ship in order to accurately portray how the couple and crew would live and interact with each other in their floating castle.  This image, while a bit difficult to decipher at first, helped me tremendously, along with Ship’s Miscellany: A Guide to the Royal Navy of Jack Aubrey by Michael O’Mara Books Limited.

This image of the HMS Surprise was the inspiration for Sweet Liberation.

Things That Spark My Imagination

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Sometimes, when I struggle to find the right words to convey what I’m seeing in my mind, I resort to searching Google and Bing for pictures that give my creativity a boost.  Several special  images have remained in my collection  for years and still never fail to spark my imagination anew.  Here are a few that helped me in the telling of Alex and Desiree’s story.

Seaton Tor on the windswept coast of southern England.

The front side of Alex's castle.

All Desiree wanted.

The dower house.

The gallows.

The highwayman.

The trial at the Old Bailey.

Mrs. Crawley's Inn

The master bedchamber.

The library, but with a different desk and high-backed chairs.

The castle kitchen.

The castle kitchen.

The Great Hall of Seaton Tor.

If you've read Sweet Salvation, you know exactly what this represents. ;-)

Normal Moments, Inc.

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Normal Moments, Inc. is a Chicago-based charity opening a chapter in Indianapolis.  They work to give more “normal moments” for parents with critically ill children by providing services such as sending a professional cleaning service into the home, snow removal, lawn care, and ultimately matching a family with a volunteer who will donate 3 – 4 hours every 2 weeks to help.

Amanda Farmer-Dye is the Leader for the Indianapolis chapter and would like to ask for your help in supporting this non-profit organization by making a donation.  All donations go directly to paying for professional services for the family and for overhead, which is primarily printing.  Please check out their website at www.normalmoments.org where you can find out more about this great organization.  You can also make a donation on the website.  When making a donation, please include “Indianapolis” on the invoice or in the description box when filling out the credit/debit card info to ensure that the funds will be allocated to this new chapter.

It’s a very worthy cause.  Please donate what you can–even if it’s only a few dollars–or more importantly, your time!  Thank you!

Lis’Anne

MIA

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Sorry I slacked off posting over the past several months.  The Southern Lights Writers Conference is gearing up and I’m on the committee this year.  So much to do, so little time!   

Recently I had suffered from extreme writer’s block. I couldn’t even muster up the energy to read my faves unless it was emailed to me. When I heard the great Nathan Bransford quit agenting to take a job with CNET, severe depression set in. :(   Not that I ever intended to query him since I don’t write what he used to represent, but he was a damn good agent. His career change added to the perception of the publishing world crumbling in this horrid economy. I’m so very glad he’s still blogging about books, and even more thrilled to see debut romance authors appearing left and right!  

I had a major writing breakthrough a few days ago that reenergized me–and one of my critique partners talked me into starting a new blog venture with her–Chicks in the Kitchen–about what’s happening in each of ours. The neatest part of this one is taking pictures of our culinary masterpieces and sharing recipes along with our writing lives.  We have some guest bloggers lined up to share the goings-on in their kitchens, as well. 

So, I’m back, but with no guarantees on how often I’ll post here.  I still have sandcastledreamer.blogspot.com to work on, too.  A new Random Surf Report will be up on that site shortly.

Happy reading & writing!
Lis

Very Worthy Blog Post

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I recently visited Uppington’s blog and read a post that truly inspired me.  I believe it’s worth posting the link here.

http://uppington.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/integrity-and-the-writer/#comments

Today’s Ramblings:

There’s so much going on around here it’s hard to remain focused on my goals.  This is Spring Break week for my youngest son, my middle son moved home from Ormond Beach after graduating from Wyotech (finding a job in the marine mechanics field isn’t going to be easy in this economy), and my oldest son has laptop issues and requires my expertise in hardware and software repairs.  My husband is working, but with construction jobs few and far between business is slow.  My attention is constantly demanded by all these males in my life.

Yet, I’m plugging away at amping up SS with the help of an extremely talented writer who spots areas that could use sentence restructuring, power words to create dramatic tension, etc.  I’ve discovered the beginning of this story–written at a time in my life when my worst anxiety reared its ugly head–doesn’t have the same level of “compellingness” as the rest of the story.

Also, I’m plotting TDLI, on occasion opening TaT and contemplating the impact of each direction I can take my h/h, and thinking about TCH–but not actually opening it up to work on the edits.

Add to all of the above, the pool is coming along, but nature keeps conspiring to slow the work on it.  All of the patches are done, the cleaning solution and epoxy paint arrived, but the bottom drain is clogged with sawdust and debris.  We can’t find a Drain King in any of our local stores so I’m brainstorming on ways to unclog the thing before we paint.  Since I’m considered a plumbing expert by my husband, the solution to the dilemma is left to me.  I have an idea, but here I sit.

Yikes!  It’s noon…I must go put a roast in the oven.  Talk to y’all later!

Lis’Anne