Inspiration

Every writer has a kaleidoscope of images sifting through their mind as they write. For me, reading and writing as always been as a sort of ‘movie’ playing in my head. I see the characters…their hair color and clothing, and the setting of the story. It could be a certain season or a city,  a house, or all of the combined. If music is mention, that song plays through my brain, the tune very clear. I would imagine that it is the same for most people, or books would not be so popular! Writers just take it a bit further.

I have known writers that keep pictures of their characters above their desk. It could be an actor, or just a picture that evokes that character. Sometimes they have pictures of the house, the town or whatever season it is pinned near their writing space to keep them in that ‘scene’. I personally do not keep pictures of my characters, but they are in my mind, very clear and precise. I DO keep many notes on each character. If there is a house, I draw a floor plan and either draw or find a picture that is similar to that house.  If there is a town, I have a layout of it.

So it was with Rubyville. I had a wonderful time taking lots of pictures of my ‘Rubyville’. I also had lots of help. Thank you to all my family that contributed their skills in this process. No, the town is not on the cover, and our youngest’s desire to have a horse in a paddock didn’t make it either. But it was a lot of fun creating it. I will have those pictures I painted, framed and put up in my office…and I will always have a visual of Rubyville for each season. And yes, that is an inspiration to me.

After writing the first two books in the series, Julia Ryan created the covers. Now that has been an inspiration to me! She has captured the Barton family women, the essence of each story. I see those colors, the flowers…and it inspires me to write. They make me feel happy and put a huge smile on my face. I think you will agree. www.DesignByJulia.com