The weird things...

I do for inspiration.

Look at Flickr. In my defense, I usually end up in there looking for a picture I'm free to use on my blog. But dude, you'd be amazed at what comes up on searches. I have to monitor Flickr time once I hop over there because I can quickly become lost in a sea of random strangers' photos. I've gotten some amazing ideas.

Eavesdrop. "So she says to him...she says, you are not putting that in my ass..." Yep. I was always, always an avid people watcher back in the day in Ocean City, Maryland. Even at the mall! But my favorite thing ever is to listen in on people if I can manage. I have the hearing of a dog, by the way. Even the best whisperer is no match for my ears!

Watch bad movies. Just this year there's been a sea of Gingerdead Man, the Puppet Master series, SyFy movies of the week (Hey! The 12 Disasters of Christmas was pretty awesome) etc. Nothing gets my mind going faster than a good (meaning bad) B movie.

Read outside my genre. Right now I'm on a horror and YA kick. I blew through Vacation and Home (both by Matthew J. Costello) and then read Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce upon the recommendation of my own in - house voracious reader, Girl Child. Then I managed to snag a book from Paperback Swap and it's...another Matthew J. Costello read, Beneath Still Waters. In the mix of books I also have several copies of Cemetery Dance Magazine spread out through the house. I used to get CD as a subscription and am considering it again.

Lately, a new one is watch the National Geographic channel. Doomsday Preppers, Alaska State Troopers, etc. All good brain bubble gum to chew over and use as it strikes my fancy.

I've also added yoga and learning the ukulele. It has zero to do with writing and...that's the point! I need time to step away from the magic box and the people in my head and connect with my own damn self. So, nothing says me-time like contorting oneself in painful positions and then adding insult to injury by massacring a song called Strum-a-thon!

Finally, I simply pay attention to my family . My kids (we talk a LOT in this house), the man, my mother, my mother-in-law...hell, anyone I come in contact with in person on a regular basis (which isn't much *snort*. I'm a bit of a hermit. Hermit's Unit! to quote the 10th Doctor) can be fodder for writing. They're walking, talking bags of pure inspirational gold.

How 'bout you? Any good ideas to find inspiration I can steal? I mean adopt!

XOXO
Sommer