It was mid-afternoon, mid-week in the month of June, that time of year when it starts to get hot. I had just driven my mom to the chiropractors and dropped her off at the front door. Too far from home or work to leave and come back, I was left with an hour to kill. So I pulled into the parking lot of a nearby park. I remember it clearly, four rows of slanted parking spaces with only a couple of boat trailers taking up space.
I swung my car around and parked in the far corner of the lot, away from any park people. It was peaceful in this area of town and the time of day kept it fairly unpopulated. But my mind was not peaceful. It was buzzing and I needed something to write with, NOW.
I pulled up on the bar underneath my driver’s side seat and felt it click as my chair slid all the way back. The only thing I had was my phone so I whipped it out, opened up my Notes app, and started typing away with one finger.
What was I so jazzed about that I needed to write it down that moment? At some point on the drive over to the chiropractors I was struck with inspiration regarding a story I was currently writing. Creativity tends to work that way. You get an idea or a solution at that very moment that you’re not thinking about it. I spent that whole hour typing up thoughts, quotes, and plot points to work into my story.
That story exemplifies most of my creative process when it comes to writing; moments of fast, random lightening bolts of genius. I am getting dangerously close to the completion of my first book, The Faintly Beating Heart. So I wanted to share with you a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what it was like to write this book. What I’m going to share here is only a small sliver of the beastly task that is ‘writing a book’.
Have you ever heard the saying, ‘write what you know’? There is some truth to this statement, and at first hearing it, it seems to make a lot of sense. But what about people who write about dragons or unicorns?? Do they know what it’s like see a fire breathing dragon or to pet the mane of a unicorn? Probably not. But I digress… I enjoy writing fantasy which often includes elements I’m not intimately familiar with. Which is why I don’t write what I know, I write what I see.
I can’t help it. Names, places, and ideas I see everyday end up making their way into my stories. I have been writing The Faintly Beating Heart for year, in my head at least. At one point I had to step back and either be shocked or admire the fact that much of my surrounding had made its way into my story. Below I’m going to offer an explanation for two names you’ll see when you read The Faintly Beating Heart and how they squirmed their way into my story.
A couple of years ago while traveling an hour north from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with my sister, I passed a sign. The sign read ‘Bear Gap Quarry’. For some reason that name ‘Bear Gap’ stuck out to me. I pulled out my phone and typed the name so I wouldn’t forget it. I knew I would use that name somewhere; I just wasn’t sure where yet.
Then as I continued to build the world that my characters would live in, a nation, full of secrets and suspicious magic that goes by the name, Elmyra. I decided I’d break this country up into territories, smaller land areas that I could distinguish with certain features. Then I had my main characters to think about. Where were they going to live? I knew the northern regions of Elmyra were going to hold a lot of mystery that my characters needed to discover, so I decided to place them in the southern most territory. Then of course when it came time to think of a name for that southern territory, I knew exactly which one I was going to go with… Bear Gap! I love the name and I knew I’d be using it a lot in my story. The territory of Bear Gap is rich and vast and has an interesting history when it comes to bears.
Then just a couple of weeks ago my sister and I were making that same journey up north and we passed that sign again.
“Bear Gap!” she said. “Like from your book! Was that on purpose?”
Yup it was. I have grown up in central Pennsylvania my whole life and I’m proud to bring a little bit of it into my story.
Down in the small town of Hummelstown, very close to where I grew up, is a restaurant and hotel called ‘The Warwick’. It sits on the square with a regal color scheme of emerald green and gold lettering. I have probably passed this place a thousand times in my lifetime and the name always caught my attention. It’s stately and firm and rolls of the tongue pretty nicely too. So I decided to assign that name to one of my main characters, Quiten Warwick. He’s not the nicest fellow around (which is NOT a metaphor for the real Warwick establishment), but he is royalty in a sense so I felt that the name matched.
The Warwick family will play a huge role as this series unfolds and I hope the owners of the real Warwick appreciate the advertising every time I write the name in my book. Maybe I should be seeking royalties?? No, just kidding.
There are many more instances where my daily life makes its way into my stories, even if not on purpose. As each book in the series is released I’ll share with you some of this insider information. I can’t wait to tell you about the one name that is super close to home…
If you want to be the first to get behind-the-scenes access like this then be sure to scoot over and sign up for my email newsletter by CLICKING HERE. If you do, you’ll get a FREE copy of my book, The Faintly Beating Heart, when it officially releases.
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