Please
welcome K.L. Schwengel @KLSchwengel to Tabor Lane, and don’t forget to follow
her on Twitter.
Kathi
lives on a small farm in southeast Wisconsin with her husband, a handful of
Australian Shepherds, a cat and other assorted animals.
Growing
up as the youngest daughter of a librarian, Kathi spent hours between stacks of
books and in dusty archives. With so many characters spinning in her head, she
picked up pen and paper and started writing. Today, her real passion is writing
urban fantasy.
When
Kathi’s not writing, she’s training and trial working Australian Shepherds,
painting, dabbling in photography, and anything else her muses send her way.
Now,
here’s Kathi on finding inspiration:
~FINDING
INSPIRATION~
Most
writers, myself included, when asked why we write, generally answer along the
lines of, "For the same reason I breathe." For most of us, it's not a
choice but a compulsion that can't be ignored. Trust me, I've tried, and so
have others I know. It doesn't work so well.
What inspires us
though, that's a whole other issue.
Ask a writer where they get their inspiration and you'll get as many different answers as there are pages in a book. And it likely will change each tine they start a new project. For me, inspiration comes in many forms -- music, lyrics, quotes, walks in the woods, names, random thoughts. Any one of those things can be the spark that ignites a story. Many times, that inspiration will strike when I'm least expecting it, usually when my brain is in the "off" position and the self-conscious mind takes over. You don't want to know how many ideas have come to me in the shower. Often, while I'm walking the dogs or doing chores, characters will invite themselves along and a story will begin to form, or a scene will play out, inviting me to write it down.
My
current book, FIRST OF HER KIND, was inspired by a line that just popped into
my head one day. "There was nothing for it, in another turn of the glass
Meriol would be dead." There it was. Staring me in the face. Demanding I
write . . . something. Believe it or not, at the time, I had no idea who Meriol
was, why she would soon meet her end, or where the story would take me. I just
started typing; characters introduced themselves, sometimes argued with me, and
ultimately pulled me through their tale. That line never made it through the
editing process, but it sparked an entire series.
While
I'm working on a story, music is what keeps me going. I have very eclectic
tastes, and what's currently on rotation in my cd player depends on the mood of
the particular scene I'm writing. If you took a look at my collection, you'd
find everything from heavy metal to Gregorian chants, I kid you not.
And
if I get stuck? Usually a romp with the dogs or a walk in the woods clears the
cobwebs and refreshes me like nothing else can. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it,
"When I bought my farm, I did not know what a bargain I had in the
bluebirds, the daffodils and thrushes; as little did know what sublime mornings
and sunsets I was buying."
Amazon ~*~ Barnes
& Noble ~*~
Smashwords
Facebook ~*~ Amazon Author Page
~*~ Goodreads
~*~
If
you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they
are again:
- Yes, Past Tense Narrators Can Still Die: Part II http://ow.ly/hniaI via @write_practice
- The State of a Genre Title, 2013 http://ow.ly/hnikf by John Scalzi What it means for the genre of science fiction in a general sense.
- Why Every Author Must Be On Goodreads In 2013 [Infographic] http://ow.ly/hniBM
- How Authors Can Effectively Use Goodreads via @RachelleGardner http://ow.ly/hniTn
- Measuring your goodreads results http://ow.ly/hnj0M
- Authors On Goodreads http://ow.ly/hnj7z via @valeriecomer
- 5 Ways Writers Can Get the Most Out of Goodreads http://ow.ly/hnjcy
- Goodreads: 8 Things Writers Should Know http://ow.ly/hnjf8 via @RachelleGardner
- The complete and unabridged guide to GoodReads for authors: Account set-up, customization, and widgets by John Corwin http://ow.ly/hnjky
- Goodreads for Authors http://ow.ly/hnjni by Donna Huber via The Indie Exchange
- Filling a Need and Finding Your Niche—by L. Diane Wolfe http://ow.ly/hoptI @SpunkOnAStick via @elizabethscraig
- 100 Common-Sense Ways to Write Better: http://t.co/BbSIm9iT RT @aprilbrownwrite @elizabethscraig
- Giving characters distinguishing phrases to help readers tell them apart: http://t.co/Hf12G6iS @mkinberg RT @elizabethscraig
- What Studying Haikus Taught Me about Writing Blog Posts http://ow.ly/hoxtF via @problogger 19 Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts PLUS an Interview with Author @Amy_Durham http://ow.ly/hor40
- 6 Forms of the Subjunctive Mood http://ow.ly/howWk
- Triple Your Facebook Likes in Two Weeks http://ow.ly/hoxnd via @problogger
- How to Get Your Headshot to Appear in Google Results—Wherever Your Content is Published http://ow.ly/hoxEg via @problogger
- Hemmingway’s Tip Of The Iceberg: Omit What the Reader Knows http://ow.ly/hoHqs by @fcmalby
I’m
always looking for great content to share. If you have a writing and/or
marketing blog, or have a favorite that you visit often, please leave a link in
the comment section. Thanks for stopping g by.
Happy
writing & running, Kathy
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