Category Archives: inspiration

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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.

downloadThis 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.

Savage_Desire_by_vishstudioAnd 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.

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In a nut shell

075bed98ccf9391784e25cecbbbc24d4Why do I write sex scenes in my books? Is it really just smut?

NO!

I found this this morning and it captures in essence why I don’t draw the curtains.

“If you don’t feel comfortable writing about sex, then don’t. By this, I mean writing about sex as it actually exists, in the real world, as an ecstatic, terrifying and, above all, deeply emotional process. Real sex is compelling to read about because the participants are so utterly vulnerable. We are all, when the time comes to get naked, terribly excited and frightened and hopeful and doubtful, usually at the same time. You mustn’t abandon them in their time of need. You mustn’t make of them naked playthings with rubbery parts. You must love them, wholly and without shame, as they go about their human business. Because we’ve already got a name for sex without the emotional content: it’s called pornography.”  (Author)