Writing inspiration: an island cabin

March 18, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I read somewhere once that going somewhere new is a good for the writer’s mind, the unfamiliar surroundings stimulating creativity and fresh ways of seeing. I just got back from an island retreat with my girlfriends and our collective kidlets yesterday, and was happy to discover a pile of plot tweaks nestled among my sand filled socks. Maybe […]

Things that inspire me to write #1 (insert drum roll here): YOU

January 27, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

Three months and 99 posts later and I have finally made it to number one—a very special space that could only be filled by none than of course, this very blog. I have gained a lot through my challenge to find 100 things that inspire me to write, but two pieces stick out the […]

Things that inspire me to write #2: This Quote by Randy Pausch

January 27, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

“The brick walls are there for a reason. .. [they] are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture. Rejection, never ending edits, and oh yeah, the fact that there are so many people out there that are clearly better […]

Things that inspire me to write #3: Eleanor Updale’s The Last Minute

January 26, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

Like setting and conflict, time is one of those Important Novel Elements discussed in every writing class I have ever taken. When does one scene take place in relation to another? How is that conveyed? And whatever you do, don’t go overboard on the flashbacks. All good advice, of course, however, nothing makes me more […]

Things that inspire me to write #4: Ted Harrison’s Northern skies

January 25, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Like a tea kettle in a Disney movie, there are some paintings which almost seem to breath with life. Ted Harrison’s renditions of Northern Canadian landscapes are like that for me—the colors so brilliant, the lines so fluid, the scale so grand, that I feel like I’m sitting on a stretch of Yukon tundra every […]

Things that inspire me to write #5: Meg Tilly

January 23, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

She acts, used to dance, and has published a growing list of highly acclaimed Young Adult novels. Meg Tilly is one of those people that have the annoying tendency to excel in whatever art they take hold of. And as a writer whose painted mountainscapes look like something out of Dr Seuss book (and not […]

Things that inspire me to write #6: Paint Chips

January 22, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I like pretty colors as much as the next girl, however what I love even more than a perfectly balanced purplish grey are the words paint companies come up with to describe it. Corn silk yellow, ice sculpture blue, buttered yam orange, Queen Anne pink and of course Misty Memories Violet. Leafing through a catalog of paint […]

Things that inspire me to write #7: Rachel Vincent’s idea fog

January 21, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

Anything two feet ahead of me no longer exists and the sky is a constant slate of white. The fog has settled on my part of the world and doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon–and I’m starting to think that may not be such a bad thing. In the acknowledgements section of Before I […]

Things that inspire me to write #8: Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s Over the Rainbow

January 20, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Every once in a while there is a song that fills my chest with sunshine. Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s rendition of Over the Rainbow is one of them. There is something about the tender beauty in Israel’s voice that, particularly so contrasted against the tragedy of his early death, always demands I stop and listen and whether I […]

Things that inspire me to write #9: Ida Frosk’s breakfest

January 20, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Most people either see it as nice way to start the day or an annoying step before work best filled with coffee or Red Bull or both. Then there is Ida Frosk. This Norwegian food enthusiast makes breakfast into an art form in itself, turning everything from oatmeal to boiled eggs into adorable and elegant […]