Babel Clash

I’m back home briefly from the 2010 San Diego Comic Con and I find this is a very appropriate topic as my brain sorts through all the costumes, art, and general chaotic mayhem that surrounded me for three full days. I think, for writing in general, I am a world watching, a people watcher, a soaker of atmospheres. I try to let everything that surrounds me soak in through the senses until it lights a fire of creativity in my brain. I will walk down the artists’ aisle at Comic Con and let my mind wander as a try to come up with stories that go along with the amazing pictures that they have created. I get excited to see other greatness that people can create and it drives me harder to come up with my own creative, unique stories.

Another place that actually drives me back to the computer is actually the bookstore. I will wander through the aisles, letting my eyes just sort of dance over the spines. I won’t let myself actually pick up any of the books. No, for me, it’s a meeting of the minds. It’s as if I can stand in the middle of the bookstore (particularly the science-fiction/fantasy section) and close my eyes. There I can hear the voices of the other authors supporting me, telling me that I can write that next great book, that it’s going to be hard work but I’m going to love every minute of it. Inspiration comes in the idea that others have come before me and accomplished great things, then so can I.

A little too weird? Well, it’s been well documented that authors are eccentric.

When it comes to my vampires, I have to say that my influences come from my reading of the original gothics in literature. Some of my favorite stories include Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,“ Bran Stoker’s “Dracula,” and “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” During that period, there was a duality of the spirit that people were fighting – their pious outer persona and their inner needs and lusts. I find the study of the human condition, the soul, and the internal struggle for the soul to be extremely interesting. As a result, it colors my own writing.

I guess in the end, for me, inspiration is everywhere. It’s around every corner and waits in the most random moment of your life. You never know where the next turn in your life will lead to an interesting story.

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