Visual Inspiration.

I was filling out a questionnaire for a woman who is hosting me on her blog this morning. One of the things she wanted to know was where do my characters come from. This got me thinking. They become so strong in my mind, so vivid, so where do they come from? What springs them to life?

After brewing that for a while I realized that it’s usually a single image that gives birth to them. This makes sense. In my life before writing I was a visual artist, so it’s not surprising that my characters are conceived visually.

While a single image may spark the character, it’s not often about what they look like, so much as an energy, a sense of who the character is that is portrayed within the photograph. I thought you might be interested in the images and what it is about them that have given birth to my characters.

So here they are.

This was the seed image for the Heroine of Lunacy and the Vampire. It was a combination of her regal air and the cool distance in her posture that is at the root of Luna’s personality. Her dark boho style didn’t hurt either and gave birth to the general look of the Beanne Sidhe species.

And here is the hero of that book. It was totally the teasing, arrogant look on this boys face that gave me Aveon. Well that and those cheekbones.

Weekend Warriors.

http://www.wewriwa.com/

Another snippit from the work I currently have submitted, Black Aggie.

Raph strode up the shallow steps and rapped on the glass paned door. A silhouette appeared an instant before the door swung open. Raph took a step back. Holy shit.

Trouble, big fucking trouble. From the top of her sun-bleached auburn curls to the tip of her bare toes. The woman who answered the door was trouble with a capital T.

“Can I help you?” she asked in a raspy, bedroom voice.

Oh shit, oh shit. Her eyes were the yellow green of sunshine through through a glass of 110 proof chartreuse and they stole the breath from his lungs.

http://www.wewriwa.com/

Ten sentences to tease your appetite.

From my current WIP, Sundown and Sorrow.

Her finger threaded over the page and landed on a small satellite city that hung off Washington like the toe of a worn out boot.

“That’s him,” she said. “Monte Claire is right on the boundary of Prince William Forest Park.”

“Bingo,” Cass said, giving her an excited, toothy grin. It traveled to his eyes and lit up his face. He really was a looker. Strong Wilder cheekbones and jaw, vivid, intense eyes and a bloody nice mouth. The whole family had been blessed with the tall dark and handsome gene, even the only girl, Ariel, but Cass had got the best of their impressive genetic code.

Or maybe it was just the gentleness about him that the rest of his family lacked. Whether it was genes or nature, it worked.

Weekend Warriors

http://www.wewriwa.com/

Excerpt from the manuscript I have currently submitted. My heroines first impression of my hero.

Bette wasn’t buying the sales pitch. No way was he FBI or homeland security, not dressed like that, not looking like he did. There was an edge about his raw boned face, a hard set to his stormy gray eyes. This guy was on the other side of the law, without a doubt. What was he doing asking about Jason? Did he know something about her nephews death and was here digging to find out how much she suspected?

Her heart banged in her throat and she had to work not to let her nerves show through her facade of niceness. The need to know what had happened was the only thing stopping her from throwing him out on his scruffy ass.

“How come Jason lived with you?”Agent Jameson asked. Like that was his real name.

Getting off my butt and a new series in the wings.

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I got on this thing. Not very good, but life has been pretty intense of late. I’ll try to be more regular with this.

Anyway, my world has been revolving around my animals, trying to get my horses through a very tough winter and get them ready for the coming show season.

I lost one of my cats to a twisted bowel, not an easy thing.

Poor wee Roux. His sister Rjomi misses him terribly.

On the writing front things are better. I’m playing the waiting game with a publisher on a new series. I was finding myself quite blocked on the third Dominion book and decided to try writing a novella in a totally different world. It was great fun. Something about the snappy pace and economy of words kept it pumping along. With any luck, you’ll be seeing the first Sentinels novella in the next few months.

As usual it’s an urban fantasy, though not as paranormal as the Dominion series. My characters are human in this one and the world is not so far from ours. I’ve been playing around with urban legends, rather than full on mythology. Think ‘gator in the sewers’ or ‘Bloody Mary’ and you’re in my ball park.

Here’s a teaser image to get your imagnation flowing. Spooky ay.

If you want to check out the pictures I’ve been collecting for this series, here’s the pinterest board; https://www.pinterest.com/eviejayne/sentinels-novella-series/

I’m also playing around with a 1st person POV story. It’s a bit tough. I usually switch between my two main characters to tell a story from two POV’s and staying in one head is a challenge to say the least. I’m enjoying it though and breaking a few of the rules with this one. My hero isn’t beautiful, or good and my heroine has more than a touch of darkness in her. I’m enjoying the moral ambiguity and having shades of grey in the way my characters see the world. Things are not so black and white for these two and negotiating the subtle lines between darkness and true evil is their challenge. Lots of fun.

I’ll keep you updated on their progress with snipits from their lives.

Wish me luck with the Sentinels novella that’s in for consideration.