Last Saturday, while driving through downtown Westfield, I had to stop at the red light just before the twin green bridges over the Westfield River heading toward the north side of town. There is a controversial clock tower there that has been there three or so years. The sides fold down at certain hours for fifteen or so minutes, then the clock closes up again. As I was sitting waiting for the light to turn green I looked at the clock and realized the sides were down and the barrel maker was visible. It was high noon! I grabbed my cellphone and shot a picture as the light turned green.
On the way home, inspired by the mechanical clock tower, my brain perked away. When I pulled into my driveway less than fifteen minutes later I had a novel plot in mind.
At the time I was suffering from vertigo and nausea, so while I attempted to start writing that night, working on the computer was giving me motion sickness, making me dizzier.
Last night was the first night in three weeks that I've felt more like my old self, so I trashed the four or five pages I'd started writing, and began the writing the novel anew from another angle- and got the first two chapters written!
I can't reveal what the novel will be about just yet, but the clock maker is a young man who was injured when he was fifteen years old, wears dark sunglasses day and night due to an extreme sensitivity to light (so he says), and returns to his family's estate from where he's been living in central Europe making these magnificent and magical animated mechanical clocks. His mother is already dead, and his father's health is failing.
He will stay and set up his shop on the estate and keep his father's personal assistant on staff as his personal assistant, and he'll keep the household staff. He's eccentric and reclusive. He also has a secret that will eventually be revealed in a dramatic fashion....
That's all I'm saying at this point- but the novel was inspired by a local clock tower during a run downtown to drop off a copy of butterscotch to a writer friend who claimed it first when offered on facebook (who sent me a message that she needs the box of tissues I needed when reading her recently released book, Fifty-One Shades of Green- Judith Sessler is the author- check her out, she's good!) . The other writer friend (Melissa Volker, also a terrific author, so please check her out) who chimed in with a near photo finish response will receive the other proof copy. butterscotch is now available on Amazon.
Inspiration is everywhere- you just need to be in tune to what is around you!
No comments:
Post a Comment