Whew. One month of 2020 is already down. Time is already flying, or it could be my feelings of getting nothing accomplished. LOL But…we won’t get into all of that now. Today is the first Wednesday of the month so that means a new IWSG post. So this month I was going to talk about all the woes, but frankly I’m tired. Tired of being annoyed about the static nature of things for me. Tired of never feeling like I’m making any sort of progress and gaining any ground in this whole endeavor.
Instead, I’m gonna take it a little easy and simply answer this month’s optional question.
Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?
I get inspiration from all sorts of places. Dreams, random conversations, songs, etc. You get the idea, but I can’t say that a picture ever inspired a story per se. However, with my writing squad we liked to do a thing called “Man Candy Monday” LOL which is exactly like you’d expect, we would find pictures of men we thought were attractive and post in the group. I mean hey, we’re romance writers, character “inspiration” is always a good thing. Hahaha
Anyway, this guy was one of my contributions. I was intrigued by the eyes first and then I liked the sprinkling of gray in his beard and hair. But mostly the eyes. When the ladies challenged me to move from simple contemporary romance over to erotic romance he became my first character. The rest of the story formed around using this image as my male lead.
After that, I needed to find the inspiration of who would be his leading lady and the story took shape from there. This story ended up being one I had the biggest love/hate relationship with for various reasons. It’s also the first story I queried. And the first story I got an offer on.
I still have a love/hate relationship with it, but it is what it is. The story is complete. Is it a great seller? No, but then again none of my books are so it fits right in, in that regard.


So, if you ever read Anything Once, this image is what inspired Ian Faraday.
That’s it for me. Have a great month.
Until next time~Meka
The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.

The awesome co-hosts for the The awesome co-hosts for the February 5th posting of the IWSG are Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson!