Inspiration

When C.S. Lewis was trying to describe how he got his inspiration for The Chronicles of Narnia, he wrote, "It all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy woodland. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: 'Let's try to make a story about it.'" (You can read more of what he said here.) We all know what happened next, and some delightful stories were born.

Just like Mr. Lewis, I'm often not sure where my inspiration comes from. Sometimes it's another story, a song, a random Scripture verse, and yes, even pictures.

I didn't really know until I had finished writing the first draft of "The Book of Dreams' where it had come from, and even now I'm not completely sure. Maybe it was the book from the BBC Voyage of the Dawn Treader that had caught my fancy years ago or my fascination with Caspian's half-dwarf tutor. Maybe it was listening to an audio drama of "At the Back of the North Wind", reading "The Weight of Glory", or listening to Andrew Peterson music that filled me with a longing for heaven. Or maybe it was just my own random thought: "What if you were chosen to have an adventure?" 

This story has been one of the easiest for me to write. The words, especially the description, just seemed to flow into the keys of the computer. I felt almost like Handel frantically writing the Messiah. Although my siblings keep begging me to let "Letters for Victory" be published next, I've decided that it must be "The Book of Dreams". It's a story that I love and can't wait to share.

I will admit to you, that not all of my inspiration has been this glorified or extraordinary. Most of it comes from everyday life and interactions with my creative and amazing family. ; ) When I was describing Grandma Rowena, I pictured her as Grandma Nutt from the board game Candyland. ; ) Cool, right? (Cinnamon doesn't quite look like her peanut dog.)

I think some of my characters would protest if they knew their origins. So, dear Sir Larkin, Drewin and Ryla, Byron, Sienna, and everyone else please stop reading this post if you won't be able to handle it. ; ) I'm about to confess.

• Sir Larkin--your name was originally a girl's name I heard at the Homeschooled Authors' book table in 2014. Very sorry, but I thought with the medieval twist it would work. Will you forgive me?
• Drewin and Ryla--your names themselves are made up because I had run completely out of medieval names since I've overused the time period/genre. But I have an ever bigger confession to make. The name of your story (The Twin Arrows) is actual the name of a local casino. I didn't know where I had picked it up until I was idly reading the billboards on our way somewhere. I'm reclaiming it though. It's mine, and it's ours.
• Byron--yes, I know I haven't visited your story in a while. I'm stuck. But your name was an awesome inspiration. I've read it almost every day of my life, and it was such a part of me that I didn't know it was the brand name on the tag of my teddy bear. He is very noble and unique, though; so you shouldn't be ashamed to be named after him. (And it's really not as bad as the random Pony Express rider who was named after my pencil case...)
• Sienna--hello, again. I want another story for you, but we'll have to get to that sometime. I believe you are named after a local resort from yet another billboard. It's a beautiful name nonetheless, and I love it. ; )
• Fiddler--I love you so much that I couldn't find a name good enough for you (and Edward already got a story, so I can't use that again); so that 's the real reason you don't have one. There's no geeky or cool reason for the "secret" except lack of inspiration and fear of ruining your awesomeness. (I don't think Isolde minds.)
• Percy--you are so cool that I'm sorry you got that name. Only thing I could think of when you needed one. (At least you aren't stuck without one like "Mr. Strathmore's boy" or "the half-grown boy with the half-grown voice"...) And by the way, if you end up in a second story, you just got ten times cooler. I was reading the Arthurian tales the other day and crying over Sir Perceval's coming to Camelot. Your name is now short for Perceval. ; )
• Isolde--you're name is also from the Arthurian tales, but hopefully your story won't be as tragic as Tristan and Yseult's. It's beautiful nonetheless, and I'm really not ashamed of it all. (You're sister Ariel is from one of Jerusalem's alternate names and the name of the sprite from The Tempest. I heard somewhere that they were naming people during the 1860s from the Bible and classics, so... And Shallia was completely from my own head.)

So it ranges from everything from billboards to Shakespeare, C.S. Lewis to teddy bears, and everything else in between. Sometimes with stories like "The Book of Dreams", I feel as if I am writing something beautiful and amazing that will bless many people and bring them closer to God. Other times I feel as if I am writing a collection of random ideas that is just a cheesy remake of The Princess Bride. And then I remember that, as long as I am writing for God, He will make something out of it that I could never have imagined being possible. He will use my crazy stories to change a life, even if it is only my own. So I keep writing. ; )

I've recently started using Pinterest to help with inspiration. I have boards for "The Book of Dreams", "Letters for Victory", "Fiddler's Bargain", "Awake", and another story currently (and boringly) known as "Kiera". I try to keep my boards God-honoring and kosher, but please use the site in general with caution. (Same warning as I give for YouTube.) And please note that there might be spoilers. ; ) 

Busy and Blessed

This weekend has been super busy and blessed. Added to the regular activities of usual weekends, it’s birthday season for us! ; )

Thursday

Buddies' actual birthday; but, since we were going to celebrate it on Saturday (so we could have Perry, Tyler, and the nephews come), a school holiday was declared as long as we played with the birthday girl all day. ; ) After some chores, a little bit of school that had a deadline, and that silly selfie session from my last post, the younger girls launched into a game of dollhouse. It was, of course, only a precursor to the main event when they were allowed to go outside and build a town. That’s right—a town. Em set up a very nice Doctor’s Office in the tree house (which was kind of funny because “injured” people had to climb up the ladder to get there) where I got a real bandage for a real injury; and Pearly set up a sort of carnival/game tent (Literal tent and one of the walls was held up by a rock on the roof that fell off later. No one was hurt!) with activities including guess the number of Skittles in the jar, a penny toss, a raffle, a hidden object challenge (bottle of rice with small objects in it—the challenge was to find them all), and a ball ramp she had made by herself. There were prizes and even badges that said things like “Champion of the Skooter Race” that they got to wear all day. (Em had her doctor name tag and two champion badges, so let’s just say she was very decorated!) ; ) Also very popular were the bags of complementary popcorn  with a few turns at the games. (Which was really good, because we were so busy playing that our meals were a bit off schedule.) ; ) Speaking of lunch, the Birthday Girl herself served it through one of our back windows as a drive through. I made a big batch of chai tea and served it in my new adorable glass mugs. It went like hotcakes! Buddies even wanted seconds after it was gone so she went and made herself more (with a little help from Aimee). ; ) Paul spent most of his morning on the computer making something mysterious and interesting for our game. None of the younger girls were allowed to look at the computer, but if they had I don’t think they would have understood what he was doing. (I had to be told, myself.) He coded an app for our family phones that read smart tags off “debit cards” that were linked with play bank accounts. Talk about an advancement from the tinfoil coinage of the old days when the big girls were little! He set up a tent and chose Birthday Girl as his assistant. She was so cute sitting there reading a book as he explained the cards to his primitive customers. She had dressed up for her birthday complete with stick-on earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet. Anna had done her hair in a French braid and twisted little hair jewels into it. Very grownup! ; ) She got even more dressed up because of the salon hosted by Anna and I. Anna set it up next to Pearly’s game tent on an old bureau that decorates the back porch in it’s own rustic way. She took a mirror, all the hair stuff, and a ton of small decorating items (including Christmas lights!!) outside and arranged them to make a very pretty picture. ; ) My job was to paint fingernails and toenails while she did hair and makeup. Mom let us have the rare treat/torture of using some of her makeup like face paint. (I tried a little and it turned out like war paint so I washed it off.) ; ) Anna got into the act and dressed up as a crazy salon lady, and we used a little face paint to get the clown next door into character. The pictures say it all. ; ) Tyler surprised Buddies by dropping by on his way home from work to wish her a happy day. He was a little astounded by our costumes; but he seemed to enjoy seeing the town, and she certainly enjoyed showing it off. ; ) So we played until it was almost completely dark (or maybe it was completely dark), then came inside to warm up. My favorite part of the day was definitely when Birthday Girl thanked us all by saying, “Thank you so much for playing with me, guys!”

The lovely M.D (Mother on Duty)

The "clown"

Mayor and secretary

Getting dark!

The crazy salon lady, the M.D., and a little sliver of Yours Truly

Friday

We did do some school, and I did get some editing/writing in. I actually finished editing “The Book of Dreams” as much as I can, and I’m looking forward to sending it out to test readers hopefully soon. My current writing WIP is “One Day After Eden” and my editing WIP is now “Letters for Victory”! ; ) That evening, we went to some friends’ house to have dinner with them and learn to make their Paleo friendly apple cake. (It was so good!!! I’ll have to put the recipe here sometime.) We had a great and blessed time with them. ; )

Saturday

Oh, wow. We packed in four days’ worth of stuff on this day! The first day of this day was Dad’s birthday celebration (since it was actually his birthday) where Mom gave him a collage she had made to commemorate our years in the Northwest. The second day, Dad, Em, and I had to do some last minute birthday shopping for Buddies before her celebration later that included going to Barnes and Noble and the Christian bookstore. *angels sing* It was a ton of fun! Back home, I helped to finish cleaning the house and Em and Anna closeted themselves to wrap the presents. (They did an adorable job!) Day three: the relatives arrive! Perry, Tyler, Chap, Chum, and Brudder Baby as well as our local aunt and uncle! We had a nice party appreciating Birthday Girl, eating too much ice cream, and watching as she celebrated over each present. ; ) Dad also got another present—this time from us. Starbucks giftcard but since we only have non-birthday girly cards in the house, Aimee’s sense of humor told her to use a sympathy card. “In sympathy for all the health problems this coffee will cause.” ; ) ; ) ; ) And then day four, all the adults left for a courtship discussion with a few other families from church as they introduced the idea to a homeschool group. We got the babies!!!!! (All except Brudder Baby but I didn’t complain too much.) ; ) Chap and Chum kept us on our toes (and themselves happy way past bedtime) with dancing to “The Fiddler on the Roof”; cooking with kid kitchen (They both pray over food, and Liam loves “cutting” wooden food with a little wooden knife. He would have done that all day if there hadn’t been anything else to do!); playing doggy with streamer leashes; and just being generally cute. Buddies got to share one of her birthday gifts, the first volume of What’s in the Bible with Buck Denver, with them which was pretty fun. I think they liked it even if they felt the need to play a little Duplo when they got bored for a moment. ; ) So cute! Anyways, it was a great day!

Birthday Girl!!!

Chef Chum ; )

Sunday

Dad wanted to take us to Savers for his birthday, and since there was a big sale we thought we would snag a little time at the store before our afternoon church. We found some great things, but we were a bit rushed getting to church since it ended up taking a lot longer than we had thought. Dad preached some of the last few verses of the book of James this Sunday. It was so good! The sermon will definitely be posted here in the near future since it is about serving God in every area of life. The communion service was really great too, especially since one of our piano players from the church’s early days was in town so we resurrected a really amazing communion song we used to sing. Fellowship afterwards was simply amazing as I found myself talking to people I don’t usually get to, and we were discussing amazing principles from the Bible (and coming up with analogies that include water balloons so they definitely break down). And the nephews were awesome as always. That’s a given. ; )

Monday

Oh, wow, that’s today! The only reason I’m writing this right now is because I’m the only one up and my computer was handy, but today is going to be busy. We’re renters, so it’s time for the annual walk through and we have a few things to do. (Like yardwork—because weeds always grow.) Dad is home because it’s MLK day, so I’m excited to see what we’ll do when the work is all over. Mom’s birthday is tomorrow, and we have a good long week of school (and editing/writing!) ahead of us so I’m excited. ; )

What about you? How have you been busy and blessed?

My World of Words

Last June, I had the amazing privilege of publishing my first book The Treasure Hunt. Since then I have finished the first drafts of three more stories I hope to publish in the near future.

First there was "The Book of Dreams". This is one of my stories that just thrills my heart more than all the others. It is based on all the concepts I have ever learned or loved from C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle and his essay "The Weight of Glory", Andrew Peterson's poetic songs, and a bit from George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind. This is when I first discovered the power of setting the mood with a little description. I started with a small concept and then let my mind run wild with the possibilities.

From the beginning...

Now she sat in the front room with her own book in her hands. The firelight danced on the walls and caused her hair to shine golden. A little table separated her chair from the one belonging to the Keeper of Dreams, but he was near enough to watch her closely as she read. And watch her closely he did. From the first moment she had opened the golden pages, his eyes never moved; but his smiled deepened.

             After admiring the cover for a long while, she finally flipped open the book and fingered the first page as she read the words written in golden script. Here and there throughout the book there were pictures and her smile would grow as she murmured pleasantly, “Yes, that is how I remember it.”

            The shadows grew and still Lindsay read. As she looked at all her dreams from the time she was a baby until the very night before, she realized that they all wove together into one big dream. The Keeper of Dreams still smiled on her and watched as she read on, caught up into the story.

            All before she wanted it to the book ended, and she closed it with a happy sigh. When she looked up she saw that the Keeper of Dreams had been watching her and she said politely, “Thank you very much for letting me read this and especially for recording it all.”

            He smiled and took the book from her outstretched hands then showed her to the door. The spring day was as lovely as when she had come to his house, but now it seemed all the more beautiful. The sky was a clear blue dotted with puffy white clouds, and a slight breeze blew across the flowers making them dance together. There were ever so many colors to look at as she walked home: greens, and blues, and every shade of pink imaginable. The apple and the pear blossoms rained down about her onto the path, and each thing her eyes lighted on reminded her of something she had seen in one of her dreams.

After that I worked on a story called "Letters for Victory" a mixture of my own experiences of home life and fictional story set during World War II. It was a lot of fun to write and (at that point) my longest story yet. I loved the story so much that instead of doing a typical epilogue narrating everything in 50 or so words, I wrote a (really long!!) bonus chapter to give myself a chance to say "goodbye" to the characters. : )

Here's a snippet...
“So you think we should write to him,” Jake stated with excitement written all over his face.

            “Exactly! I asked mother and she said we could as long as we pay the postage and let her look over the letters first. This all depends of course, on if Tommy wants to be pen-pals,” Kathryn answered in a business-like tone.

            “Let’s do it!” Jake replied, jumping up from the couch.

            “Can I draw the pictures?” Hanna asked.

            “Yes, dear,” her older sister said and was rewarded with a toothy smile.

            “Kathryn should be the ‘editor’,” Jake offered, taking a huge bite of his apple at the exact moment that everyone looked at him.

            “What do you think, Avery?” Kathryn said and they all turned to look at him.

            Ever the practical one, Avery stroked his chin and said, “And how will we pay for the postage?”

            Kathryn answered by reaching up and taking their general piggy bank off the mantle and emptying it onto the floor. “There’s enough here to send a few letters and then we’ll have to figure out some way to make money,” she pronounced.

            “Then I’m all for it,” Avery replied, with vigor.

            And so they decided to write the letter. After several minutes of haggling, crossing out, and rewriting Kathryn was ready to read the finished project aloud.

            “Dear Tommy,

            We are the Moorbank children—Kathryn (14), Avery (12 ½), Jake (8), and Hanna (4). We live on Currant Street in Willoughby Village with our mother and older sister who is married to a soldier, Peter Kilroy. We have a nice big house with rose bushes that bloom pink when they do. We also have the best tree house in the neighborhood that we love to play in. We can’t play in it right now since it is raining so much, but we have grand times during the summer. In autumn and winter we play in the living room. That's where we're writing this letter from now.

            We were wondering if you want to be pen-pals. We are quite sure we can think of plenty of interesting things to tell you, though you should have some things to say too. Don't worry about postage, we have it all figured out.

            Enclosed is a photograph of us all and Avery would like you to know that he has grown a whole inch since that was taken so Kathryn isn't really so much taller than him. Kathryn says that doesn't matter much. Jake would like to know what war is like. Hanna says that if you will pretend to be her big brother she will send you a piece of her candy on Christmas.

            Please write back as soon as possible, though we will be patient since you are probably busy. Goodbye now, we have to go snap green beans.

             Sincerely,

            Your Friends"

After that I started a story called "Mara". It was once again a mixture of lessons from my life and story I came up with. Wonderful experience, and I was so excited to finish it last December (in the midst of moving and Christmas). It's my longest story ever, but I hope to break that record someday once I get over my writer's block. : )

An excerpt for ya'...
Sienna stood near her father with her hands clasped around the handle of a small brown satchel. Her thick black hair was parted in the middle and pulled back from her face by a dull colored ribbon. Her dress was a sort of golden brown that would have been nice if it had been paired with another color, but the fact that it was too big and too brown made her look almost swallowed up by it. The only thing interesting about her were her eyes. They were dark brown and very big and stared at Mara with admiration and contempt.

            Mara was reclining on the low-backed couch with a white crocheted afghan tucked around her. Her dress and her cheeks were the color of the roses on the table beside her, and her eyes held a bright sparkle of welcome for the timid young girl that stood in front of her. Beckoning, so she would not disturb her parents’ and Mr. Rhames’ conversation, she smiled at her new student and prayed that they would get along.

            “Just like a queen,” Sienna thought as she studied her new teacher and her thought was seemingly rationalized by Mara’s kind beckoning. “I wonder if she can actually teach. She looks as if she had never worked a day in her life.” Sienna’s mind sped on in this disagreeable fashion, but she made her feet walk towards the young woman.

            Mara tucked a pile of letters that had occupied the footstool into a basket nearby, and said, “There, would you like to sit down? We have so much getting acquainted to do.”

            Sienna sat down stiffly on the footstool but turned her face in undisguised interest to the speaker. The frank, welcoming words spoke somehow into the lonely girl’s heart and softened it a little.

            “So, you are Sienna. I’m Mara (it’s said like mare with an ‘a’ on the end), and I am so excited to get to be your teacher,” Mara said smiling and tucking her light brown hair behind her ear.

 

 

So which story do you think sounds the most interesting?

Evenings at Home

I love evenings at home. Evenings when our family gathers together to
hear a story, watch an episode of "What's in the Bible?", share funny
stories with each other, or prepare for the next day's meals. Yesterday
evening I spent reading a story aloud to my sister while she soaked her
burned finger. (We had so much fun laughing over the silly parts in the
story.) Tonight I'm just generally hanging out and waiting for my brother
to work all the 'bugs' out of the stock market game he is programming so
I can play it. (I think he has it about perfect now!) I'm so grateful for
this family!