Who Inspires You?

When I was a little girl my mom wrote. Letters. Lists. Notes. I found poems in my grandmother's purse on little snippets of paper, the backs of envelopes, where ever the fancy struck. When I went to elementary school my teacher gave us writing prompts. I loved them! In high school I had a creative writing teacher, Mrs. Dow. She loved everything I wrote and told me that my work would one day be published if I was persistent. She even suggested a couple of literary magazines to submit my poetry to. Back then, I was too chicken to even consider such a thing. I still have all those poems, paragraphs and writings from her class and treasure her comments. The second is Mrs. Moses. One class I'll never forget is her lesson on clauses. Really, clauses. It was this magical aha moment for me. My writing would never be the same. I went home and wrote a really long short story filled with complex/compound sentences. I brought it in to show Mrs. Moses when I was finished some week or so later. She was so impressed that I didn't have to take her final and used my sentences to generate the test. This amazing teacher said to me, "I hope you will always keep writing. You have a gift."

When I was the ripe old age of 22 my husband send me off to the library a couple times a week so that I could spend my evenings writing my first full length novel (by hand, mind you). I would bring my pages home, read them to him and then my sister would type them up on an old fashioned electric typewriter.

When I wrote my second novel, I sent pages of Soulfire, via email, to my mother. That was back when juno was the rage. Mom called me after reading one of my scenes. She was crying. Talk about inspiring. Everything I wrote was amazing to her. You have to love moms, right? They are  what keep us going.

My daughter inspired me to write Identity. She gave me the idea. Hubby and I often spent our Friday night dates just discussing my works in progress and he is a great sounding board. Sometimes I take him on plot walks with me, just so he can vocalize back to me what I'm trying to work through.

My high school teachers are long since gone, my mom has passed on, but my dear husband continues to be my inspiration.

Tell me about who inspires you in your writing.

What am I WIPing up now?

Yesterday I made 3 lists. One list is books that are finished (at least rough draft any way). The other list is ones that are in various stages of completion. And the third is ideas for books. I was literally amazed at what is going on in my head. All those people demanding my attention. Then I tried to block out the next several months as to what I would work on during that time. My dear husband happened to see what I was doing and said, "What about Mystic's Tale?"


WHAT??!! How could I have left that story out of my WIPs? REALLY??


I often wonder, will I ever have enough lifetime to finish all the books I have planned? I guess, it's just gonna be one book at a time. So with that in mind, here is my list of WIPs:

FINISHED

Identity-PUBLISHED!!!

Soulfire-A Book of Mormon novel

Accepted by Walnut Springs

The Penny Project

Mystic's Tale-YA Urban Fantasy

Book 1

Disclaimer about the following finished novel:

The Magic Garden 

(That one will never see the light of day. I wrote it over thirty years ago. I've improved so much since then, that book is an embarrassment)

UNFINISHED

Jericho and Lucy-Mystery/Romance

Mystics Journey-YA urban Fantasy 

Book 2

Mystic's Quest-YA urban Fantasy 

Book 3

Beloved-A Story of Hope-Adult Paranormal

Meg-YA general fiction

(A couple of them I can't think of a real title, not that it matters that much anyway since publishers often have their own ideas about that.)

IDEAS I CAN'T GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

Double Identity (Sequel to Identity)

Black Widows-YA horror

(This one is actually hubby's idea. Not sure if I'll write it or not, but it's interesting to think about the possibilities.)

The Eradicator-YA Paranormal

What happens when your best friend thinks you don't belong in society?

Yeah, I can't think of a title for this one either.

Morning Gloria-YA General

Keeper's Field-YA Coming of age

Jesh You Wait

No clue, but I love the title

So, now I have to figure out how I'm going to get all these books finished. I think I have my work cut out for me. Not to mention that ideas just keep coming to me.

How do you keep track of what you want to write? How do you prioritize? I'd love to get your feedback and advice. What should I work on next?