I Finally Had To Do It....

Yup.... I finally put something out there in Kindle.

I didn't want to do that... well, sort of anyway.  I was really hoping a publisher would pick me up and take care of all the minutia of publishing.  But none of them have done the deed.

So... I did it.  I put one of my books out there on Kindle.

And HOLYSHIT!!  I made the mistake of leaving my contact info on the copyright page and have been inundated!!  HOLYCRAP!!  Everyone loves it!!

Okay, okay... so now I need to get rid of my contact info and put it out there without such.

Done....

So now if anyone wants to comment on it, they have to do it in the comments section.

That works.

Should be out there in its 'new' form shortly!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Where Does Inspiration Come From?

Good question.

A number of people have asked me just that.  My answer seems to vary a little each time.  I think, mostly, because I don't really know where the inspiration 'in that moment' is coming from.  So I thought I would 'pen' a few of the places from which I know I've gotten inspiration, and then, in the end, try to make some profound statement that may get quoted a hundred years from now.

I know I have mentioned the inspiration for Boston Knights... keys from a flea market, some friends from long ago.  I have to admit something here, though it may be one of those things that I sort of would not otherwise admit.  That is, my inspiration sometimes comes from the DANGEDEST and most unexpected places.

The Boston Knights story... one of the contributing thoughts that rattled around in my mind was a sort of situational thing that struck me as amusing.  When it came time to actually writing, that thought kept popping up in my mind.  There had to be a way to mix it in.  I think it worked. 

Let me give you a little background.

I am... perhaps... a little naive... or is it slow?  Unworldly might be the best way to describe me?  Something like that anyway.  Back when my ex-wife and I were going through the death throes of our marriage, she had introduced me to a guy that kept wanting to get to know me (technically just before the 'death throes').  I found out much too late that it was because he wanted to know when I was out of town on business.  Let it go at that.  Anyway, in an effort to befriend me, he one day invited me out to drinks while we were in town at the same time.  It was his desire to go to a bar that I understood to be a topless joint.  I was not impressed.  Oh, I was impressed, but not in the way you might necessarily think.

Anyway, it turned out to be a nude joint.  I was embarrassed as hell!!  Not something I was interested in at all.  And what should have been a serious heads-up was the fact that he had his own beer mug behind the bar... with his nickname painted on it and all!!  

That was all a very long time ago.

Back to current day and inspiration.  

Leaving the flea market one day meant walking by a little joint that advertised 'live girls and lunches', which certainly beats the alternatives if you think about it.  It sparked the memories of the bar with my ex's friend.  It all sort of flowed into the story.  Read the story and you will understand even more.

As I think I mentioned previously, that story virtually wrote itself in three weeks’ time.

The pirate story I am working on was inspired one day when I was doing a clown gig with my pirate costume on.  Doing twisted animal balloons for kids is great fun, costume or not.  I was asked, "Just how DO pirates get the babes?"  

I had had a previous discussion with another friend about which is better, pirates or ninjas.  We decided pirates were definitely better because when ninjas finish kicking arse, they simply vanish.  However, pirates, they finish kicking arse, go drink rum, and have a 'babe' wander off with them into the sunset... or something like that.

That inspired a completely different kind of pirate story.  It is fully outlined and finished under the pen.  I am now fleshing it out on the computer, verifying facts, doing research and such, and should have it in final manuscript form within a month or two.

Another time someone that enjoyed reading my stories and my 'samples' commented that there was little to no violence in my stories.  No physical conflict.  Therefore, thinking about that, I started another story with a fight.  Kind of a slow-motion sort of thing.  I still need to get together with a couple Taekwondo folks that are familiar with knife defense techniques and verify that my 'motions' are accurate.  That story is still developing.  It appears to be getting written in 'discovery' mode with minimal outline other than building characters I would like to have in it.

My volcano story, Waiting, (still unsettled about the title)... that one I could not tell you where the inspiration came for it.  I can say it has been back-burnered a few times.  It was a story that I had bits and pieces of tech I wanted to include.  But I think it was truly my first attempt at a 'discovery' mode of writing.  Having a direction, but no clean outline.  Having a plot, but only to the extent that the characters needed to interact.  Perhaps I could say the inspiration for Waiting was my desire to have the characters do certain things together, certain types of characters... and then see where the story lead me.

The Hollerinth Affair.  That one is easy.  As explained in an earlier blog, a medal showed up for my dad... after his death.  The whole premise there was the thought about what if that medal had come to me and I had never been in the military.  What would I be thinking then?

This may sound odd, but my tinnitus has inspired two short stories that are both just about done.  Both sci-fi.  Both fairly short.

The Last Tinker... a work in progress... I was thinking about my storytelling.  What if I was the only storyteller left?  The Last Tinker is about the last storyteller.

The Last Tinker sparked another story called The Historian.  Very sci-fi.  Very full of tech, politics, and some of what I think of as very good internalized dialogue.

Three finished and so many more in the computer looking for an 'out'.

So, where does my inspiration come from?  Everywhere.  Everything I look at, every conversation I have, every event around me that touches me, they all spark thoughts.  A lot of 'what ifs'.  A lot of shifting locations, intermixing and creative license with character development based on people I have known... and people I would like to meet, real or not, as well as a few people would NOT like to meet.

Something so simple as a chess piece knocked over on the board... look at it closely... study it for a moment... then forget it.  Somewhere... sometime... your mind will go 'click' and it will become an important part of a story... or not.  It does not matter if it becomes a part of a story... what matters is that you looked... you thought.... you let your mind 'create'.

As a writer (I say that both hopefully and proudly), I see things all over the place and wonder how they could fit into a story.  I talk to people, and wonder what their story(s) may be.  

The forensics officer guy sitting next to the forensics officer lady, working together every day.  Maybe even disliking each other to a certain extent.  What would it take for them to notice each other in a different way?

I love to listen to people.  I love to watch people.  A customer of mine, he's from Scotland.  I love the brogue and mannerisms when he is fired up on some topic.

A box of old hand tools at a flea market can spark all kinds of characters and stories.

A medical bag that is old and dried out, the contents in disarray... what kind of story do they tell?

I guess the profound bit of philosophy I can espouse now with regard to writing would be....

Even a fallen chess piece tells a story.

You may quote me.  ;-)