I love going to New York City. We went this weekend to visit my younger daughter who recently moved to Brooklyn. I can see why she loves the area. Lots of great boutique shops and all sorts of ethnic restaurants. We visited a Korean one where we got to cook our own lunch on a grill in the table. I’m not so sure I liked that — I go out to eat so I don’t have to cook. On the other hand, I didn’t have to do dishes, so that’s a real plus.

The first time I went to NYC was to see Fiddler on the Roof when I was a kid. Our senior class went back, and our advisor dared us to look around — taunting that country kids would be overwhelmed. We weren’t. We headed in every possible direction from Radio City. A friend and I wandered into Times Square. Not the family-friendly Times Square we know now, because this was in the days before Disney and others came in to clean it up. My friend, whose parents were so strict they wouldn’t let her go to school dances, and I found ourselves among the hookers and low-lifes that were out and about in Times Square even in the middle of the day. We certainly got to see things we hadn’t seen at home!

Every time I go to Times Square and see Toys R Us and the M&M store, I can’t help thinking back to that day when two young girls wandered into Times Square after taking an elevator all the way to the top of what was then the Time-Life building. And then worrying we’d be tossed out when the suits came down the hall. They just gave us that look that says, “oh, some more tourists got in.” and went on their way.  Older now and a bit wiser, yet I still get that thrill of wandering through NYC and experiencing all its energy. It always fires me up and gets me excited about the arts and cutting edge fashion and everything else that’s centered in the city.

There were two kinds of kids when I was growing up. The kids who spent summer vacation outside every possible minute from dawn to past dusk. Then there were the kids who spent some time outdoors — maybe swimming or biking or sitting on a shaded porch. The rest of the time was spent indoors for the second group of kids. None of us had air conditioning in northern New York, so sometimes being outside was cooler than being indoors.

I was among the second group of kids. I loved swimming in the creek and riding a bicycle for miles just to get a soda before turning and coming back home (usually with somone riding on the bike behind me) was always fun. But I also could be found in the bedroom I shared with my sister, reading a book. The air could be stifling — just breathing broke out a sweat — but I’d stay there and read in spite of the fact that I hate being hot. I’ve always found bright sunshine tough to read in, which is one of the reasons I’d never take a book to the beach. (And then there’s the sand and the water and whatever that could ruin my book…)

So on the hottest summer days while my younger sister was soaking up some rays for a tan and streaks in her much lighter hair, I went to that hot, stuffy lair where I knew I could be undisturbed for hours. The air was still, the bugs were whirring and clicking, the distant sound of the road, the closer sound of a tractor, but I was in my own hot world that looked no wider than my twin bed, but where I could go anywhere and anywhen. It was there that I discovered there was a lot more to “The Wizard of Oz” than a yellow brick road. I spent time with “Little Women” and much more time with Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Dana Girls, Happy Hollisters, and Nancy Drew. Later I discovered “A Wrinkle in Time” and Narnia and Robert Heinlein.

As I read, I wasn’t hot any longer. I was in a familiar place with a mystery to solve or I was off on an adventure with flying monkeys or a tesseract or the Mother Thing (from my favorite Heinlein — Have Space Suit Will Travel).

Nothing’s changed. Well, a few things have. We have air conditioning now, but I still like to spend a hot, humid, and hazy summer day hidden away with a book. Whether it’s one I’m writing or reading, it doesn’t matter. Just as in spring a young man’s fancy turns to love (as the saying goes, but in Red Sox Nation, we know it’s baseball), in summer, my fancy turns to delving into an adventure novel or a fantasy or a historical romance. And if any of them take place in the winter…that’s even better!

I do some of my best writing away from the computer. I’m not talking about pencil/pen and paper. I’m talking about writing by not writing. It’s when I give my subconscious a chance to work without me hanging over its shoulder (I’m trying myself to get the image of a subconscious with a shoulder, but stick with me.). It doesn’t need me saying, “Okay, what happens next? Huh? Huh? Huh? Don’t you have the answer yet? Huh? Huh? Huh?”

Instead I do something else. Brainless work is the best. In the winter, I do laundry, but in the summer, I go for a tougher workout. For the past two summers, I have been tearing down a stone wall in our back yard. No, it’s not one of those beautiful New England dry stone walls. It’s an ugly wall about a foot tall that the previous owners spent a lot of time building…and I’m spending a lot of time and sweat tearing down. While I’m lifting rocks into the wheelbarrow and hoping the next one doesn’t leave me in traction, I think only about the rocks. How many I can fit into the wheelbarrow and still move it; are the bugs beneath the rocks dead or alive; when I’m going to have nice nails again…

That’s my little wall. Doesn’t look like much, but figure about a foot high, about 18″ thick and close to 100 feet long, and that’s a lot of stones!

At the same time, my subconscious is churning away on the latest work in progress, dealing with issues like pacing or character development or a new section of dialogue. The last sometimes bubbles to the surface of my brain, even if I’m trying to ignore it. I don’t want to think about writing. I want to write by not writing. By freeing my mind, my imagination can play with every possible scenario before I sit back at the computer again with an ice-cold glass of Pepsi and clean hands to go back to work.

I’ve come to see that I need that balance between writing and not writing. If I concentrate all the time on the ms, I’m like the guy who can’t see the forest for the trees. I need to step away from it. I need to give my imagination or subconcious or whatever you want to call it a chance to do its job. And today after 4 loads of rocks in the wheelbarrow and tearing down some rusty fence in another section of the yard, I’m ready to go to work.

One of the questions I dread most when I’m interviewed is the old stand-by: Where do you get your ideas? It’s both the easiest question to explain and to help other people to understand. The easy answer is everywhere. Ideas are like air — they’re all around us, but knowing which ideas to pick and build from beyond that sweet nugget of inspiration is the tricky part.

My creative writing students know that I often compare imagination to a muscle. The more you work it, the easier it is to use it…and it becomes such a vital part of one’s life that it’s impossible to think of not using it. So every sensory input carries with it the possibility of a story idea.

Some authors write down their ideas in an idea file. I don’t. I figure if the idea doesn’t stick around or if it is muted by other ideas, it wasn’t that great an idea in the first place. But if the idea does stick around, then it becomes like a nagging three-year-old. It’s all about “me, me, me”. Which means even when I’m working on something else — or maybe especially when I’m working on something else — that idea’s little voice whines in my ear. Then, if I ignore it, the little voice takes on that seductive tone of “C’mon, you know you want me. Think of the fun we’ll have together. I’ll be the best thing you’ve ever written. We’ll go places — the two of us. All you have to do is open a new file…”

Indulging the little voice can be a one-way trip to a pile of unfinished mss. because as soon as the writer succumbs to that little voice, another pipes up with the same spiel and just as alluring…

But are there times when an author should go against her or his best habits and give into the little voice. Normally I say no, but right now I’m indulging the little voice that appeared in my head late last week with an idea that is outside of my usual genre. Since then, I’ve been on a writing frenzy, the words falling out of my fingers onto the keyboard. Is the story any good? I think so. Are the chapters or synopsis good? I’m not worried about that. I’m just having fun letting the story tell itself. Later, I’ll worry about pacing and if I’ve used the same word five times in two pages. Right now, I’m giving into the pure joy of creation.

I could have waited until I was done with my work-in-progress, but when fall comes, I’m going to have something fun to put in my list of things I did on my summer vacation. And who knows? Maybe someday, this burst of inspiration will be a book. But what matters right now is that the writing is FUN!!! And when I return to the wip, that will be fun, too, because I’ll have been away from it for a few days in an effort to indulge that little voice.

And, next time, when I have to ignore the little voice, it’ll be with a smile because I’ll think back to this divergence on the path of what’s on my to-do list. Sometimes, it’s fun to play hooky!

Here’s an example of someone else’s inspiration. I saw this when I was in Breckenridge, CO in April

This is one of my favorite topics. When I needed to decide on the location for a London home for my hero in Lost in Shadow, I picked Bedford Square because I had visited the square several years ago. When I strolled around this beautiful square, I was entranced by the idea that it was still very much a residential square. Many of the other squares that fill Regency novels have become office space…or even worse, the Georgian era buildings have been razed. With a writer’s imagination, it is not difficult to change the hubub of London traffic of the 21st century for London traffic of the 19th century. Even though I had seen photos of the buildings in research books, there was definitely an added sensory experience to being there “in person”.

This spring, my husband and I traveled to Sweden and Norway. We went because he decided to buy a Volvo through their overseas delivery program — and the perks include two free round trip tickets. I took my camera and a notebook and geared up my five senses to take in every possible sight and sound and smell. Will I use what I experienced in a book? You bet! Not only did I go looking for specific scenes, but what I saw triggered more ideas. That’s the great thing about being a writer — everything stirs the imagination!

So here are a couple of my favorite Norway fjord region photos. As you can see in the first, the fjord was so still that everything reflects back like a mirror. I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of beautiful places, but this may have been the most beautiful so far!

Today is my last quiet day before we begin major renovations on the house. They will take up most of the summer, so I’m going to learn how well I can keep my focus during all the work. There are always a lot of questions that need answered when walls are opened and unexpected complications set in, so I expect a LOT of interruptions.
I’ve always found that when life gets in the way, I go in one direction or another with my writing. Either I did in so deeply that I get an astounding amount of pages done each day. Or I get nothing done because I’m so scattered. I’ve long believed that every person is granted a set amount of emotional energy for each day. If it’s used up in other ways, it can’t go into the creativity. So I’m aiming for balance on this project. It is a continual battle for most writers, I’ve discovered. Keeping that balance between life and family and spouse and writing.

So which way will this renovation go? It’d better go in the direction of a lot of pages, because I have a looming deadine. Okay, it’s not until September 1, but it feels looming at the moment.  I’ll post before, during, and after pictures as the work goes along.

A few weeks ago, we first noticed the newcomers to the yard. We live next to a wooded area, so we’ve had lots of animals visit us over the year from hawks to foxes to the neighbor’s cat who thought our spayed cats were in love with him.

But a few weeks ago, we noticed triplets. Baby groundhogs who live among the rocks at the edge of the trees.

I still haven’t found out how much wood a woodchuck can chuck, but it’s been fun to watch them playing and eating and eating and eating. So far, they’ve left my flowers alone.

One of these days, I would love to get a picture of the hawks that live in our woods, but they always seem to spend their time just beyond the good reach of my camera.

You know you’re busy when it’s book release day, and you don’t remember that until late in the day. Why? Because we’re getting ready to start a major renovation on the house next week. I’ve been so focused on faucets and flooring and paint colors that I lost track of what day it is.

But Lost in Shadow is out in stores today! I’m so thrilled with this cover and the whole series. When I can combine my love for paranormal novels and romance novels, it’s always fun to write.

Setting a book in London is always fun because it reminds me of the first time my husband Bill and I went to England. It was in June 1997, and I didn’t have a digital camera then. We discussed how much film to take with us for the 10 days we’d be there. We were going to London, to Bath, to Hay-on-Wye (to visit all the bookstores there — check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/hay/ ), then back to London. By the time we came home, I was carrying nearly 30 rolls of exposed film with me. For our next trip, we invested in a digital camera!

On that trip, we walked along the Thames and the images I recall helped me create the scenes of Gideon’s steamboat which was moored there. National Geographic did a study a few years ago about scent being the sense that brings the quickest and strongest recall — and whenever I catch a whiff of the strong scents of water and mud and bus exhaust, I’m back in my memory along the Thames again.

Happy Fourth of July!

A new blog and a new book all in the same week! I’m inching into the blogging world with both excitement and trepidation. Like so many others, I hope I have something interesting to say about writing and about the other parts of my life. I plan to share pictures of my travels…even the ones that aren’t any farther than my own yard.

My next book by Jocelyn Kelley from Signet Eclipse comes out on Tuesday. Lost in Shadow is the start of a new series for me. The Nethercott Tales.  It’s a familiar world for me — Regency London, but this time with a paranormal twist. There’s a ghost in the book, who asks the heroine to unmask his murderer. Sounds simple…until my heroine starts to fall in love with the accused man!

I did a ghost Regency many years ago. It was from Zebra Regency, written as Jo Ann Ferguson, and called A Phantom Affair.  Even many years later, it’s one of the books I’m most proud of because it was such a challenge.

Now I’ve had the chance to write another ghostly book, and it has been great fun. I love writing paranormals because in them, everything is possible.  Over the years, I’ve done lots of paranormal elements — from vampires to angels and from leprechauns to alternate worlds.

Okay, I do want this blog to be interesting, so I’m curious what others like to read in a blog.