Jan’s Writing Space(s)

My Writing Space(s)

Oh! This subject is near and dear to my heart. When I first decided that writing was going to be my full-time career, I began writing literally all over the place.

Peppermint Creek Inn was my first ever finished book. The writing seed burst with this story idea and I began to sketch it out long hand while my dad and I were travelling in Northern Ontario, Canada, on one of our “ghost town” hunting trips to a place called “Jackfish”. (one of the settings in Peppermint Creek Inn)

During this time, my writing space was in the car, in the tent, by the campfire, sitting on picnic tables with the Coleman lantern and yes! even in my kayak during leisurely breaks while floating in lakes and along rivers.

Then as the story evolved, a trilogy began to emerge. I would think about the trilogy (Kiss Me & Intimate Stranger) while I worked on an apple farm. At night I wrote the ideas in notebooks.

Long hand writing continued at a yoyo pace around temporary office and factory jobs. During down times I went to the cottage up near Minden (no electricity at the cottage). While there, I used my Alpha Smart or wrote long hand while sitting on the lawn chair on our dock during heat waves or lounging in a hammock on a cliff overlooking the lake, and finally during the winter months on cottage visits, I sat indoors beside a cozy antique wood stove or on sunny afternoons outside on a lawn chair on the frozen lake and for company build comfy little fires built on pieces of metal to help prevent the melting ice from killing my fires. Back in civilization, I pounded the keys of my computer or laptop getting all the handwritten information in.

A Hero’s Welcome, A Hero Escapes, A Hero Betrayed, A Hero’s Kiss and the first couple of Outlaw Lovers stories where all sketched out long hand in fat notebooks while sitting in my car during cold winter evenings. Why outside? My mom babysat and I escaped the noise into my car, driving down to Lake Ontario, parking in abandoned parks. It was spooky, but it was also fun flipping on the car heater once an hour to punch through the chill and watching my stories emerge. During the days, I would pound the information into my computer at home.

Later, as my writing career took off (thank you to Ellora’s Cave!!!) and sales rocketed, I bought more stories and produced more stories and I was able to buy 4 acres of land in cottage country. I continued writing at the cottage and also commuted back and forth to my piece of paradise land to sit and write while on a hammock with pesky mosquitoes buzzing around my head.

Then I ordered a modular home and had it put onto my property. Outside my house, my writing spaces included a lawn chair with laptop and that same hammock (mentioned above). Inside my new two-bedroom office home, a sunny bedroom with computer was my office.

Edible Delights and Sinderella were outlined during a 4 day power outage following a heat wave while working longhand on my back deck in August 2006.

These days I continue to work in several places. My favorite is a nice quiet room over my garage, where scented candles flicker and bookshelves hold my nearest and dearest paperback books. I still write long hand as ideas pop up. To give my hands a break, sometimes I use Speech Recognition (Dragon Speech) and I have a nice printer and a couple of laptops and a computer now.

But those first few years while starting out writing in the car, are still nearest and dearest to my heart.

Hugs and Happy Reading!

Shifting into a Prickly Porcupine!

We’ve been chatting about what we would like to shift into…and the first animal that popped into my mind was a porcupine!

I think that would fit my mood lately…me being so prickly and all. LOLOL

Porcupines produce quills…Once when my dad and I went on a road trip, we popped into Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains in Canada. We hiked up to the Plain of Six Glaciers’ tea house near Lake Louise (see pic below). There was a lady there who was selling the most gorgeous porcupine quill jewelry.  They looked similar to these at this link and below pic of earrings.

Besides a fantastic view, the tea house had the best tasting chocolate cake and tea that I ever tasted. Apparently they bring in the food via packs on the backs of horses along the same trails the hikers come up…and I love hiking too so I would like to hang around this place if I was a porcupine. It has a great view…oh, did I mention that already?

And since I love salad (you’d never guess from looking at me) I’d make a good porcupine as they eat tons of greens such as leaves, green plants, skunk cabbage, twigs and bark – of course I would put in an order for chocolate covered twigs and bark.

When I was a kid I climbed trees all the time – and so do porcupines…so I would love to climb trees again as a porcupine.

And they have such a cool look, don’t you think? I love their protective armor. My dog Laura (who passed away many years ago) was into chasing porcupines…there were several times she came home with her snout riddled with quills. My dad would sigh and patiently take out the quills one by one with the pliers…what a daunting task! That sweet dog never learned. LOL

So yeah, I would love to shift into a porcupine some day. I think it would be quite the adventure. 🙂

Hugs!

jan

Villains I love to Hate & Contest!!!

Can I say I love hating ZOMBIES!

THE WALKING DEAD is a perfect example! I’ve been following the horror tv series THE WALKING DEAD and I get so freaked out when those evil zombies kill one of my favorite characters. Who will be next? What if Laurie’s unborn baby dies inside of her…and turns into a zombie and then turns her into a zombie? OMG! I can’t watch! But I have to see what will happen week after week! I squirm in my seat and I love the horror those zombies inflict. Am I a sadist? LOL Anyone else enjoying “The Walking Dead”? Has anyone seen the movies Dawn of the Dead? Shaun of the Dead? Night of the Living Dead? What did you think of them?

I’m out of town for a few days but I would appreciate your help – hence where a chance at getting a prize comes in. Squeeeee!

Do you have a good zombie horror (erotic romance or not) ebook or book that you can recommend? I have plans to write a zombie horror erotic romance one of these days (I even have the outline all worked out) and I would love to see what other authors have done with zombies. Feel free to post below your recommendations in the comments section.

For your help I will pick one person from the comments section and post the winner’s name here when I get back to town and I will email the winner too.

Prize? The winner can pick one ebook from any of my Jan Springer ebooks and I’ll send it your way FREE (sorry Michaela’s Experiment is excluded). Thanks!

You can see the books up for grabs at this link: http://janspringerauthor.wordpress.com/books/

Hugs!

jan