Monday, September 27, 2010

Carie Lawson - Guest Blog about Inspiration

Carie Lawson is a talented author from Desert Breeze. She home schools her four kids, drives the soccer van --- complete with dirty socks and McDonalds bags scattered throughout --- and tries to sneak away to her computer whenever possible to write. She is an active member of a local writer's group, Middle Tennessee Christian Writers, and received third place in the North Texas Romance Writer's Great Expectations contest in the Inspirational Romance category. She's here todat to talk about inspiration.

Take it away, Carie!

Where does my inspiration come from? 


      I loved writing about the kids in Beyond Summer. They danced and played through my imagination so vividly. I also got to use some of my favorite memories of my own kids in them. Instead of telling you about the scenes I've already written, I am going to tell you a story that might make it into another book.

      My son Zeke is four, and the baby of the family. You know how everyone says the baby is always spoiled. Yep, they're right. But there's something else too, something about never being as strong or as fast or as smart as anyone else in the house that makes them reach higher and try more things because, while they might not be able to beat their siblings in a race, they can do lots of other things that other kids their age couldn't...or wouldn't.

      Our family spends about ten hours a week during soccer season at the field, so the kids are very comfortable there...sometimes bored. As the game we were watching was over, the teams stopped in the middle of exchanging the requisite high five and "good game" and started yelling and pointing behind me. In the deepest part of my heart I KNEW it was Zeke. I turned slowly around and there he was about fifteen feet up a light pole. He'd shimmied up there like he was after coconuts in South America. Below him the ground was half concrete and half grass. I was afraid to yell at him, so I jogged over there and stood quaking in my flip flops while he slipping back down. Once he was safely in my arms, I looked around for my bad-parent badge and slapped it on, trying my best to get to the funny-later stage of embarrassment.

      Then, this is not an exaggeration, the next week my husband is up at the fields with Zeke and the other kids at yet another practice. No one could find Zeke during their game of hide and seek. Another mom from the team went into the Ladies Room and heard a little voice say, "I can't get down," not screaming or crying, mind you, just making a statement. So she followed the voice to a stall, where my son stood on the small steel trash can mounted to the wall stretching up grasping the top of the stall. How long he'd been in there, no one really knows. Long enough to be sure he couldn't dismount by himself. She helped him down and he burst back into the light of day happy because he'd won the game of hide and seek.

      So fun kid stories come easy for me. If you read Beyond Summer, I'll let you guess which ones are fact and which are fiction. Enjoy.

Thank you for joining us today, Carie. The purchase link for Beyond Summer is here, isn't it an awesome cover? Next week, Inspiring Mondays will return with a picture especially for Danielle.

12 comments:

JE said...

Inspiration comes from lots of different places. Thanks for sharing yours!

~JD

Tamika: said...

Our families definitely have a way of mingling into our stories:) I find at least a thread of family experience in all of my writing.

N. R. Williams said...

I have two girls. When they were young they didn't take to pink and frills. No, they climbed everything in sight. I can so relate to your experiences. You book must be full of these stories. Nice.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author

Amie Borst said...

i have 3 girls. but one of them is a little monkey and climbs everything in sight....she's 10. LOL

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Wow, glad I don't have kids - I'd be a wreck!

Stephanie Burkhart said...

Carie,
Very inspriational. It's not easy to write and watch out for the kids. Beyond Summer sounds very special. When do you find yourself doing the bulk of your writing? At night after the kids go to bed? During the day?

Steph

Carie said...

Hey there! Thanks for making me feel so welcome! It's nice to know I'm not alone in my crazy kid stories. I have one little girl and she is a monkey too. In fact, we laugh all the time that she's much tougher than all the boys.
Carie

Carie said...

Steph,
The bulk of my writing gets done in about one hour in the afternoon. I schedule "rest time" (it used to be naptime, but we outgrew that one) where the kids can read or play quietly in their room. It's really a double win b/c I find that they NEED that time to kind of rejuvinate after a long day. The rest of my writing happens after they go to bed, but usually my brain just doesn't feel as "sharp" by that late in the evening. What about you? How do you manage with your kids?

Unknown said...

Great inspriation!!!! I'm with Alex though, I don't think I could handle the chaos of children!

Kirsty Girl said...

Looks so good!

Unknown said...

What a great writer! She has so much on her plate and still writes. Her cover and story look interesting. Thank you.

CD

Nicki Elson said...

Go Zeke! He sounds like a lot of fun...a lot of really, exhausting fun. I like the way Carie used a real life example to demonstrate examination of character by linking his behavior with the possible reasons behind it.

And Nicole, let me just tell you that this is one gorgeous blog!