Creativity - More Ramblings of the Mind

I'm trying to think of something creative and thought-provoking to write today and I'm having a hard time. As I always do when it comes to blogging. I believe in stream of consciousness writing. Blame that on Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. That is one of the foundation books of craft on my book shelf, by the way. Just begin and keep on going. It's how I sometimes come up with story ideas. I don't always plan, I take a word, think about that word, and just start writing as images come into my head. Start with the phrase "I remember"...

Take The Boy Next Door, my most recent release from Amber Quill. In my mind I saw a tree house, I saw the street I grew up on, and I thought about the people who lived in those houses on that street. There was the chief of police at one end, the supervising principal at the other, and in between an insurance salesman, a business owner who had emmigrated from Puerto Rico, a college professor, an optometrist, a carpenter, and a variety of others. We call them neighbors and in many cases, friends. But do we really know what goes on behind those closed doors? What we see, is what they want us to see. What we project is what we want other people to see and know about us, no always what's churning inside.

I love writing about masks. I love writing about what's behind those masks, the deep gut emotion that resides there, that drives my characters to do what they do. I write about memory and images, word association. If you see a lilac bush or smell lilacs in the air what image does that bring to your mind? What about the color yellow? What about the feel of moist dirt between your toes?

And I love writing about the sensuality and eroticism of emotions, of tangible objects and intangible sensations and invoking the environment to enhance those feelings. Realm of the Ice God uses the season of winter and snow and ice, cold and hot to invoke sensations. Whisper uses the sense of touching, with hands in the act of molding clay. Jebediah's Promise uses thunder and lightening and the simple art of baking and the sense of taste to instill the tension and dedication in this story.

Erotic romance isn't just about opening the door on the sex scenes. For me, it's about the whole ambiance of everything that is in that story and bringing it all alive in a most elemental, earthy fashion. It's the most exquisite feeling to have the freedom to create a story with sizzling passion and embrace the imagery unconstrained by censorship of imagination.

I like words, all kinds of words. I always have, but I think I've done enough rambling for today. By the way, it's my wedding anniversary today. Thirty-three years at about 2:30 this afternoon. EST that is. Lots of memories tied up in those years, lots of emotion, lots of everything. And more to come.

Have a great day!

Adrianna