WIP Wednesday: Wanderlust

I live in my head a lot of the time. Thinking, plotting, brainstorming…it’s a solitary thing and as much as I love writing, sometimes a change of perspective is exactly what I need to shake things up and inspire new stories.

So, yeah…if you follow me on Facebook, you know I just spent 2 weeks roadtripping through California. From San Francisco, up to the Avenue of the Giants, over to Yosemite, then down to San Diego, those 2 weeks were full of countless adventures.

We saw the mist roll in over San Francisco every night like clockwork. We drove on white-knuckle mountain roads up and down the coast. We saw towering redwoods (and even drove through one), saw Ancient Egyptian artifacts, slept on a historic ocean liner and had the time of our live in the sand, sun and surf.

So, yeah…it was time to decompress and experience life, and in the process, I was gifted with not only countless cherished memories (and a bunch of snow globes to add to my collection!) but also a bunch of new story seeds that I’m going to gleefully explore.

I’m not underselling it when I say I literally saw places that seemed otherworldly to me. Places that were so curious that even standing there in that space, they still didn’t seem quite real. The astonishing peaks in Yosemite; the rockpile terrain leading up to Palm Springs; the endless coves, pristine ocean and everything from pines to palms.

Even now, going through our 2000+ photos we took along the way, I see new things to inspire, things I didn’t notice then and will use as inspiration for future stories.  Normally, I use an overheard piece of conversation or some strange news story as story inspiration so I’m going to try something completely different – and it will be available as a freebie for All Hallows Read!!! I’ll keep you updated.

Now, it’s back to reality and workworkwork. Lots of freelance work to tackle, a new novel to outline for NaNoWriMo (!!!) and one to edit. For now, the only traveling I’ll be doing is in my mind…but that doesn’t mean it will be any less exhilarating.

[su_note note_color=”#d6d1d9″]Psst! Don’t forget – I’m holding a contest until October 5 to win a month-long Backstage Pass to my Patreon Campaign. FREE STORIES! FREE SWAG! Don’t miss out![/su_note]