Stir Your Childlike Curiosity

by Maureen Bonatch 

It seems that as we get older we tend to notice things less. Our lives are busy, our minds are always churning away at what we need to do today, tomorrow, or what we did yesterday. Being more observant, and curious, can enable us write better stories, make little changes in our lives, and maybe experience life more fully.

Wearing Blinders

Often we go through each day wearing blinders, sometimes to the point that we’re so immersed in our routines that we might wonder if we completed a routine task—or if that was yesterday as time blends together.

Children usually go through their days blinder-free, filled with curiosity and the tendency to notice everything. Here are just a few examples of how my girls used to remove my blinders when they were younger.

Twins:              “When did you go to New York?”

Me:                  (At the time, I’d never been to New York.) “I haven’t.”

Twins:              “Why do you wear that shirt that says New York on it?”
Me:                  Confused. “I don’t.”  Sure enough, one of my favorite shirts 

                         said New York

Twins:              “I know what your favorite room is.”

Me:                  “What?”

Twins:              “The laundry room, because you’re always in there.”

Me:                  Vows to get out of the laundry room more.

Twins:              “I know what your favorite color is.”

Me:                  Thinking they will say mauve, black or purple. “What?”

Twins:              “Green. Most of your shirts are green.”

Me:                  Checks closet and vows to go shopping soon.

Me:                  “Have a good time at daycare.”

Twins:              “Why can’t we stay home today with you?”

Me:                  “I’m going to work.”

Twins:              Wailing. “No you’re not, you’re not wearing your work clothes.”

Me:                  …Caught in a fib planning a quiet day off

Taking Off The Blinders

We spend a lot of time in our home, or other personal spaces, and tend to stop truly seeing things other than what we expect to see. Gain a fresh perspective on your life, personal space, or your story, by taking off your blinders, thinking out of the box, or opening the door for something more than ordinary.

Allow your childlike curiosity to guide you and ask “why” or consider what might be possible when:

• You’re world building in your story, or adding some unique character traits or making an ordinary experience into your extraordinary story 

• You’re spending time at home and look around with a fresh eye, or from a different angle by standing or sitting somewhere new. Maybe things could be reorganized better, or colors might not match, or would look better in another area or room. This might allow you to make something old look new again.

 

You don’t have to be a child to embrace the extraordinary and believe in magic. You just have to look a little closer —and maybe take off your blinders.

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

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One Photograph is Worth 80,000 Creative Words

By Maureen L. Bonatch

I love photographs, just not taking them. It seems that everyone is taking tons of pictures of everything these days. Whether it’s for social media, or their own collection, people seem to have a huge assortment of photographs. Everyone that is, except me.

While other people are Snapchatting and filling their Groovebooks and Instagram feed, I haven’t taken a picture in weeks. Often I realize with regret at the end of a celebration, or a holiday, that I forgot to take any pictures. Luckily, I have family members who are snap happy and I can copy their photographs so I have some of those memories to reflect back on.

Pictures That Stir the Imagination

I don’t have a huge collection of pictures, but I tend to believe that quality is better than quantity. When I say quality, I’m not talking about professional photographs that show the perfect angle, I’m talking about the ones that stir my creative imagination.

Usually my stories start with a title, or the first line and I go from there. But often while I’m writing the story, I come across something in reality that belongs in my story. How’d that get there?

My hubby has gotten accustomed to my abrupt stops while we are walking or bicycling. I pull out my phone and take a couple pictures (of what sometimes he mentions are the oddest things). I’ll stop and stare, slack jawed as I wonder how the settings of my story showed up unexpectedly, or I begin writing the story in my mind as a plot twist unwinds.

Going to Grandma Must Die’s Library

My Inspiration for GRANDMA MUST DIE

If you read GRANDMA MUST DIE, you’d know that the old churches were turned into libraries for banned books. 

I didn’t know this either while I was writing the story, until I came across the one where Carman, my heroine, worked. Imagine my surprise to see it rising up near the trail where we bicycle. I expanded details, and wrote many chapters while staring at this image. 

Since I realized this key setting detail in my book, I’ve since begun capturing photos of old and unusual churches for future books in the story. The hubs doesn’t blink an eye anymore when I stop and say, “Wait, I need a picture. That’s in my story.”

Care to Visit This Graveyard?

Inspiration for EVIL SPEAKS SOFTLY

This picture was given to me by someone a year or so before I wrote EVIL SPEAKS SOFTLY (she said it reminded her of my books). 

At the time, I knew there was a story behind it. I just didn’t know what it was. 

While writing the story in my panster way (By the seat of my pants. That way I get to find out what happens as the story unfolds too.) I realized just where this picture came into the story. It added a level of creepiness to this story that I hadn’t expected, but it was just what the story needed. It was the missing piece.

Not Your Usual Cabin in The Woods

This was, by far, the creepiest old run-down building we’d ever come across while bicycling—and it ended up having a key place in Book 2 of The Enchantlings, NOT A CHANCE. 

I couldn’t wait to put it in the

story. My hubby, being the braver sort of the two of us, went inside and took more photos for me. They became the inspiration for my vivid imagination to further detail just what happened behind the closed doors of that dilapidated building from the days of the railroads.

I don't have a picture of the book to share, yet. It's still being written.

So, no. I don’t take many pictures. But I do enjoy the ones that I have. Because that one picture is worth more than 1,000 words, in fact, it’s worth more like 80,000 words. 

Do Your Photographs Tell a Story?

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

What Goes Bump In the Night?

By Maureen L. Bonatch 

Why is it that everything is more terrifying in the dark? Do all of the boogeymen in the world wait for dusk to fall to prepare for an evening of shenanigans? As if they realize that moving the door ever so slightly or messing with that creaky step will be completely wasted if the sun is still up? Do they all wait for the sunset to begin a night of terror and torment, as if an office employee waiting for five o’clock to rush the door?

Creatures of the Night vs. Imagination

As darkness settles and cloaks the world it opens opportunities for ghosts, goblins and all likes of goobers to strike terror into the heart of ordinary day-walking folk. It’s that or it’s the blanket you forgot you hung over the chair that now resembles something unearthly in the shadows. 

You can’t suppress the terror that fills you when the linen room closet slowly opens—even though you routinely slam it shut in annoyance when it resists the plethora of linens jammed in there. 

However, that’s in the daytime. At night, it must be a spirit bursting from its confines.

Rules of the Night

I can’t attest for too much of the shenanigans of the midnight hours, because as an early bird, spending too much time willingly awake during those hours is unheard of for me. Although I do abide by certain guidelines when the night falls.

• A blanket serves as a superior shield against most evils. If you choose to stick your leg out to regulate your temperature you’re just asking for it by dangling this fleshy bait.
• Basements seem to serve as a storage area or family room during the day but once night falls they offer shelter to all likes of entities—get what you need early and get out!
• If you happen to wake up exactly at midnight go back to sleep fast because that’s like “happy hour” —quick, go back to sleep! Or if nothing else, close your eyes.
• Otherworldly entities seem to flee when faced with more than one person—don’t go it alone! As soon as you wake your partner to share your distress you know darn well that demonic disturbance will slink back to the shadows.
• Spiders and centipedes and other creepy-deeks seem to know that this is their time to shine. They gleefully strike terror into the heart of the hapless victim unfortunate enough to choose this time for a toilet break—watch your step!

Nightwalkers

My heroine in my upcoming release Evil Speaks Softly writes during the midnight hours, so of course this opens the door for a darker story than if the setting had been a cheery sunlit coffee house. 

Liv struggles with sorting the difference between the perils of her overactive imagination and the spirits that walk the night.

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They were never supposed to meet. Fame came easy for Liv by following in the footsteps of the female writers in her family. The cycle repeated for decades…until Liv changed the story. 

Her villain doesn’t like the revision—and he isn’t a fictional character. In his story, the bad guy always wins.

How Do You Deal With What Goes Bump in the Night?

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four

seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter