Authors Electric

For a recent story acceptance I was asked to provide a short insight into the inspiration behind my fiction. And as always that question gave me pause for deep thought. Where do those ideas begin? Most of us will recall being given a word of phrase as inspiration to write a story for homework. It was good practice for spotting a headline or story in a newspaper, or maybe an incident at work or with friends, which sparked that train of thought. Writing fantasy and horror it is the folklore and local legends that have always been a passion that figure large in my back catalogue. I readily admit to plundering those sources, but the resources are vast and forgiving. That said, a seed of inspiration is needed to even begin to know where to start in such a sea of riches. Mermaid's Pool - between Leek and Buxton The market for this story had the wide open guideline of Folk Horror, which is a vast area that means different things to different people. Think Algernon Blackwood...

Over the last few weeks I've been teaching a five-week creative writing course for adults. The main aim of the course is to wake up their muse and inspire my students to write anything creative. Whether it's a story, poem or even a song. During one of the sessions I encouraged the students to come up with things they could use to inspire their writing. The list they came up with included: Newspaper features Songs Poems An overheard snippet of conversation A photograph A found object Family history A joke When they started to  falter  I added a few more  including  gravestones and blue plaques (the ones you see on the side of buildings which contain a name, a short description of that person and dates).  Now, fast forward a week and I was walking through an old graveyard. I had plenty of time, so when a gravestone caught my eye I stopped to read it. I was  surprised  it not only gave the name and the dates of those who lay beneath ...

Recently I tackled the task of My very first tin of buttons rediscovering the floor of the garage (ours is like many - full of 'stuff' that can't be thrown away). During the process I opened a storage box. Laying on the top were two tins (one full of buttons - see right) I'd been given these by my Uncle Albert. You see he'd been given two tins of shortbread biscuits, which he doesn't like. So, he re-gifted to me - I was more than happy with that. Once I'd consumed the contents of both I remembered my nan had had a button tin. I loved to play with the buttons it contained and this in turn brought back loads of fond childhood memories. So I decided it was about time I had my own tin of buttons. So over the next few months, whenever I found a stray button I put it into the tin. I knew I should really be cleaning up the garage but I couldn't help myself, I had to open the tin. When I did memories came flooding back. For example: The zebra button...

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to attend a writing weekend with members of the Scattered Authors Society . During the weekend I teamed up with another member and ran a workshop. The workshops aim was to explore ways writers could either generate new ideas or simply have fun and exercise their 'writing muscle.' I've written about ways to inspire before, both here and on another group blog I'm a member of ( The Picture Book Den ). If they are of interest then the posts were: Get Inspired   Exploring Story Cubes Inspiration Any Time and Any Where In this post I want to introduce you to something new that I'd shared with the group. It's simple to do and all you need is a pen or pencil, paper and some imagination. First I asked for three random letters. The letters picked were D, F and Z. I then asked for some headlines that used these three letters (joining words can also be used). As you can see the headlines created were a little off the wall and...

Just before Christmas I realised I had some store vouchers that needed to be spent. So I went online looking for something sensible to spend said vouchers on. To my surprise I discovered I could purchase a Kindle Fire for the grand total of £9.00 (once the vouchers had been redeemed). So I pushed the boat out, put sensible aside and treated myself. My excuse for being so frivolous was not to have a new toy to play Candy Crush on or to be able to read in the dark. My excuse was I wanted something that might help me find more time to write (it’s amazing how much wasted time you can claw back if you plan). You see 2015 wasn’t very productive (for a number of reasons) so I wanted to take a positive step towards making 2016 very productive. I’ll admit a lot of game play has taken place but my new ‘toy’ has also inspired new ideas. These include a craft title (hence new low tech crocheted covers for my new  Kindle), a series of magazine features and a few short stories (which I ...

Is there a reason why I love old oak furniture?  A few years ago, one of my relatives, a Reiki practitioner, came to me with a slightly odd request. She was doing a course in ‘past life regression’ (yes – such things are available) and she needed a case study. How would I feel about being her guinea pig? Other people had said they would be too scared or just didn’t believe in it, but I jumped at the chance. Which is how I found myself in a warm room, all wrapped up in a blanket, listening to her soothing tones as she took me through a set of preliminary relaxation exercises. This kind of session involves mild hypnosis, so I know it wouldn’t be for everyone. It also, I suppose, involves a willing suspension of disbelief – something writers find remarkably easy. At no point did I ever feel out of control or even particularly sleepy, although I certainly felt relaxed – with occasional lurches into inexplicable discomfort best described as a sense of falling, a momentary dizzi...