Coming Up With Ideas

Hello everyone, and may I take this opportunity to wish all my friends, followers, fans and fellow book lovers a very Happy New Year!

Today I am privileged and excited to be kicking off 2013 by welcoming onto my blog my lovely friend and fellow writer Mikey Brooks. This is a first for me, because I haven't before hosted a guest on my blog. It's high time I did and I'm so very pleased that my first guest is Mikey.

Mikey and I met in June 2012 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at Rhemalda Publishing's 'Got Stories?' reading and writing conference. We didn't have too much time to get to know each other then, but the spark of friendship and kindred spirit was born. Since then we have worked together, and I have come to realize what an undiscovered talent Mikey is. Not only in his writing (watch out world - Mikey has some great novels to share!) but also as an illustrator. Having dabbled with "art" in a very superficial way myself, I know how hard it is to produce something good. Not only is Mikey's artwork appealing and pleasing to the eye, it also has an irresistible quality that makes you want to see more. I'm sure you will agree when you see the examples further down this post. 

Mikey has some great tips in his post about where you can find ideas to fuel your writing muse. He also has a GIVEAWAY going on over at Goodreads - details at the bottom of his post, so don't miss it! I will hand over to him now and let him tell you all about his work. Take it away, Mikey! 

Coming up with Ideas

By: Author/Illustrator: Mikey Brooks

 

The idea of Bean’s Dragons actually came from my three year old daughter. One day I was standing in the dining room and she started yelling at someone in the living room. When I went to see who it was the only person in the room was her. She explained to me that her dragons were jumping on the couch and she had told them over and over to get down. Playing along with her imagination, I opened the front door and asked her dragons to go home. Fortunately they never did.

 

I believe ideas for stories can be found anywhere. We just have to be open to receive them when they do. The best way to keep your ideas flowing is to be doing other things than writing. I know this might sound off the wall, but it’s true. You need to immerse yourself in all things creative. Watch a few shows, read a few books, hang out with kids and ask them to describe crazy things like the tickle monster, or even draw a picture. Ideas really can be anywhere.

 

Once I have an idea I find it helpful to write it down. I have a notebook on my nightstand that has a pen next to it. Sometimes I’m woken by fantastic dreams or ideas that I think will be great to write about. Sometimes I can’t read the scribbled notes in the morning, but most of the time I get the hint of what I was trying to say. I think it is important to have a notebook, or something for you to collect ideas on, with you all day long. Fortunately I have a smart phone now and can jot down notes anytime in it. Before my phone I used to write on the backs of napkins, scrap paper, even toilet paper. Ideas for my middle grade book The Dream Keeper, started as a dream I had one night. I wrote down what I remembered from it and then later when I was at work I began to sketch out notes on cake order forms (yes, I work in a bakery).

 

 Now that you have an idea, should you work on it right away? If you are not working on something currently, then yes. If you already have a work in progress, then file those ideas away. Sometimes I will take the idea and write out a few scenes, maybe even an outline before I file it away. That way I have something a little more to bridge from later. Don’t let the surge of ideas keep you away from finishing your current project. Idea drawers are great!

I started writing Bean’s Dragons immediately after I saw my daughter playing with her imaginary friends. I was also working on my middle grade book at the time so I never got around to finishing it. Once I was able to focus on just the picture book, I wrote out the story line and started to create the pictures of the dragons. Here I used a lot of my daughter’s help. Working with kids can be amazing fun. If you ever have a chance to do it, do it.

 

My daughter helped me pick out all the colors for the dragons and even helped with what they looked like. This was really a joint effort. As I was drawing out the dragons, more ideas for the story came into my head. This goes back to my previous statement that drawing helps with ideas. It didn’t take long to change up the story a bit to fit in what the drawings had given me. In the end I think it turned out to be a terrific book that is a fun read.

I hope you found this bit of information helpful. For other tips on writing, illustrating, and more visit: www.insidemikeysworld.com or my blog at www.writtenbymikey.blogspot.com.

If you have a question, don’t hesitate to ask.
You can find me on Goodreads at: http://www.goodreads.com/InSideMikeysWorld
on Twitter: @writtenbymikey 
on Pinterest at: http://pinterest.com/writtenbymikey/
and on Facebook: as Mikey Brooks,
or email me at: insidemikeysworld(at)gmail.com.          

You are invited to check out Bean’s Dragons and my other books, including the newest release: ABC Adventures: Magical Creatures at www.insidemikeysworld.com or on Amazon.

 

 And thank you Cas Peace for allowing me to give a guest post on your blog. I don’t need to say this because anyone following Cas’s blog already knows how amazing she is, but for those of you who don’t, Cas really is an amazing friend and colleague and I am grateful for her and all she does. Now go check out her books, because they are awesome too!

 

About the Book: Bean’s Dragons.

Have you ever had a dragon in your house? How about a dozen? Bean is a little girl with an imagination that is creating quite a mess. Although Bean loves each of her dragons, she forgets how untidy they can be when having so much fun. When Bean's parents discover what's happened in their short absence, Bean finds herself the blame of the dragons' giant mess.

You can find more about Bean’s Dragons at: http://www.insidemikeysworld.com/beans-dragons/

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There is also a GIVEAWAY on Goodreads for Bean’s Dragons and for ABC Adventures: Magical Creatures. Make sure to enter soon, the contest ends on January 26^th!

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How Do You Find Inspiration?

One of the commonest questions fiction writers get asked, I think, is “where does your inspiration come from?” The simplest, and actually truest, answer is “everywhere”, yet that always sounds like a cop-out to me. In reality, inspiration CAN come from anywhere; from your everyday life, from the people around you. It hides within the events of your day, or maybe what you see on TV or read in the newspaper. It can spring out at you from something you overheard, some joke or snippet of gossip while you were in the coffee shop or having lunch with your friends. Creative people can recognise inspiration where others might only see the ordinary, or mundane.

Personally, I think that finding inspiration also depends on what type of genre you write in. If I was a romance writer, or a crime writer, I could find a wealth of inspiration on any news channel. Horror writers too, I’d imagine – far too often! But what if you’re like me, a fantasy writer? How does a writer who works in unfamiliar, created worlds find inspiration? Does it come purely from our own imagination or can it also be found in our everyday lives?

The answer, of course, is “yes, of course it can,” and just the other day I found a prime example of how inspiration works for me.

I am extremely fortunate to live in a particularly beautiful and rural part of North Hampshire in the UK. I am surrounded by farmland, by fields of crops, by hedges that change their colours depending on the season. Rabbits and hares, deer and pheasant run in the fields (not always a good thing when you own Lurchers, as I do!) and there are wide field margins around which the farmer permits us to walk. Our roads are country lanes and therefore fairly quiet, and the village is one of the prettiest around. It also contains some of the nicest people you could wish to meet.

This area is primarily a working, food-producing farm. Wheat, sesame, oilseed rape, grass for seed and hay, sheep, cattle and pigs can all be found in the fields. Tractors are a regular sight and they can churn up the lanes and field margins, especially at this time of year. Farmers by nature and profession are a practical lot, not given, you’d be excused for thinking, to flights of fancy. And yet, one day, I turned a corner of a field I often walk around and was confronted by the scene in the photo above. There, in the entrance to a mundane, muddy, working farmyard were these fabulous standing stones, appearing as if by magic (although I suspect by tractor) overnight. I was entranced. Such an unexpected sight immediately set my writing senses a-tingle – how could I fail to be inspired?

What gets your creative juices flowing? Has anyone else come across something so unexpected, it resulted in a piece of writing? I’d love to hear!

The Day I Became A... Business!

I’ve read quite a few blog posts recently on similar subjects, such as when do you think of yourself as a writer, things authors don’t hear about what it’s really like to get their book published, and how to protect yourself against the demands, disappointments and uncertainties of the publishing world. They have all been fascinating and enlightening, and I’ve learned many interesting things. Some of the posts were more relevant to my own experience than others, and some were eye-opening – mainly those concerning the personal feelings of the post’s author. I do admire people who wear their hearts on their sleeves and who can lay their deepest emotions so open to the scrutiny of anyone who happened to read their post. I don’t think it’s something I could ever do.

All these different yet similar posts naturally got me thinking about how I feel on the subject of finally being published after nine or so years of trying. Excited, elated, vindicated; nervous, unsure, apprehensive. All of these things. Yet I never doubted right from the start that I was a writer. Today, however, I realized something else. Today, I realized just how real this all is. Why? Because today I opened a business bank account. Today, I am a sole-trader, a self-employed person. Today the business that is “Cas Peace” became official.

I actually registered as self-employed a few weeks ago. It was necessary for tax reasons, and British National Insurance payments. But the fact that I’d done so didn’t really mean very much at the time. It was all mixed up with other legal stuff, such as visiting a tax consultant and applying to the IRS for a Temporary Tax Number. Don’t get me started on this ITIN thing though – it’s a minefield! Still, I’ve got one now, so that’s ok.

My husband has been self-employed for years and owns three consulting companies. I help him with each company’s VAT returns, which is extremely funny when you learn that I’m someone who can’t do math. So I’m very used to seeing business accounts with the name “Peace” on them. But I never imagined I’d see one with “Cas” in front of it! Just that simple act of opening a new account (all right, it wasn’t simple and it took far longer than it should!) suddenly brought the whole thing home to me. My name is now a brand – albeit an unknown one yet – and I own my own business! I came home from that meeting with a big cheesy grin on my face. My meeting with the Small Business Advisor also ended on a good note when I offered him a signed copy of King’s Envoy. His face lit up and he said I’d made his day. Well, he’d made mine, so it was smiles all round!

All I need now are some royalties to offset the start-up costs I’ve had to pay out. Anyone like to help a starving author?

Good Friends... (originally posted at Rhemalda in May 2011)

Everyone knows what a rare treasure a really good friend is. You know the kind – the ones who tell you, with love, the painful truths you REALLY don’t want to hear. The ones who love you no matter your failings. The ones who help you improve by showing you the faults you can’t see for yourself. The ones who seem to know what you need before you ask. Such friends are difficult enough to find in person, but when one arrives via the Internet, someone you never actually meet or even see via Skype, yet who still manages to connect instantly with your soul, that person is the rarest and most valuable of finds.

Well sadly, this weekend I lost such a friend. Gerry Dailey, who lived with her husband and family in Chicago, was the most loving, trusted and loyal friend despite the fact I never met her in person. We shared many loves, amongst which was a love of books and writing, and although she didn’t write herself (at least, not as far as I know) yet she has had a hand in the writing success of many authors; among them, I believe, Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind.

I first came into contact with Gerry two years ago via Authonomy, the HarperCollins peer-critique website. Her Authonomy profile-name was Ancient Reader. She read King’s Envoy when it was still being edited and despite loving it, gave me many insights, pointers and suggestions. When she learned that there were eight other books in the series, she was overjoyed, and enthusiastically read every single one. I made some important changes due to Gerry’s loving criticisms, and one of my major characters, Rienne, even owes her lovely name to Gerry. She also gave me permission to use an endorsement of hers on the book’s cover, for which I am very grateful.

I know there will be many, many people right now grieving for the loss of a true friend they never met. This post of mine is partly in tribute to Gerry and partly to say, if you have a friend like her, not only are you extremely privileged, but always make sure you tell them how deeply they are valued. Friendship is a precious thing and not to be taken lightly. The gift of someone else’s heart is the strongest, and yet the most fragile gift you could ever receive. If I can touch just one other person’s spirit with my writing as deeply as I touched Gerry’s, I will feel very special indeed.

God bless you, Gerry Dailey, rest peacefully in His arms.

What is an Artesan? (originally posted at Rhemalda in April 2011)

When I first began writing my fantasy series Artesans of Albia, it had a very different title. The premise is that a section of my world’s populace, drawn from five separate races, would be born with a certain talent. One manifestation of this talent is the ability to learn how to control one’s inner life force; an energy I call ‘metaforce’. Once this was decided, I found I needed a vehicle through which this metaforce would be channelled; something possessed by every living thing but which was unique in each case. I experimented with various terms until I hit on the word ‘matrix’. The matrix would be akin to the psyche, and it would be a thing of ephemeral, mystical beauty. It can only be seen by another practitioner of the craft and is an intricate, four-dimensional ‘pattern’, consisting of whorls, spirals, helixes, colors and emotions. The more skilled the practitioner, the more complex their matrix would be.

Having decided these things, the series’ title became obvious. It just had to be ‘Masters of the Matrix’. Brilliant title, I thought – I love it! (Can you see where this is going?)

I wrote happily on, oblivious to the slap in the face that was coming my way. Sometimes I just hate the film industry… Ok, of course you know, it was the release of the Matrix films. I spat feathers when the first one came out – how dare they ruin all my careful planning – not to mention a perfectly good series title? Not fair! For a while I toyed with the idea of keeping my masterpiece – maybe I could capitalize on the connection? Thankfully I thought better of it; can you imagine how mad someone would be if they bought one of my books by mistake, thinking it was related to the films? And I could just imagine what agents or publishers would say…

Anyway, now I had a problem. The people who exhibit this talent are not magicians or wizards in any sense of the word. Their ‘powers’ owe more to Druidical beliefs, or that of Wicca, than to such creations as Gandalf or Merlin. I had to find a unique name for them, a term that reflected their knowledge; their artistry.

One of the best-loved books in my writer’s arsenal is my Roget’s Thesaurus. It was a 21st birthday present from two great-aunts. (Actually my parents bought it, but the money came from my great-aunts.) They are both gone now – my 21st birthday was a long, LONG, time ago – but I still frequent my Thesaurus. When I’d exhausted all the obvious and immediate terms I could think of for my talented people, I dug through its many permutations and suggestions until I whittled all the possibilities down to two words. Artist and artisan.

Both these words carried elements (pun intended) of the skills my people possess, but both were too ordinary. I rejected them, but it wasn’t long until I realized there was nothing else. I’d already decided against coining a brand new word; I wanted potential readers to at least have an inkling of what the term might mean. Eventually, in desperation, I tried altering the word ‘artisan’ by exchanging the ‘i’ for an ‘e’. Bingo! The rest, as the old cliché goes, is history.