My Intermittent Blog!

Inspiration Month: Thieves

For the last few days of November I've been thinking about thieves in fantasy. Having been on the receiving end, I have to say that real-life thieves are generally scumbags and it sucks to be a victim. In my case it was only a laptop stolen from my desk at work, so I suffered no real loss - and yet it was annoying and, yes, a little upsetting. So why do we love their fictional versions so much?
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Inspiration Month: Crime TV

My other great genre love is mystery and crime, so of course I love TV shows with detectives, whether real-world or fantasy - and I'm going to do these in chronological order of the period setting, since I also love historical crime. ## Murdoch Mysteries
I'm starting with the Victorian/Edwardian series "Murdoch Mysteries" - another show I've been late to the party on. In fact if you read "The Dead Dragon Job" you could be forgiven for thinking it was inspired by this show, albeit with the genders of the main characters flipped, but honestly I was just tuned into the same classic tropes, and only started watching it after I finished the draft and needed something relaxing and reasonably period-appropriate to watch!
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Inspiration Month: Fantasy TV

This week I'm excited to talk about some of my favourite fantasy TV shows, that have either inspired my work or just put me in the mood for writing stories! ## Grimm
First up is Grimm, an urban fantasy series that takes the (frankly bonkers) idea that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were actually monster-hunters in 19th-century Germany, and that their heirs still hunt "Wesen", were-like creatures who hide among—and occasionally prey upon—humans, and turns it into a surprisingly good TV show.
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Inspiration Month: Heroines

This week I've been posting about some of the female characters—heroines, if you will—who I either admire or just enjoy reading about/watching. ## Harriet Vane
Harriet Vane is the creation of 1930s mystery writer Dorothy L Sayers, whose Lord Peter Wimsey stories are probably my all-time favourite detective novels. A shameless self-insertion, Harriet is an author of mystery stories who is herself accused of murder, until Lord Peter proves her innocence.
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Inspiration Month

One of the hardest things about NaNoWriMo is just keeping up the momentum, especially if, like me, you're something of a discovery writer. Running out of inspiration will bring you to a grinding halt, which is why I like to create at least a skeletal outline before I start. Still, there's nothing like flying by the seat of your pants to get the ideas flowing, and all inspiration has to come from somewhere.
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