First off, I apologize for not posting more this week. I had great plans and some topics I really hoped to discuss but, as has a way of happening, life took over. Hopefully, I can visit again one day when things aren’t quite so chaotic. Now, on with this post…

When I started out writing, the stories were huge tomes about things that interested me even if I didn’t know the topic beyond what research could teach me. Unfortunately those tomes didn’t get me too far, but into several rejection letters. Okay, a few more than several. All around me I kept hearing to “write what I know.” Geez, now didn’t that sound boring? Even so, I gave it a try. I wrote a book all about the things I knew. It actually received a full manuscript request, though it was ultimately rejected. Why was it rejected? Because I wrote what I knew. And, geez, was that boring!

So where to go? The answer for me was a happy medium. A blend of what I know with what I learn through research. Really, how many authors who write about the 1400s have lived in the time period to know what they are writing about through firsthand experience? Probably not too many, though since I happen to love writing time travels and believe in the concept of regeneration, I won’t discount the idea completely.

These days, I find the setting or main theme around which my plot is based directly ties into what I know. How that story spins around the setting or theme is where the unfamiliar comes into play, and where I really get to set my creativity to work. For example my most current release out of Kensington Aphrodisia, Body Moves, is set on a Caribbean island at a medical tourism resort. I have never been to the Caribbean or a medical tourism resort. However, I know the two heroines in this book extremely well. I have been in both of their shoes and I also am intimately aware of the medical processes and terms discussed throughout the book. For my coming Aphrodisia, Handyman, the basis for the stories within stem from the reality of Michigan’s declining auto industry. As my family felt this impact in a number of ways, to write about men who lived through it just came naturally.

In the case of the paranormal or historical, tying my own life experiences in doesn’t usually work out too well. So in this case I try to give my characters traits that I myself share or that others around me have. So long as I can stick with some part of the story or characterization I clearly identify with, I find it easier to bring the story and the characters within to life so that a reader can form that much loved bond.

How each individual author is inspired is a subject that truly intrigues me. If you write, what inspires you? Do you find that your work changes with the world around you? Or are you able to completely leave the present behind to write whatever your heart desires?