Thursday 15 November 2012

Murderous Mabel, Thanksgiving Thursday, and What Inspires You?

For today’s post I’m joining in not one but two blog hops, so read on to grab the linky lists and meet up with some new bloggers! First of all, I bring you, a murder-mystery about stamps...

I write this as part of the Thursday’s Children blog hop, a weekly 'what inspires you' meme hosted by Rhiann Wynn-Nolet of A Nest of WordsThe thoughts, trivia and tidbits she comes up with are absolutely fascinating, so don't forget to check it out. Now technically what inspired me this Thursday actually happened a few weeks ago, when I posted this tweet to promote my latest blog post:

Katherine Amabel ‏@KatherineAmabel
Effective blog content doesn't necessarily include your week at the community center learning about stamp collections: http://beyondthehourglassbridge.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/the-follow-swap-blog-hop-effective.html

and then this popped up as a reply:

Rhiann Wynn-Nolet @RhiannWynnNolet
@KatherineAmabel Lol. Unless it inspires a pageturner about a stamp so prized numismatists will kill to possess it #crazedcollectors

Inspired? You bet I was. (Once I Googled numismatist, of course). And the next thing you know, a whirlwind of creativity took place:


Dodgy screenshots brought to you by me, the incompetent blogger. J

And there you have it – a piece of improvised collaborative flash twitter fiction (or the script for an entire series of Days of Our Lives). It was also a wake-up call to the fact that one of the greatest sources of inspiration out there is other writers. I’ve probably overlooked that a lot in the past, seeing writers as sources of feedback and advice but not necessarily ideas, and now I’m thinking maybe we should aim for more conversations like that. At best, we’ll get a novel out of it. At worst, at least it makes us look busy when it’s time for housework.

So here’s an idea for you – there’s a snowglobe on my desk. Is it smashed? Full of miniature people? A murderer’s calling card? Tell me in the comments! And while we’re on the subject of being thankful for our writing comrades, that brings me to the Thanksgiving blog hop hosted by the amazing Brenda Drake!


Clearly what I’m thankful for are other writers, bloggers, critique partners, patient-family-members-who-read-your-first-draft-before-you-realise-it’s-painfully-cringeworthy-and-shouldn’t-ever-be-read-by-anyone-including-yourself, and all the wonderful people supporting us. One such person is Aimee L Salter, who has agreed to be interviewed this week for my Interview With A Blogpire series, which features successful bloggers and their tips for building author platforms. So stick around for that, and in the meantime you can check out my first Interview with a Blogpire, starring Brenda Drake herself. How neatly wrapped up is that?


P.S. Linky links!

Thursday's Children Blog Hop

19 comments:

  1. The writer community is an awesome place, isn't it. Thank you for the shout out. You are AWESOME!

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  2. Great post. Thanks so much for joining us on Thursday's Children!

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  3. We did have fun with that twitter flash fiction didn't we, lol. As for your snowglobe, hmmm, I think I see a tiny elf with pointy red shoes banging against the inside of the glass. If you don't smash the globe he will drown...but if you do smash the globe, well I'm not sure what will happen next.

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  4. And I always thought Twitter was a waste of time!! (just kidding)

    That's awesome—I'd love to see more "flash collaborations", too.

    The snow globe can show you your future, if you'd only reach out and shake it...

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    1. But that future is in another world....

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    2. Hee hee I love the way you just added a whole new level of intrigue there. The future of an entirely different world, right there in your hands. Fascinating...

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    3. If it's anything like my Magic 8 ball predictions, my future will suck. I will leave the future-envisioning snowglobe to the rest of you.

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  5. "The tiny elf with the pointy red shoes is set free to grant three wishes to the individual who released him!"

    Love the twitter story, great idea. I have an account but do no follow it. No cell phone.

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    1. I'm digging the elf idea. Kids would love it. :)

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  6. I adore twitter (and IM) brainstorming. Granted, most of the stuff my friends and I come up with, won't make it into a story, but every once in a while we get a few gems. And we always get tons of laughs. :)

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  7. hahaha well you dont need twitter for these convos... Some friends and I found ourselves walking through a dark ominous park to get to a party, theories of zombies and who would get attacked first helped pass the time :) would have made a good story.

    I think your people are hiding from zombies in a house but someone moves and knocks the snowglobe, the zombies turn as it slowly rolls across the floor...

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  8. I love when friends/family/acquaintances/total strangers give me ideas for my next manuscripts! I'm writing one right now that was inspired by a little bit of fan fiction one of my beta readers (okay, it was my sister, but she still counts, right?) wrote about my "first" novel. She fell in love with one of the secondary characters and wanted to hear her story. I laughed and put the idea aside, but it stayed with me and grew until I couldn't let it go. Now, it's my NaNoWriMo project, and I'm loving it like crazy! :)

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