Story Ideas from Memories...

I'm looking forward to September arriving so I can get back to a set routine, and stop causing annoyance to my blog readers, due to my regular posting slots going awry.

All writers get ideas for stories from different sources and I thought I'd share with you a recent inspiration.

I'm very much a visuals person. When characters or situations arrive in my conscious I'm always presented with a scene from the viewpoint of one of the characters involved. Pictures will often get my brain ticking over...

I was looking at a few news pieces in one of the online national newspapers, and an article drew my attention, because it was about a place I'd visited a number of times when I was a child/teenager. The Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent.

Like many seaside places over the years, their parks have gone into a decline, run-down and then closed; but the visual archive in my memory still has pictures of the place. They just needed something to remind me.

After a day on the beach, first stopping to brush the sand off my feet, so I could put my white socks on, and then my sandals, we would walk along the prom to go into Dreamland for an hour.
I remember the various slot machines and the general pinging and clattering of coins going into or coming out of the machines.
Then out the back doors into an area where you could get a drink, a cup of tea or coffee, and observe various rides.
I remember greenery and big rocks mixed together as a moving object rides by. The areas beyond that didn't stick in my memories, but I suspect that's because that first outside area I saw-in my young mind-was to me, a jungle, a sparse jungle with hindsight...

I've since discovered that a few of my writer friends have their own memories of the place too.

So now I have a character on the outside looking in. I don't yet know her name, or age, nor what her problem is- perhaps she has a decision to make?

It was fun revisiting my childhood memories, and perhaps some of them will turn up in my mystery lady's story...

Have you ever read about a place you knew when younger, and used it as inspiration?

Late Nights and Reading 'Crystal Gardens'...

The late nights started with the Olympic closing ceremony- I especially enjoyed Eric Idle's 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' performance with Nuns and Roman Soldiers (Monty Python links) in the background...

Then a couple of days ago I got an Amazon delivery of a book by one of my favourite writers, Jayne Ann Krentz, though this book was using her historical pseudonym, Amanda Quick. She also writes futuristic stories under her Jayne Castle name.

I started reading her books years ago, and have a mixture of old copies bought second-hand as well as those that I purchased at the time they came out. I even have a few of her books written as Stephanie James (they've also been reprinted over time with the JAK name mentioned on the cover).

For quite some time her books have been dealing with the paranormal/physic element around
the romance and mystery mix. I've read all the novels related to the Arcane Society and the Jones family...

I'm sure any prolific author will have one or two books that don't reach their usual high standard, and a few years ago there was one that sounded very much like the plot of one a few novels back and as a result it wasn't as good as I had come to expect.

But I'd seen this happen to other authors I'd been reading for quite a time, and they had all gotten over the blips and gone on to produce more good books.

So I was wondering whether to get 'Crystal Gardens', the first of The Ladies of Lantern Street novels, after reading a couple of mixed reviews. I decided that if I didn't like this one then I wouldn't buy the next one.

The book arrived and I started reading, and I stayed up a bit longer to have a quick scan of the plot further on in the book, and then it was gone midnight. The next evening I started reading again and it was a case of just one more chapter before I go to bed, and yes it was way past midnight again before I stopped reading.

I'm now three-quarters of the way through. Yes, I'm enjoying it, and I'm looking forward to the happy ending (which I know will happen) after the near the end moment when the villain may just ruin it all.

And as the heroine, Evangeline, is not only a professional companion but a writer of Victorian sensation novels, there were moments, and comments that she makes, that any writer of romances would smile at.

Finally if attempted murder, and the extremely handsome and intriguing hero, Lucas isn't enough for you, then you might be intrigued by the carnivorous plants... (And yes, there is a logical explanation for them.)

I've just got time for a few more chapters...