Why research can be fun....

Is that not exquisite? It's a picture of Hallstatt, a town in Austria, and I've decided that I MUST go there someday. The mountain in the background takes my breath away. Here in Ontario we don't have anything remotely close to that, unless I want to drive over 12 hours to Virgina, or longer to the Rockies. We do have the Niagara escarpment but it's not the same.

If what I have read and studied so far is correct then it's in, what in ancient times was, the Roman province of Noricum. It's also becoming a very important piece to my book.

Noricum was a hub of activity for ancient Celts who ended up settling there. There is a pretty much extinct Noric language that is suspected to be similar to Gaulish and Eastern Celtic. (Hmmm wonder what my charries are looking for there.)

While I have lots of research to do on the area, I'll have to rely on my reactions to pictures and what I read to come up with a plausible storyline and believable characters. That is unless I suddenly win the lotto and can afford to fly to the places that I want to write about.

If anyone has been there or lives there and is willing to share some experiences I'd love to hear about it!!!

A fresh start

Happy New Year everyone!!!

I know I have been more then a little MIA for the last month. Such is the life of someone who works full time in retail. By the time the holidays arrived I was so physically exhausted I couldn't wait untill they were all over.

But as they say tomorrow is another day....or another year in this case. When all the balls drop and cheering starts I plan on writing. (after I give hubby a kiss of course). Start the year as you mean to go on... at least that is my motto for this year. Resolutions? Nah, never keep them anyways. Goals? Absolutly.


My goals are simple. By this time next year I want to have at least one manuscript finished and submitted; and have already started another. That is it. A lot of work, a lofty goal but not unatainable and one that I can only complete myself.

May the year be kind to us all.

It's the spark that counts.....

So much to my dissapointment I did not complete NaNoWriMo this year, but I'm not beating my self up over it. Unlike last year it wasn't sure to procrastination, but emotional upheavals. November was not a kind month to my family.

Having said that, I did get a great spark that I was working on and continue to nurture. Makes me grin when I think about it. I'd share but I'm terrified of jinxing it. LOL Although to have someone to bounce ideas off of would be cool. For now I'll chug away on this one and see where it takes me. So far I have got a good start to the story but not much on the emotional interaction between the main characters.

Thankfuly I have a good grasp on their personalities and what attracts them to each other and what secrets are going to cause the biggest wedge. I also have a possible twist in there that should make it a bit more interesting.

Just to make my head ache though, one of my secondary characters is just as vivid to me as the 2 main ones. He cracks me up, so there is a possibility of a sequel in there. But best to concentrate to actually getting one FINISHED before I start thinking of others.

Delusions of Grandeur... Who me?