Musings of Two Creative Minds

 I have a special treat for you all today.  I have a guest blogger today.  I've been wanting to do this for some time.  I know you're familiar with some of MY views and ideas, but I wanted to give you some points of view on writing from other authors.  So please help me welcome the author of the novel "Gothic" Nicole Field! Hey all! I'm Nicole, I'm from Melbourne, Australia, and at the moment, I'm busily writing a paranormal romance / urban fantasy series starting with the title  Gothic . Allan has kindly invited me here today to talk about my thoughts on plot and character creation. Lucky for me, I have many ideas on both of those things!  Many years ago, a tiny nugget of a plot appeared to me in a dream. I remember seeing a vampire standing at the door to a house that he hadn't been invited into and couldn't get in. In the doorway, there was a strong, young woman standing in defence of the person inside the house who was refusing to see t...

This took me totally by surprise and I'm very flattered and honored.  I hadn't thought my blogging was having such an effect on people.  I want to thank Red and Flame at  http://firestone2012.wordpress.com/  for nominating me in the first place.    Now in accordance with the rules of the award I'm supposed to reveal 7 facts about myself so here goes. 1 - Was a foster child at the age of 8 months and adopted at the age of 4 years by the Krummenackers. 2 - I studied and performed magic illusions in my teens and still have a lot of my equipment and skills. 3 - I've been taking dance lessons (mostly in Ballroom and Improvisational Dance) since I turned 41. 4 - I played violin in grade school and a little guitar in high school. 5 - Studied to be a Physical Therapist back in 1982 only to drop out, I was getting too emotionally overwrought over the people I couldn't help. 6 - Went back to college 2 years ago and got my A. S. in Human Services 7 - M...

I'm really excited, today is my very FIRST guest blog. It's at 10 Day Book Club. The link is below, I hope you all get to check it out. http:// 10daybookclub.wordpress.com/ 2012/05/02/ story-ideas-a-walk-through-life /

     Shortly after coming to live here in Santa Cruz I began frequenting the cliff area overlooking the bay.  It seemed everywhere I went along these cliffs I would see surfers riding the waves.  As I watched I began taking notice of how they would paddle out and sit and wait for a wave to come.  As one approached I noted they turned their boards around.  Then as the wave raised the back end of the board, the rider would press down in the front and once momentum was established they'd lean back and stand up.         I found this hypothesis fascinating and consulted one or two of the veteran surfers nearby to confirm my suspicions.  And they were more than happy to congratulate me on my observations.  I was indeed right and would I be interested in joining a class and taking lessons.        Unfortunately, I wasn't ready at  that time, nor am I now.  But it is something I'd ...