An Author’s Inspiration, by Minerva Spencer #amwriting #HistoricalRomance @MSpencerAuthor

An Author’s Inspiration

By Minerva Spencer

I get this question a lot and I wish I had a concrete answer. Unfortunately--or fortunately, depending on how you feel about mystery--my brain creates stories at the oddest times.

I might be feeding my chickens and come up with the answer to a problem that has been bothering me for days. I often think about writing in the shower or on a walk or, especially, if I’m driving somewhere alone. I never turn on the radio so the silence and monotony in the car makes my brain start working.

So, I am not inspired by a specific event or thing, I think I come up with ideas when I’m not actively focusing on something else. I am also one of those writers who doesn’t know what she will write until after I’ve written it. I am amazed by what my fingers type on some days! Where did my clever hands come up with these ideas? Because my brain had no part in it.

When the writing urge strikes me I try to give it full rein. So I might write for 14 hours straight. I think my record is 60 pp in one crazed sitting. But most of the time I get out a couple thousand words a day. And then there are those days when getting a few words down is like bleeding.

My characters reveal themselves to me slowly. They aren’t taken from real life--unless I subconsciously collect bits and pieces--they are pretty much their own people. Most of them don’t look like real people, although I have to admit my hero from DANGEROUS my debut novel, looks a LOT like Ian Somerhalder, but a more mature and dignified version.

I came to writing late in life--at age 45--and I’m now 50, so I’m still learning a lot every day. I try not to examine my process too closely for fear of “jinxing” it. I know a lot of writers are very organized and methodical and have steps in their process. I wish I could do that, but it is a different process each time and inspiration has taken many forms. I’ve noticed that listening to another author talk about how they write almost always inspires me. I don’t know what it is, but I LOVE hearing how writers get the words down on the page.

Wherever I find my inspiration, I just hope I am lucky enough to keep finding it!

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Barbarous

(The Outcasts Book 2)

He could be her ruin

Hugh Redvers is supposed to be dead. So the appearance of the sun-bronzed giant with the piratical black eye patch is deeply disturbing to Lady Daphne Davenport. And her instant attraction to the notorious privateer is not only wildly inappropriate for a proper widow but potentially disastrous.Because he is also the man Daphne has secretly cheated of title, lands, and fortune.

She could be his salvation

Daphne Redvers’ distant, untouchable beauty and eminently touchable body are hard enough to resist. But the prim, almost severe, way she looks at him suggests this might be the one woman who can make him forget all the others.  His only challenge? Unearthing the enemy who threatens her life . . . and uncovering the secrets in her cool blue eyes.

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Minerva Spencer

Minerva Spencer's brief author bio will tell you she has been a criminal prosecutor, college history teacher, and B&B operator. What it doesn't tell you is she also worked as a dock worker, ice cream manufacturer, reader for the blind, motel maid, and bounty hunter.

Okay, so the part about being a bounty hunter is a lie.

Minerva does, however, know how to hypnotize a Dungeness crab, sew her own Regency Era clothing, knit a frog hat, juggle, rebuild a 1959 American Rambler, and gain control of Asia (and hold on to it) in the game of RISK.

DANGEROUS, the first book in Minerva's Outcasts series, is available for pre-order and debuts June 26, 2018. The Outcasts is a Regency Era series that features uncommon protagonists who face exciting challenges and unusual situations.

Read more at: www.MinervaSpencer.com. You can also sign up for Minerva's newsletter at this address, but no annoying pop-up window will nag you to do so.

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