Sunday Snippet: The Little Pieces of Words that Wander Through My Mind Edition

This is a repeat of a post that I wrote for Petticoats & Pistols last week. I really loved thinking about this, so I thought I’d share it here with ya’ll and get your ideas and thoughts.

I was on a writer retreat with my bestie, Liz Flaherty last month. It was fabulous. We wrote, we drank wine, we ate chocolate, we talked, we processed her book and mine. Our retreats are always as Liz puts it so eloquently,

“… harbors, as in they are places of refuge and safety, places for gathering, resting, and repairing. They are narrow and small and contained and when we are finished in them, we are ready and happy to return to the open sea of our everyday lives, both our writing ones and our real ones.”

Isn’t that gorgeous? And so very true.

We talked about the little pieces of ideas that wander through our writer minds—snippets of conversations, words, things we notice that perhaps no one else notices. We share ideas about settings, even as minute as the furnishings in a specific house in a setting.

That got me thinking about where my random ideas rest in my imagination—on a chintz chair, I think. Faded old flowered fabric on a huge overstuffed chair sitting in a sunny spot under the eaves. Maybe there’s an ottoman, but it doesn’t have to match because honestly, my decorating style, like my writing style, is as random as my ideas. So why would I imagine something that matches?

Everyone has word pictures in their minds—and often it takes just seeing a pair of fancy cowboy boots in a store in West Yellowstone, Montana, or a rusty pump on a ranch in Virginia City for a story to start to happen.

The what-ifs are the things that writers and readers store away in the chintz chairs in their imaginations, and they are as myriad and varied as readers and writers themselves.

So, here’s a list of just a few of the random pieces of ideas, thoughts, and word pictures from my chintz chair:

• She exuded grace and intelligence
• A streaky sunset
• A child mute and blinking in terror
• He let go of my hand and suddenly I was untethered and adrift in my own thoughts.
• Rumpled (Isn’t that a great word?)
• A train stops at a small snow-covered station
• What if I look in the mirror and someone else stares back.
• He crooked his finger in a come-hither gesture (Okay, I’ve used that one in more than one book, but it’s still on the table because it’s such a wonderfully sexy word picture.)
• Earthy and raw
• Coffee that tasted like morning . . . or was it the other way around?

Doesn’t that cozy chintz chair up there make you want to curl up and read or nap? Share a way that you find the cozy and comfy when you need it.

Gratitude for This Week: Got the boat all winterized and it’s in storage; gorgeous leaves and color all around the lake; words have been written on book 3 of the Juniper Falls Ranch series; had a fabulous book signing in Madison, Indiana, last weekend; the Blue Wave happened–it’s a start.

Stay well, stay safe, always choose kindness, keep speaking out (it’s how we’ll save our democracy), and most of all, mes amis, stay grateful!

P.S.: Starting on Monday, the e-book version of my first holiday novel, A Small Town Christmas will be available for free at all book retailers. If you haven’t discovered River’s Edge yet, it’s time! Click the link on the title or on the book cover. Happy holidays from me and Tule Publishing!