Inspiration - a crow swatter

Talk about the Crows of Doubt and it strikes such a chord with other writers! Thank you to everyone for the emails and the comments and the phone calls. Oh and special thanks to Liz Fielding for her lovely comments on Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife on her blog. When a writer you admire gives you a compliment like that it's the equivalent of being handed a machine gun to blast those crows. Thanks Liz!

Special thanks too to Anne McAllister for the very practical reminder of the need for lots of research and inspiration in writing. In the comments section yesterday she asked to see Santos -

Have we seen a pic of Santos? she said. Maybe we need a pic of him. I, for one, don't remember what he looks like. Hmmmmm?

And later in a phone call she repeated the demand. So I sent her my inspiration - a photo I've been keeping for a while.

Now Anne is a novelist who really likes to do her research. She works hard at it. She's even blogged about it once or twice. And once she'd met Santos she decided she needed to research him a little more.

So we spent an enjoyable - ahem - concentrated and deep and meaningful - time with me generously sharing my research and Anne studiously and conscientiously making notes in case this inspiration might be needed in her own work later.

So we checked out Santos the businessman - in very much the Presents style.

And there was Santos in more relaxed mode - but this is a man who's never really totally relaxed. His past has made him like that. He doesn't trust easily - in fact I'd say he doesn't trust.

And there's Santos the lover

And then - well - just because - there's . . . Santos.

Actually, that back makes me think of Anne's latest cover - the one for her fabulous One-Night Love Child. Although I know this guy wasn't the model for that book, he could have been.

It was a great research session. There's not much that's better than sharing important and meaningful research with a great friend who is also a writer and who understands totally the - esthetics - involved. And the need to get just the right image for each different mood.

And I came away re-inspired and with my writer's brain invigorated and my imagination dusted off - another great big machine gun to fire at those pesky crows.

So here I am, armed against the nasty black flying things, snug inside on a nasty cold snowy, icy day - ready to do battle with any crow that dares to venture near. And if they do start flapping I have a little extra inspiration to study so that I don't have to look at them

Research, it's a wonderful thing - and so are the fabulous friends I have in this writing life. Thank you all!