A muse called Moose…

I wish I could tell you Heartquake came to me in a flash of brilliant inspiration, brought down from the heavens by my muse.

My writing doesn’t work that way. My muse, whose name is Moose (get it? Moose the Muse) doesn’t work that way, either. Let’s be honest, Moose barely works.

Moose prefers to tease me. He’ll dangle a character’s name in front of me. It just floats in the tense air between us. Moose dares me to do something with. Quite frankly, it’s a challenge he knows very well I can’t refuse.

From that character, a story slowly emerges. It’s murky, at first, and muddled. And that’s just the way Moose likes it. That’s exactly how Charlee Lightheart, the heroine of Heartquake, developed. Just a name, at first, who had a story that needed telling.

And since I can’t plot, Charlee and I made the journey throughout the novel together. Sometimes, she would surprise me with a revelation about her backstory. Or her thoughts on her romantic interest, Riley Brockton (who, in turn, kept his own secrets from me).

You might think I’m being a bit harsh on Moose. And perhaps I am. To his credit, he doesn’t just drop me off in the middle of creative nowhere. He continues to tinker in the background of the story.

One character leads to another. Take Jared Sparrow. His role in Charlee’s story was simply to provide a springboard for a major event. But thanks to Moose, Jared grew a personality all of his own and now I’m working on his story.

But wait—there’s more. To show you how deviously clever Moose is, Jared’s story, which I’m currently writing, has prompted another book with characters crying for attention. A character appeared in a scene in Jared’s book that I didn’t even know was there. Well played, Moose. Well played.

Inspiration? No, mine isn’t the classic lightning bolt of an idea fully formed that I frantically scribble down word for word. My inspiration is more like the slow drip of a faucet, where one imaginative drop blends into the next. And if I’m lucky enough to have stopped up the basin, they blend together in a basinful of ideas that I can meaningfully mold into a story.

Heartquake is just that. Inspired by the well-timed creative droplets of Moose, Charlee finds herself in a love story with Riley that defies her expectations against a backdrop of a small Ohio town that confronts the fracking industry, political corruption, and corporate greed. Charlee faces circumstances that tug at her conscience. The appalling conditions her neighbors face because of the fracking outrage her. But she’s fought one battle against a giant corporation, does she really have the energy to slay another Goliath? And if she does, what will become of her relationship with Riley?

Excerpt

His hands seemed more like paws. Not destructive mauling paws of a feral beast, but the large loving ones of an animal dedicated to protecting those he loved. She feared if he kept his hand on hers too long, she would start to think about love at first sight again. Yet she didn’t move it.

When he did remove his hand from hers, she felt an immediate and crushing disconnect. She fell back to earth and experienced the gripping weight and limitation of the force of gravity. Did an astronaut experience this remorse and loss of freedom when he re-entered the earth’s atmosphere and found himself bound by gravity?

“I apologize,” he said, as he shook his head slightly. “I think I’ve overstepped my bounds. That’s not at all what I intended to happen. That was uncharacteristic of me.”

“Don’t be,” she said. She couldn’t take her gaze from his eyes.

“Pardon me?”

“Don’t be sorry.”

Speed dating with Terry:

Oxford comma, yes or no?  Of course, the Oxford comma.

Coffee or tea or wine? Coffee, hands down. Black usually, but I do love a good caramel latte.

You’re a new addition to the crayon box. What color would you be and why? Annoying Sunbeam Yellow. After my first cup of coffee in the morning, I just don’t know when to shut up.

What are you known for? My friends think of me when they see a bad pun and send it to me. And I appreciate it.

Morning rooster, night owl, or midday lark? Definitely a morning person. I get my best writing done then.

What comes first, character or plot (or other)? Actually, a name pops into my mind, and I create a character based on that. Then the plot forms.