NEVER DISCARD A CRAZY IDEA (just write a story to fit it)

I need to have a few ‘bones’ to hang my story on; a few events, like signposts on a highway.  A happening or two I can work my way toward, travel past and on to the next signpost. Sometimes while I’m writing a good idea will pop up – or the dialogue pouring out of my fingertips (I’m a touch typist of old), the smart repartee between characters will introduce another character or create an event I hadn’t thought of, until then. At other times I will get an idea and to use it I have to write a whole chapter to justify one paragraph with the idea planted there, more for my own satisfaction than the reader’s amusement.

This happened in my latest novella “A Stellar Affair”, a futuristic romance. Stella is at the airport with her grandfather.  They have ‘jumped’ to a corner in a service passage and as they exit the corridor  to the main concourse Stella has to avoid the suitcases that are following their owners, or rather following an electronic signal coming from either the wrist or belt of their owners. Oblivious to other beings they trundle faithfully upright, close behind. The cases have safety locks to prevent theft, which If forced causes them to wail like a baby.  People become emotionally attached to their suitcases, paste stickers, noses, eyelashes on them and give them names.

The idea of the suitcase ‘pets’ came to me watching the new upright suitcases, at the airport about a year ago; being pulled along by their owners, tucked beside them, held close. Suddenly I could picture them as faithful pets and the methodology of how and why was worked out in minutes. I had to write a whole chapter just to fit in an airport scene to use the suitcase idea. A fan commented the other day about this latest story. She loved the story, but wanted to talk about the suitcases. She thinks everyone should have one and in the future everyone might now that I’ve put the idea out there. She also thinks I should contact Samsonite – but I haven’t.

When this happens it’s just great to be a writer - the deliverer of ideas and secrets. Yesterday I had a fabulous title pop into my head.  I wasn’t even thinking about writing. Actually, (and I know I shouldn’t use an adverb) I was cooking peanut brownies at the time. I had to rush off and write it down.  Now I’ll have to write a story to fit the title. If I don’t hassle it I know my brain will come up with some ideas, probably in the dead of night and keep me awake.  Meanwhile I’ll hug it tight and ponder on different plot lines I could use. It has to go through the ‘hatching’ process.

My latest Young Adult: 'A TASTE OF GOLD' ((by Deryn Pittar) has acquired, unplanned, two Taniwha. They definitely weren’t there to begin with, but have snuck in and now insist they are worthy of keeping. I’m inclined to agree with them. I didn’t know Taniwha could be so persuasive. Their size could have something to do with that. I keep looking over my shoulder to check they haven’t followed me home. Now I need to think of another adventure in which I can travel New Zealand and find other Taniwha. I’ve been to the local library and although there are a few legends involving these mythical creatures it appears to be an open field for me to play in.

My Taniwha are brave, loyal, intelligent and keepers of the land's treasures (gold, silver and diamonds). Guess who causes the earthquakes in this country?

KEEPING FAIRIES IN YOUR GARDEN

Today I welcome Daisy Banks to my blog -  a writer who indulges her imagination and delights her readers with stories of fantasy and fiction, skilfully blended with facts.

 

Fairy Gardens.

All my blog posts in the Valentine Wishes tour are to do with fairies and it has been interesting to discover other people who believe in them too. This is reassuring as I did wonder if people might find me more than a little odd. Someone did ask what could they do to encourage the presence of the wee folk in their home.

I’d suggest first look to your garden or outdoor spaces. Elementals like fairies love greenery, flowers and herbs, so there is your first way to entice a fairy to linger. Fairies don’t relish neat and tidy, every weed pulled, every leaf and twig swept away as they fall, gardens. I think fairies like a bit of a wild spot, so do other creatures. Now, this will of course, depend on where in the world you and your garden are. If you know leaving logs around encourages poisonous snakes to come for a stay, you won’t want that in your garden. Likewise, one of my friends lives in a part of the USA where only cactus grows easily, but I know she has made a garden with stones and flowering types of cactus.

Depending on what your weather is like you can use all kinds of things, mossy stones, small fountains, the solar powered ones are easy to set up, bird feeders and bird baths are fun, fragrant planting is good too and I’ve always found pots useful for plants so I can move plants around from place to place if I wish. My parent’s house has several wind chimes in the garden and they can be atmospheric.

I expect a lot of you have these things already. If you want to be specific to plants for attracting fairies, Hawthorn hedging is grand. It is the Hawthorn that gives the glorious display known as May blossom. A myriad of tiny deliciously scented white flowers brings luck and many ruby red berries in winter. A delight for the when the winter weather comes. May blossom has been associated with fairies and magic for a very long time. Tradition says May blossom should not be cut and brought inside until the month of May is out.

Specific flowers to encourage fairies are roses, nasturtiums, foxgloves, pansies, winter flowering heather. All these are bright colourful and fragrant. I could go add to this list with plants like lavender, rosemary and thyme. I’ve chosen a couple of images for you as an idea. I hope you enjoy them.

The garden features strongly in my story Valentine Wishes and is based on one garden I had some years ago before I moved house. I do hope you enjoy the story which is available on 10^th of February . You can if you wish pre order it here. http://bit.ly/1l0mX2Y

Here is a little snippet from Valentine Wishes to let you see part of the garden.

Poppy flew over the drab February garden. The damp, gray morning remained cold with an icy nip in the air, but at least she could feel no imminent snow. In one corner by where the girls parked the car, beneath a leafless bough, a little stand of snowdrops peeked out. Spring would soon arrive and the garden would bloom back into life. She flew up and around to the larger back garden.

Here sat some of the dreaded decking. Lackluster, noxious stuff and when she first saw it, she had thought not to settle in such a place. But her girls, being such clever and willing mortals, covered more than half of the deck with pots, baskets, and bright coloured boxes of flowers and herbs. The scent in the summer intoxicated, and this persuaded her to stay. The party that had been in full swing when she arrived, with couples who danced on the lawn, also helped make up her mind. Why, my girls even have pretty fairy lights hanging from the bushes. She knew another party was planned to take place very soon and she could hardly wait.

Links to Daisy Banks

Buy link from the 10^th of February onward at Liquid Silver Books. http://bit.ly/1eXJOcx

Blog    http://daisybanks.wordpress.com/

Website http://daisybanksnovels.yolasite.com/

Twitter @DaisyBanks12

Facebook page http://on.fb.me/18iRC35

Pinterest http://bit.ly/16sF1XG

DECEMBER IS DIFFERENT DOWNUNDER!

Daylight Saving

Pohutukawas in bloom (our Christmas tree)

Barbeques in the evenings

Equinox winds (if they haven’t stopped blowing)

Sand-flies biting our ankles

Suncream, sunhats and zinc-coated noses

School Holidays for six weeks

Bonfires on the beach

Jandals/thongs/flip-flops on our feet

Shopping in shorts and T-shirts

Bright clothes to match the sunshine

New Years Eve: crowds on the streets

With bands playing till midnight

The New Year welcomed with kisses under the Southern Cross.

****

Over the holiday season read my romance, ‘A Talent for Loving’, set in Australia at the end of this century. Fall in love with the characters, the countryside and the climate.

A TASTE OF GOLD

PYSCHIC TWINS, TWO ROBBERS, TWO TANIWHA AND A PRETTY REPORTER.
MIX THEM ALL UP FOR AN ADVENTURE FOR TEENAGE READERS.

AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK FROM EVERNIGHT TEENS AND AMAZON. WILL ALSO BE 'PRINT ON DEMAND' IN A COUPLE OF DAYS TIME, AT EVERNIGHT TEENS.
BUY LINKS BELOW:

For Evernight Teens: bit.ly/19ncFza

http://amzn.to/IQeT3k   for Amazon

HERE IS THE COVER. 

 
 

AN ITCH YOU CAN SCRATCH - BUT IT WON'T GO AWAY

The desire to write is like an itch in the middle of your back.  Some days you can reach it, have a good scratch (write a couple of thousand words) and it goes away leaving you feeling calm and satisfied. 

Other times no matter how much you reach up your back (drag the thoughts from your brain), slide up and down the sharp edge of the doorjamb (pound the pc and shuffle the words about) you simply can’t stop the itch and satisfy the urge to write.

When the itch won’t go away the answer is to scratch away until it settles down.

Once upon a time authors scratched away on pads filling the lined spaces with untidy scribbles, hoping to get the hieroglyphics transcribed into something readable.  Then shock/horror,  if their manuscript had been typed and they wanted to add or delete a passage, this meant the whole chapter had to retyped.

Enter the computer. (An arpeggio of triumphant notes) How lucky can we be? Yes, voice recognition programs now exist that will transcribe our verbal mutterings into script, but it is far more satisfying to type, auto-correct, cut and paste, backspace, highlight and delete, add a paragraph in the middle of a chapter or delete a page here and move it to there. Oh! Bliss and joy.

Add to that we have track changes so we can view another author’s efforts, add comments and leave the original document intact. What luck.

If you are getting that itch and it’s making you cross, think about the speed at which we can write these days. We flick an email across the world and the whole manuscript arrives at a publisher’s site on a distant shore. No postage costs, no heavy paper parcels posted into the unknown ,never to be returned with the terse note of rejection.

The only downside to all this is everyone is now doing it. There is serious competition for the limited number of spaces that publishers have. People are self-publishing and this is one of the advantages of democracy. My only plea is please edit your work and have someone else edit it as well. Let’s keep the standard of content high.

If you want to satisfy that writer’s itch do so with the end view of presenting a professional piece of literature. This extra care will make your manuscript rise to the top of the ‘slush pile’ on your chosen publisher’s desk.

Meanwhile get scratching!