Inspiration is a funny thing. My husband's deployment to Afghanistan inspired my debut novel, A Heart on Hold ...and our subsequent battles with PTSD and "the aftermath" of the war and its impact on my family inspired the following three novels of the Everlasting Heart series.
My children inspired all of my works for kids and Marty Robbins ballad The Master's Call inspired The Calling.However, the next literary work gracing my desktop that I want to tell you about is one that has been near and dear to my hear for a long time coming ... and the first of four books from The Saga of Indian Em'ly is coming soon from Painted Pony Books ... The Saga of Indian Em'ly: The Apache and the Pale Face Soldiers .
Yay!
Texans, does the name Indian Em'ly sound familiar? She is local legend down around Old Fort Davis and her controversial legend is just the one that inspired this series. I began writing on this first book way back in 2008 when we were still stationed in Italy and am pleased as punch that it will bear the Painted Pony Books emblem!
I can't wait to take you along for the ride!
Have you ever been inspired by a legend?
Hi Sara! Wow you have a lot of different kinds of inspiration. I guess we all do, if we think of it. I, too, was inspired by a song to write a story--Scarlet Ribbons, the old folk song, so beautifully performed by Harry Belafonte, inspired me to write The Gunfighter's Girl. The story I wrote around that song was one of a gunfighter who had left his young girlfriend alone and pregnant-- though he didn't know she was pregnant when he left her. When he comes back 5 years later, he puts 2 and 2 together and realizes that he has little girl...and her sight has been taken by a high fever. So she remembers colors, etc. She prays for some beautiful scarlet ribbons for her hair. What happens? I CAN'T TELL THE ENDING! LOLLOL But it's a story of love and redemption, and miracles, of course--it's a Christmas story. I'm a huge Marty Robbins freakazoid. Loved The Calling. I haven't gotten to read these other books of yours, but I will as soon as I get a chance!
ReplyDeleteCheryl
Cheryl, I love me some Marty Robbins anytime, day or night. ;-) I remember clearly--and it still brings a tear--where I was when I heard he'd died. I was listening to the radio while I driving on the interstate around Cleveland, Ohio. The DJ came on and announced his death. The DJ could barely get the words out because he was crying so hard. I pulled over and cried, too. ;-(
DeleteHey Cheryl! I'm running on Indian Time lately. That sounds like a BEAUTIFUL STORY!!! Is The Gunfighter's Girl going to be in the PRP Christmas Anthology? I'm so glad you loved The Calling. The awesome lady who sells us sno cones told me she finished it and passed her copy to another lady at her church and they plan to do a Bible School lesson around the last sermon in the book! I hope you enjoy the others <3
DeleteKaye, it's funny what we remember -- though sometimes it's not funny haha, it's more funny in a tears of the heart sort of way. I still cry when I hear the national anthem because it takes me right back to the Special Events Center at Fort Carson, Colorado when my hubby came home all skeletal but alive from Afghanistan. It certainly gave the old tune a new meaning for me.
What a great selection and your sources of inspiration and inspirational themselves.
ReplyDeleteMy writing comes from love of history and also the teens/children I worked with in my career. The resilance of those troubled children was an inspiration and a challenge. While I write non-fiction, I also have written plays and short stories (there is also novel based on a historic event.) and continue to pursue that avenue.
Thank you and best to you. Doris
Thank you for your response, Doris :-) I share your passion for history. And oh, what inspiration you must have from your life's work! How neat that you write plays! I hope to dabble in that some day, myself!
DeleteSara, You are a busy woman. I have used an event as inspiration, though the outcome is nothing like the event that inspired the story. Family stories and stories from friends have inspired me. Isn't writing a great job?
ReplyDeleteHi Caroline! Same here. It's nice when we get to control the ending. That is pretty much why I started A Heart on Hold and put the characters through what I put them through (which is markedly similar to what my husband was going through in Afghanistan . . .) so I could control the ending . . . no matter what ending I was destined to be dealt in real life.
DeleteHi, Sara. Yes, I know about Indian Emily. I have a book titled Tales From Out Yonder, one of a collection of weird books about weird Texas Stories I own. I'm glad you're using Indian Emily in a story..otherwise, I fear no one except you, me, and the author of Tales From Out Yonder know about her. Was she truly a heroine? Heck we don't know. But don't we love the story?
ReplyDeleteGlad to meet you through Cheryl's publishing company.
How awesome that you have a book that hits so close to (my) home! In what part of Texas do you hang up your hat? We are out in the oilfields of the Permian Basin.
DeleteThank you for your sweet compliment. They are trying to phase Emily out and just brand her a legend that never actually lived but was fabricated through Army post legend. However I can't cotton to that idea. Indian Em'ly must live on! Hugs Celia, from Odessa!
Sara,
ReplyDeleteFor me, inspiration is fickle. I can sit at my computer with my fingers poised to click away on the keyboard... and nothing happens. For days on end, I can't write my way out of a wet paper bag. Then a passing comment, an image on a poster in a restaurant, a song lyric I've heard a hundred times opens the flood gate, and I can't write fast enough.
*shrugging* Maybe I'm the one that's fickle 0_o
Kaye, I think you're awesome!! I wrote a piece once on seducing the muse and jokingly (somewhat) said that I could seduce my muse then it would sit and wait for me on my giant pile of mutating laundry until I had a free moment to open the laptop haha! Your muse sounds like it likes to play tricks ;-)
DeleteGreat topic, Sarah! Inspiration comes from a lot of different sources for me. My first book was originally inspired by reading about the Chicago Fire of 1871, and later by memories of precognitive dreams I had in years past. Those dreams inspired the supernatural elements in my whole Texas Devlins trilogy, and still influences my writing.
ReplyDeleteOther inspiration stems from movies (Red River, my favorite John Wayne movie) and books, especially the gritty, ground-breaking western romances by Rosemary Rogers. Then there are people I've known, such as my father who roamed all over the western states as a young man, and a gentleman I interviewed, whose father lived during the trail drive era.
My new series, Scrolls of Tomorrow, is inspired by Celtic myth, my love of all things Irish, life with a disability, and my firm belief in psychic powers.
Ahhh precognition. That IS an amazing source of inspiration! Your new series sounds as hooking as your other ones! I can't wait to check it out!
DeleteHey Sara, I'm sorry to be late. Your real life certainly puts some depth in the stories you write. I've never heard of Indian Emily, so it will all be new to me.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I've ever been inspired by legends, but I'm definitely inspired by family history and personal experiences. Some stories come from things I've seen or accounts told to me by people I've met. I can draw from my nursing days when I worked in critical care. There are so many amazing stories there. Some were very touching and uplifting and some were scary or even disheartening, but all of them are held in my memory. I kept a writer's journal even in those days (a very handy thing to have when inspiration evaporates.)
A very interesting blog, Sara.