Today I’m going to talk about an event that inspired me, even though I’ve never actually attended. In my short story “Tyler Wang Has a Ball” poor urban Tyler gets roped into attending a testicle festival. I am delighted to say such events actually exist. I was inspired by the one that takes place every …
Inspiration. Kim has been doing her weekly piece on inspiration and in keeping with her theme so I decided to take a crack at what inspired/inspires my writing. Since this isn’t going to be a weekly guest piece, I decided to focus on the things that prompted me to write one book – Purpose since …
I’ve posted already about some of the places that inspired pieces of the Bones books. Today I’d like to share a few more. This is Papa Haydn, a cafe in Northwest Portland. When Matty and Dylan go out to lunch in Buried Bones, they go someplace like this. The desserts are amazing. But Dylan is …
“Steampunk is what happens when goths discover brown.” by K. Z. Snow That was the first succinct definition I came upon for a category of speculative fiction that began to intrigue me some years ago. I didn’t know much about steampunk then, despite the fact it was spawned (I’ve since learned) in the 1980s, but …
In my novel Brute, Brute moves to the capital city of Tellomer and ends up with a job in the palace. His quarters are in the Brown Tower and his task is to guard the mysterious man imprisoned there. The palace–which is really more of a castle–and the Brown Tower were inspired largely by a …
I have fairly vivid dreams. The other night, for instance, I dreamed I was searching for something to wear to an Indian wedding. The colors in that dream were especially bright. Sometimes in my dreams my husband does something to make me angry and when I wake up I’m mad at the poor guy. My …
Please welcome Eli Easton! Eli wrote a wonderful historical romance for the Goodreads Love Has No Boundaries event (which means you can download for free!). Eli is also the talented artist who made the lovely cover for Treasure. Going Medieval on Your Ass – “The Lion and the Crow” By Eli Easton Like many writers, …
If you’ve read Good Bones, you know that among the challenges facing Dylan is to design a house for Cassidy and Pomegranate, the futon queens. Their futon factory plays a part in my (free!) short story, The Gig. While Cass and Pom are purely fictional, the inspiration for their business is real: my sister-in-law has …
I’ve been in Iowa City to attend the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. I’ve had a wonderful time with a couple of workshops–and come up with some plot bunnies I’m really excited about. Which makes sense, given the number of rabbits hopping around this city’s lawns. That’s the old capitol (from before Iowans decided to legislate …
I fall in love with all my characters–even the villains. But some have a special place in my heart. Brute is one of those. He was created a bit by accident. I’d begun with the idea of a blind prisoner who dreamed people’s deaths. Then I began to imagine what sort of man might serve …