C.M. Gray's Blog, page 7

Sunday Solitude

Sundays are my quiet days, and I relish the solitude. My eldest is away at college, hundreds of miles away in another state. My 19 year old is always either working or with his girlfriend, while my youngest son usually heads off to the movies with his dad. My two daughters spend the whole day at the barn, riding their horses, mucking out stalls, feeding and cleaning the other horses, and generally getting filthy dirty.

This means that I get to spend the day alone, and as much as I adore my children, I treasure the calm that fills the empty rooms in the house. The solitude isn’t lonely, it’s peaceful, a chance for me to be alone with my thoughts, and I typically spend the day drinking copious amounts of tea, and writing (at the moment, I’m half way through the final edit of the final book of the Reborn Trilogy.)

Of course, solitude is only comforting in short bursts, so by the evening I’m ready for the life and laughter that is my family to fill our home again.

Chinese New Year of the Rooster Boosts Creativity

Today is Chinese New Year, and 2017 is the Year of the Rooster in the Chinese calendar. In particular, it’s the year of the Fire Rooster, which is great news for all you creative people, as the fire element is synonymous with passion and creativity.

Unlike Western astrology, where birth signs last about a month, in Chinese astrology each birth sign lasts a full year, and no matter what your Chinese sign is, this year is full of opportunities for writers and authors, as long as you’re willing to work hard.

If you don’t know what your Chinese animal is, find your birth year on the chart and read on to see just how the Year of the Fire Rooster will impact your writing, creativity, and books.

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Rooster

2017 will increase your passion, inspiration and creativity. Couple this with your natural perseverance and hard work as a rooster, and you’ll reap the benefits

Dog

Take the gift of increased inspiration from the Fire Rooster, and try something new with your writing this year. Your natural instinct to help others will help you gain more readers in 2017

Pig

Your natural attributes make you a gentle person, but this year sees a boost in your passion for your work, so take advantage and get out there and promote, promote, promote

Rat

The Fire Rooster demands hard work, and in return rewards with success. People born under the sign of the rat are naturally self-aware, so apply this strength to your editing for success this year

Ox

You are naturally strong-willed, ambitious, and stubborn, so couple these attributes with the increased passion and creativity of the Fire Rooster to plan your next bestseller

Tiger

Tigers are friendly and adventurous, so this is the year to hone your inspiration by trying something new

Rabbit

Rabbits are drawn to the arts and writing because of their instinctive tendencies towards creativity, compassion, and sensitivity. Take the boost in inspiration from the Fire Rooster to design a new book cover, or write your instincts down

Dragon

You’re mysterious and imaginative, and will succeed most this year if you’re left alone to hone in on the increased creativity offered by the Fire Rooster

Snake

Snakes are blessed with wisdom, and an air of mystery. Take inspiration from these qualities to bring your characters to life with passion, sensuality, and empathy

Horse

People born under the sign of the horse are strong, energetic, and patient. If you’ve been considering a change in writing genre, the hard work demanded by the Fire Rooster makes this the perfect year to go for it

Sheep

Polite, shy, imaginative and full of good taste, this year is the year to make your writing space peaceful, calm, and inspirational.

Monkey

Put your playful curiosity to work this year  to gain inspiration for your writing in new places and with new people

恭喜发财 / 恭喜發財  

Happiness and prosperity! 

Inspirations – I am One

The last in my 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Inspirations series is me, because there’s only one of me. I think we are often so busy looking around us for inspiration that we sometimes forget to look inside us.

Like many people, I wear many hats; woman, mother, friend, nurse, writer, ex-wife, girlfriend, daughter…the list goes on. I collect angels and elephants (and hats, by the looks of things). I cry at sad movies and happy movies, and laugh at things that I shouldn’t laugh at, but can’t help it because they’re funny anyway. I hate bad manners and lies, and love chocolate and wine. I like to see the good in people, and am ridiculously blind to the bad.

I’m not even close to perfect, but who is? It’s our imperfections that make us perfectly human.

Inspirations – Two Cats

We’re down to Two Cats in my Inspirations series, and these are my two, Angel and Keilagh, ginger sisters who, quite honestly, think they’re doing us a favor by gracing us with their presence.

Don’t get me wrong, I love them to bits, but I don’t delude myself that it’s reciprocated. They love me when they want something – food, water, the heating turned on etc. And every now and again they’ll climb onto my lap, purring, letting me know they love me at least more than the dogs, then kneading me with their claws to remind me just who matters (and it’s not me!)

Oftentimes cats are used positively to describe a character, but I think their aloofness, and attitude (especially their open disdain for dogs) make great descriptions for narcissists. James P. Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley sums it up perfectly.

 

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Inspirations – Three Dogs

Anyone who has ever owned or loved a dog knows that, no matter how dorky they are, their love is unconditional. A cliche, perhaps, but like all cliches, it’s more than a little bit true. Carrying on with my inspirations, these are my three dogs, Oscar, Cowboy, and Jasper.

Jasper, the smallest of the three, is the old boy, and very much the alpha dog. Cowboy, the big Aussie shepherd is the baby, and thinks he’s the same size as his Yorkie siblings – not so good when he tries to sit on your lap!

I’m using the words of contemporary fantasy author Jonathan Carroll to explain why dogs inspire us all, writers or not.

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5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Inspirations – Four Horses

Following on from the Five Kids in my last blog of inspiration, this one involves my Four Horses. Actually, while technically speaking they are my horses, realistically they belong to my daughters, both of whom are crazy-avid horse girls. And while I love all four of them (from left to right, Desi, Destiny, Blaze and Dippy), truth be told, the only reason my girls are so into horses is because, for as long as I can remember, horses have scared me, and I didn’t want to pass that fear on to my kids.

So, how do these majestic creatures inspire me? Partly because I do have an irrational fear (something to do with the size of their heads!) There are times in the Reborn Trilogy when the characters have found themselves in some frightening situations, and I wanted to effectively express the fear they feel to the reader, and allow the reader to feel the physical and emotional effects that come from experiencing that fear.

But being around these horses, seeing how they care for their riders – my children – is also inspiring, because that mutual love and respect is instinctive, and the grace and strength with which they carry their riders is as natural as breathing. Nature at her very best.

 

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Inspirations – Five Kids

Many writers get their inspiration from everyday events, people, and life experiences. We’ve all heard the advice, write what you know about, and while (hopefully) most of us don’t take it literally (we write about the emotions our lives have drawn out, not about the events that caused the emotions), we probably all take inspiration from what we know.

If you follow me on Twitter you’ll know I have 5 kids, 4 horses, 3 dogs, and 2 cats, so I thought I’d give a little insight in a series of blogs as to how I get a lot of my inspiration from my crazy little family, starting with the five kids.

If you have kids you’ll know they are singularly more responsible for evoking every possible emotion known to mankind than anything else in life…and they do it without even trying! Love, pride, joy, happiness, embarrassment, frustration, despair, irritation, and anger (the grit-your-teeth-and-breathe kind!) And that’s just a few of the feelings parenthood in general, and kids specifically, can draw out.

Some emotions we cherish, some we regret, but all are very real, and the more feelings we experience, the more depth and authenticity we can add to our writing.

So, to my five gorgeous kids, thank you for making me laugh, cry, glow with pride, cringe with embarrassment, and scream with frustration. You’ve given character to my characters.

Reawakened – Book Two in the Reborn Trilogy

Reawakened is the second book in the Reborn Trilogy.

Defeating Silas the first time was hard, but it’s nothing compared to what Abbie has to face when his Chimera snatch her from the streets of an English seaside town.

Caught in the demon’s realm, Abbie fights to stay alive while Beck and the Guardians race against time and evil to find her.

Reawakened will be available in Spring 2017. For book release information, and exclusive offers, please

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There’s Angels and Demons, and then there’s Lucifer

The Reborn Trilogy is all about angels and demons, but outside of writing, my guilty pleasure has to be the TV show, Lucifer.

Everything from the characters, to the humor, to the acting is spot on, and every Monday evening I put down my own mythical ethereal creatures for an hour of someone else’s.

 

It’s always sunny in Southern California

Stereotypes. It’s almost like they’re a rule just asking to be broken!

We all use them, whether to give our readers the opportunity to understand the characters or setting, or to add an extra element to the plot, such as humor or excitement.

Stereotypes are really nothing more than generalizations based somewhat in truth. When I was writing Reborn, I wanted to avoid the stereotypical angel, and deliberately incorporated some un-angelic qualities into the main characters, making sure not to detract from the fact that they still are angels.

The result, according to reviews and feedback, is a believable paranormal story, which is exactly what we want when we’re writing outside of normality.

As for Southern California, yes, we’re blessed with some really nice weather, but this winter has been pretty wild by anyone’s standards. So much so that, for the last ten days, I’ve taken a photo of the sky from my balcony at the same time every morning. The result is the lead picture in this blog, with three heavy storms bringing a deluge of much needed rain to our parched state, and the torrential, sleety storm of today (below).

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