Thursday Thirteen - 162 - 13 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1 - Reading My Booky Wook by Russell Brand
















2 - Watching the third season of True Blood
















3 - Going to the Halifax Pow-Wow, June 26th.














4 - My 1000th post.

Which should be in 167 more posts!









5 - Watching the film adaptation of The Silver Chair. Hope it's not too long...Please, please, pretty please...











6 - In the meantime, Voyage of the Dawn Treader should keep me going.















7 - Finding out what happens to Scorpius...












8 - Getting my Dark Age vampire manuscript through its current revision. Thanks, Blake Snyder.











9 - Completing my Victorian-gardener-to-Van-Diemen's-Land manuscript.

Photo by Cara King


10 - Going to the next writers' retreat, coming up this fall









11 - Taking part in NaNoWriMo in November.












12 - Taking part in Blog Blast For Peace, Nov. 4th.



13 - Watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this November.



What are you looking forward to?








Michelle Helliwell says I'm looking forward to finishing my edits on SW and getting back to my WIP!! Hmmmm - this is actually a very thought provoking question.

Kelly Boyce says I look very serious in that picture. I must be thinking 'hurry up and snap it, the chocolate finally arrived!!'

Jehara says Having just seen Get Him to the Greek, I really want to read Booky Wook. I am a new fan of Russell Brand.

Through the Opera Glasses - 22 - Using Collage to Unlock Your Story

My writers' group started doing collage workshops as a way to let our subconscious loose, to let ideas surface. An article in the Romance Writers Report gave Pam Callow the idea to hold a collage session ourselves, and she's done them three times so far.

The article was by Jennifer Crusie - you can read about creating a book collage HERE.

I've got three collages for three of my works in progress, and I gaze at them from time to time when I need to disappear into the world of my story.

I thought I'd share them with you as a glimpse into what I'm thinking about as I write. As someone who went to film school, I'm a highly visual person, and I really need to see what's going on in my head. I need to hear the voices of the characters speak when possible. I just listen to the actor whom I've cast as the character when I need to do that. Luckily, they've all done similar scenes to ones I'm writing, meaning the characters they portray hit similar emotional notes, and when I need to hear my own characters, I often play scenes from their films or TV shows to feed my inner muse.

The first collage I did is for the novel I'm working on right now - my gardener story. Here's the full collage:














Here's a few close-up panels:
















Here's the second collage I made, of my vampire story:














A few close-up panels:













The most recent collage was done at our last writers' meeting a few weeks ago. This is my Scorpius collage, the dark fantasy:













A few close-up panels:















Kim Richardson says Oh, what a wonderful idea!! These are great!

Jeeves says Lovely images!

Kelly Boyce says They look great as always!

Thursday Thirteen - 109 - 13 Things I've Been Doing While My Computer's in The Shop

My computer has needed an overhaul for quite some time. So I had to surrender it into the care of my best friend's husband, who is an IT guy. He already performed heroics on a previous computer when my current WIP was trapped on the hard drive of a tower whose battery went dead.

So what have I been doing in the meantime?

1 - Well, I did try to stay on schedule with my book review for Stella MacLean's Baby in Her Arms. However, that will have to be pushed back to next week. My day job work schedule has been very grinding of late. Over the years, I've gradually learned to put balls down when my juggling act gets too ridiculous. That has been a lifetime lesson, I assure you.

2 - After work, once I've finished my daily visit with my mom upstairs, I generally head downstairs and hop onto the computer. But every evening this week I've headed into the garden instead. Sigh. That's been nice.

3 - I've had way more Pack Time on the couch. Because we are two humans and a dog, we are a Pack. Pack Time is my favorite time of day. We all pile onto the couch, where my dog and I fall asleep curled up together and my husband watches TV. Bliss.

4 - I've headed over for Pack Time much earlier than I do when I'm writing. So I've gotten way more sleep. This morning I woke up at 4:00 because my body is used to waking up with only 5 hours of sleep. But I realized I could go back for two more hours. Mmm.













5 - I watched the hockey game. Stanley Cup play-offs on Tuesday night, game 3. Lots of woo-hooing in our Cole Harbour house for Sidney Crosby!

Normally I would be at the computer with the game on TV to my left, which I would glance at in between writing. What luxury to simply sit down and watch the whole thing.

Photo by Peter Diana

6 - Listening to a whole bunch of CDs that we haven't heard in awhile. We usually use the CD player in the computer to listen to music. With that gone, my husband pulled out the big ghetto blaster and stacks of CDs that have been collecting dust and we've been enjoying some favorites. Like this one:



7 - As often happens, when I'm in the middle of one WIP, I start getting ideas and scenes for another WIP. So instead of thinking about my early Victorian gardener, Robbie (who resembles Ewan McGregor,) I've been doing some heavy-duty thinking about my dark fantasy and the Chamberlain of the Keep, Scorpius (a dead-ringer for Richard Armitage.)

8 - Doing some pre-planning for the mega collage event at my writers' group Book in a Day all-day workshop on June 13th.

9 - Tending to my husband's erupting cyst on his neck. Good times. Three bandage changes a day. Yay.

10 - Mowing my enormous lawn. I actually find it relaxing, in a sweaty sort of way.

11 - Visiting over at my best friend's house when we dropped the computer tower off. Such luxury!

12 - Doing overtime at work to try to get caught up on a huge backlog of scanning. This actually makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere instead of digging a hole in mud, just to watch it immediately fill in again. Added bonus - no one to interrupt.

13 - Taking a tiny chip off the clutter mountain that is our apartment. Yay me!

Janet says You've sure got a lot going on!

Alice Audrey says Even if I'm supposed to be working on one WIP, another keeps cropping up.

Anthony North says I always keep a cheap back-up, so this doesn't happen to me.

Through the Opera Glasses - 7 - Five No-Fail Inspirations When I Write

This past weekend I had three days off, and all to myself. It's not often I get such a luxury. And what did I do with those three days?

I wrote 4000 words of my English-gardener-transported-to-Van-Diemen's-Land story.

Since I 'cast' all of my characters, once I've got them settled in my mind, writing about the English gardener means having Ewan McGregor on the brain. I often turn to a file of photos I've got on my computer featuring my inspiration actors. Most of the time they're still shots from different films they've been in, with the actor caught up in an emotion that's central to the major scenes from my own story.

And watching scenes from the films themselves really helps. I 'download' the way the actor moves, the way he speaks - and my own character just takes off inside my mind.

Here's a little peek into my inspiration for the five stories I've got on the go. Not all at once, of course. They take turns.

















The first character who came to me was Guthrie Carmichael, a Scottish gamekeeper on an earl's estate in the 1820's. Once I felt I knew him well enough, I cast him as English actor Sean Bean.

My character has similar coloring to Sean Bean, but Guthrie has gray eyes instead of Sean Bean's blue ones. And I don't let the actor's English nationality get in the way of my character's Scottish background.

Here's a backstory poem I wrote from Guthrie's point of view. It really gets to the heart of his motivation:

Gold That Burns



The second character who came to me is Robbie Flynn, the English gardener in 1840's Cheltenham. I cast him as Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.

You see how I don't let the actor's nationality affect the way the character comes to me... English-actor-inspires-Scottish-gamekeeper, Scottish-actor-inspires-English-gardener.

In a bizarre bit of trivia, the estate where Guthrie the Sean-Bean-gamekeeper is employed is set near Crieff in Scotland. This was worked out before the gardener story came to me, before I started looking up info about Ewan McGregor. And yet Crieff is where Ewan McGregor hails from.

Here's a backstory poem from Robbie's point of view:

For Helen He Would Do It


The next character that came along was Jock MacKeigan, a highland clansman fighting the English in 1746. I cast Scottish actor Robert Carlyle for this character. First match of actor nationality to character background!

A very recent poem posted for last week's Poetry Train gives a glimpse into Jock's tough, fearless fighter:

Take One More With Him



















A magnificent character who came to me is the Dark Ages vampire, Peredur. By the time Peredur came to me, I already knew he would be 'played' by Gerard Butler. Peredur is Welsh, but Scottish Gerry will do fine. Just fine.

Although I didn't specify that this poem was from Peredur's point of view, I think I can share this secret with you now:

The Red Joy At Last


Last but emphatically not least is my latest arrival, Scorpius, chamberlain of Lady Elinor's keep. He appeared to me in the guise of English actor Richard Armitage. Scorpius is a paranormal/fantasy character, so Richard's English background is a total plus.


Here is Scorpius' backstory poem:

How Can I Ache For What I Never Had

Who are your favorite inspirations?

Thursday Thirteen - 25 - 13 Things About Robbie Flynn

On this Monday's Poetry Train, I posted an excerpt of a WIP I'm working on. At the moment it doesn't even have a working title. I just refer to it as my gardener story.

The gardener to whom I refer is Robbie Flynn. For today's Thursday Thirteen, I'm going to borrow from fellow blogger Susan Helene Gottfried, who regularly features backstory gold about her fictional characters from Riverview.

Here are 13 things about my fictional character, Robbie Flynn:

1 - As the story begins, it is 1844 in Cheltenham, in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire.







2 - I've modelled Robbie on actor Ewan McGregor. It's hard to figure out whether Ewan has green or blue eyes, but the character of Robbie has green eyes. Robbie has Ewan's light brown hair color, though. He's 28 years old.











3 - Robbie is the middle child of five siblings. Unfortunately for Robbie, he's the youngest of the two boys. This wouldn't have been so bad if his brother Laurence hadn't been interested in taking over their father's flower shop. But Laurence loves every aspect of being a shop owner, including the magic of the flowers themselves.









4 - This means Robbie has to make his own way in the world. Since he's inherited his father's and brother's love of flowers, Robbie turns his passions to the gardens where the cut flowers get their start. He studies the art of landscape design from a fairly early age. Being the second son of a shop owner will not hold Robbie back from pursuing his dream.





5 - After pestering the minister to let him help out in the churchyard garden, Robbie garners a reputation for his skill even before he turns fourteen. Rather than having to seek a position at a country house, the head gardener comes to him. Mr. Sollows approaches Robbie's father to ask if he might spare his son for work at Ashbury Downs, the country seat of Brigadier-General Chase, retired of India.









6 - Robbie begins his apprenticeship under Sollows with a line mentally drawn between himself and the other servants he has joined. He doesn't think of himself as having gone into service, as all the others at Ashbury Downs have done. No, Robbie is the son of Timothy Flynn, Esquire, owner and proprietor of the Winchcombe Road Flower Shop. He is learning his more than respectable craft at the side of a talented head gardener. Robbie is very pleased with his situation.



7 - By nature an introvert, much more at home with his own thoughts than having to make conversation with anyone, Robbie manages to work for several years at Ashbury Downs without getting entangled in any of the daily dramas of the house staff. Even more thrilling is the gossip about the Chase family for whom he works. Robbie stays apart from most of it, though it's impossible to remain completely aloof.





8 - He knows first hand about the devious nature of the second son of the house, Mr. Zachary Chase. I've based this character on Robson Green.
The young master nurses a grudge against Fate for denying him inheritence rights to the family seat. He uses his handsome face and irresistable charm to help himself to whatever takes his fancy, especially when it comes to the sexual favors of the female staff.





9 - Robbie has been the unwilling witness to more than one seduction of a poor maid, as Zachary enjoys using the conservatory to lure his victims and take his pleasure of them. No matter how much the staff attempt to prevent another incident, warning all newcomers about the ways of the young master, Mr. Chase always stays one step ahead. Robbie has taken to working late in the conservatory to try to dissuade Mr. Chase from using it.






10 - Immersed completely in learning his craft, Robbie goes through his twenties barely saying more than a few words at a time to a pretty girl. Beside the fact that he doesn't much know what to say to them, Robbie has a clear timetable for his life. He will not consider looking for a wife until he has become head gardener on an estate. Dalliances with girls are just a nuisance.





11 - A tragic accident makes Robbie rethink his moratorium on relationships. During a New Year's skating party on the lake, one of the laundry maids falls through the ice and drowns. Robbie realizes he'd never taken the time to speak one word to her, though she'd worked on the estate for some time. Shaken, he takes a special interest in the new girl who's come to replace her.





12 - Helen's arrival upsets Robbie's measured and manicured life. I've modelled Helen after Keri Russell.
Even if he hadn't resolved to force himself to talk to the new arrival, Helen's childlike delight in even the simplest aspect of life at Ashbury Downs is strangely contagious. Robbie finds himself inventing reasons to speak with her. And somehow, his normally tongue-tied attempts go smoothly when she's near. Simply the strangest thing.









13 - When he tries to warn her off of the young master, however, Helen bristles and refuses to believe such talk. It disturbs Robbie when he realizes how incensed this makes him. Stumbling upon an attempted seduction, Robbie steps between the young master and Helen. It's no surprise that Mr. Chase is less than pleased, but Robbie is not ready for the hostile reaction he gets from Helen. If she wants to be treated like poor Lucy, then let her. But who is he trying to fool? If Helen finds herself compromised by Zachary Chase again, Robbie knows he'll have to come between them - and damn the consequences.