Have you ever thought of something and then heard it mentioned on the radio or TV or seen it in print? It can be pretty cool in an ESPish sort of way. It can also be a bit weird. In certain instances you could think the house or phone was bugged (by whom?) and your ideas were being stolen.
I'm not talking about thinking of a friend and then they call or email you. But really out of the ordinary kinds of things. Just recently I thought of Michael Learned, the actress who played the mother on The Waltons. I wondered how she was and what she was up to. Then bam! The next she's on the main page of aol with a 'See how she looks at 72'. Now, what made her jump into my brain the day before? This sort of thing happens to me often.
I'd had recently written what I intended to be a humorous piece called Hadassah Jones [posted elsewhere on this site] - a Jewish woman married to an African-American man and how they've managed to mesh their cultures. Of course I crammed in every stereotype I could think of to make it funny. The drapes nearly caught fire from the Menorah candles and those of the Kwanzaa Kinara. My kids found my Mike Myers/Linda Richman reading of it to be amusing. The next day online, there's a video of a mashup of rappers over a scene from Fiddler on a Roof. Zeitgeist? Go figure.
My current WIP is a middle grade fiction for boys (girls are welcome to read it as well) set in the 14th Century. I don't recall ever having an interest in this time period but woke one morning with the title in my head and let it ferment for a while. I've really been enjoying the research involved as well as writing it. Discovering the etiology or origin of words - that are still used in our lexicon today - amazes me. Words that have survived the centuries. Bouncer, for instance, originated back in those medieval times when a patron to a pub had to pay the fellow at the door to get in (ancient cover charge - to cover any damage from a mead-induced ruckus) and the doorman/bouncer would actually bounce the coin on a piece of wood to see if it was real or a slug.
Having created an entire kingdom and writing in the pre-Elizabethan speak, I thought perhaps I'd gotten in over my head and wondered if I'd really be able to do this. The next morning on my drive to work I turned on the radio and heard some old music that I knew instantly was music my characters would have heard in their day played by minstrels, troubadours, and castle musicians. When the music stopped the DJ said it was a piece of music from the 14th Century. I took that as a sign that I was meant to finish writing my WIP. Zeitgeist?
I'm not talking about thinking of a friend and then they call or email you. But really out of the ordinary kinds of things. Just recently I thought of Michael Learned, the actress who played the mother on The Waltons. I wondered how she was and what she was up to. Then bam! The next she's on the main page of aol with a 'See how she looks at 72'. Now, what made her jump into my brain the day before? This sort of thing happens to me often.
I'd had recently written what I intended to be a humorous piece called Hadassah Jones [posted elsewhere on this site] - a Jewish woman married to an African-American man and how they've managed to mesh their cultures. Of course I crammed in every stereotype I could think of to make it funny. The drapes nearly caught fire from the Menorah candles and those of the Kwanzaa Kinara. My kids found my Mike Myers/Linda Richman reading of it to be amusing. The next day online, there's a video of a mashup of rappers over a scene from Fiddler on a Roof. Zeitgeist? Go figure.
My current WIP is a middle grade fiction for boys (girls are welcome to read it as well) set in the 14th Century. I don't recall ever having an interest in this time period but woke one morning with the title in my head and let it ferment for a while. I've really been enjoying the research involved as well as writing it. Discovering the etiology or origin of words - that are still used in our lexicon today - amazes me. Words that have survived the centuries. Bouncer, for instance, originated back in those medieval times when a patron to a pub had to pay the fellow at the door to get in (ancient cover charge - to cover any damage from a mead-induced ruckus) and the doorman/bouncer would actually bounce the coin on a piece of wood to see if it was real or a slug.
Having created an entire kingdom and writing in the pre-Elizabethan speak, I thought perhaps I'd gotten in over my head and wondered if I'd really be able to do this. The next morning on my drive to work I turned on the radio and heard some old music that I knew instantly was music my characters would have heard in their day played by minstrels, troubadours, and castle musicians. When the music stopped the DJ said it was a piece of music from the 14th Century. I took that as a sign that I was meant to finish writing my WIP. Zeitgeist?
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