Tag Archives: Inspiration

July 18, 2011

Chatting with author Angela Addams

By Anne Michaud

After reading your novella Ghost Bride , I couldn’t stop thinking of your interpretation of the after-life. We’re not talking about a little haunting, here, but a complex multi-dimension world where witches and Gods mix up with dead humans and soul mates. Where did it all come from?

Angela Addams: Anne, thanks for including me in this chat! Great question – the idea for Ghost Bride came to me while driving to work early one morning. The radio station I was listening to that day was giving an account of a string of murders that had happened in China that were believed to be the result of families paying big money to find the ghost bride for their dead young men. Gruesome, I know, but it got me thinking – what if I had a heroine who suddenly finds herself married in the afterlife to someone she doesn’t know? I could have made it very horrific I suppose, but I wanted to take my story in the romance direction so I opted for no murder – my heroine dies in a car crash. After coming up with the idea, I did a little research and learned everything I could about the tradition of Minghun – and then I started inventing my own world.

AM That’s cool; you inspired yourself from another culture and mold it into your own creation. I often find that little bits of information can spark an image that snowballs into a story – like what the Minghun did for your Ghost Bride. When I said I loved the world of it, you admitted your stories usually don’t have that much romance. Do you give yourself space to experiment different genre or do you prefer to stick to what you feel more comfortable with?

Angela Addams: Actually, when it comes to writing novellas or, as I call them, shorts, I tend to gravitate toward erotica but Ghost Bride started off with a different tone for me and I wanted to explore that – even if it meant more low key sensuality rather than explicit sexuality. I actually quite like writing romance, but I am flexible and try to explore other genres. The very first novel I wrote (which will forever stay trunked) was historical fiction and the manuscript I’m working on now is paranormal with a romantic subplot. I’ve had a few ideas that I know would manifest into horror. I don’t think I could ever leave the paranormal completely though – it’s too entrenched in my life to not colour my creative worlds in some way.

AM Your love for the paranormal does transpire through your work…what started it? Which book?

Angela Addams: What started it? Lol – I was born this way! I can’t remember a time that I didn’t love all things paranormal. My favourite book as a child was called The Good Little Witch and I made my parents read it to me so many times that it suddenly disappeared!

With my writing though, I didn’t start focusing exclusively on paranormal story lines until a friend of mine said to me, “Hey, you love supernatural themes so much, why don’t you write a novel with all that Halloween stuff going on?” It was like light bulb went off at that moment – duh, yeah, why don’t I? So, that’s what I did. I was on my first mat. leave and I sat down and plotted out a novel that featured an organization of witches. It was that manuscript that landed me my first agent – which eventually lead to my current agent and the manuscript I’m working on now with her.

Angela Addams is represented by Sarah Heller of the Helen Heller Agency, and her books Ghost Bride, Assassin and The Temptress are available in all e-formats at Cobblestone Press.

13 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Good Book, Highly recommended

July 4, 2011

Seldom

By Anne Michaud

I don’t know why, never really stopped to think about it since I guess the outcome would depress me, but I feel this rush when I see my name in print at the back of an anthology or in a magazine editorial. Pretty much like at the end of my films, where I signed this short moment in time as my own. My words, my worlds.

I first thought of Misery of Me about a year and a half ago. I was reading another vampire book (a little obsession of mine called Let the Right One In by stellar author John Ajvide Lindqvist) when I got this idea for a heroine addict vampire falling for her suicidal blood bank. Catchy, right?

I checked out Duotrope (because who doesn’t, really?) and noticed Cutting Block Press actually wanted horror novelettes – a rare thing – they paid a fair rate, but asked specifically for no vampires… unless something different was explored. Well, I started to write down this story of need and want, of sadness and despair. Added a few dark twists and gloomy turns and sent it to my beta-friend.

Her favorite, by far. Strange, since we’d all ODed on fangs by this point. So after a few tweaks, off to them Texans. Couple months later, I received this email full of praise from the editor himself. Not only did I fall in love with this stranger who liked Misery, but little did I know he would provide me with the best editing experience I’ve ever had. Kind and sometimes heartless, encouraging and sweet and motivating—love at first word.

Does it get better? It does. I get to hold this anthology of amazing stories by creative writers, and my name is printed on its back. It travelled from my mind unto here, something tangible I can touch. I’m so proud of the anthology, so happy to be a part of it. This is how I get paid to write everyday, this feeling right here.

10 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in All about me, myself and I, Highly recommended, Short Fiction

June 20, 2011

Dreamland and Nightmaretown

By Anne Michaud

My best characters ever, my most original stories and clever plots, my unique world re-imaginings and crazy schemes, all come from my dreams. Does it lessen my quality as a writer? Can’t I find something interesting to say on my own? Do I need to dream a life that isn’t mine to write about it?

My dreams happen in my head through my subconscious flux – so I’m not less of a writer, more of an opportunist storyteller. How could I come up, on my own, with Calif the Scavenger’s semi-scary, semi-sexy smile? And how about Evoly, a girl conflicted between being Human and Goyle on her first day in Syrana, this Land in Abyss? The journalists’ implication in Rebel’s controlled society; waking up naked and amnesiac in a bathroom in Foresees; We Left at Night’s terror of leaving home and everything else behind.

Instead of letting my dreams go into oblivion and forgetting about those really good ideas, I grab onto them, shape them into stories, and make the best of my overworked imagination.

So go on, dream about nightmares.

4 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in All about me, myself and I

June 17, 2011

Whoville

By Anne Michaud

It angers me when I read that writers should stick to what they know. Why the heck do I even bother inventing worlds and creating characters for then? This ‘what’ that I know feels a tad claustrophobic, so I say nay! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve traveled and met people, but I’ve never been a part of the New American Order (the zealous army in Rebel, my dystopian young adult thriller) and I hope to never meet a living and breathing Gargoyle (yes, my WiP series, Wanderlust, scares the shit out of me).

And mostly, what I think I should get from this erroneous quote is this: Don’t write what you know, because your stories will become boring, but write WHO you know. And who better to base your newly created characters on than yourself – or who you think you are? It can be anything, from a nasty habit of biting your nails to something you like to eat, which reminds me…

I went shopping with my sister at an Asian food store and as soon as we got there, I went straight to the candy aisle and looked for the treat that’s been my favorite ever since I can remember: Chinese HAW FLAKES. I don’t know if it’s the packaging (you’ve got to work for them suckers) or the bitter-tangy-sweet thin disks of exotic goodness, but once I’ve opened one, I can go through many disks in an hour or two, depending on whether I’ve had a good lunch or not.

So as I watch my provision of haw flakes slowly diminishing by the second, I get this flash: What if my character Quim from Land in Abyss has this kinda cute and peculiar thing for haw flakes? What if he can’t get enough and needs them like cigarettes? Oh, I can definitely understand THAT habit.

Happy writing, everyone 🙂

4 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in All about me, myself and I

June 15, 2011

An unlikely muse

By Anne Michaud

They bring death on their wings, flying low near roadkill and cawing in packs to announce dawn, to warn the ghosts of night that daylight is coming. They’re black, mean, and more intelligent than most people on TV. Huge, too, with wings that go from here to there. Love them crows, always have.

I’m so happy to have found a home for all their feathers cluttering my head – Land in Abyss, the first of the Wanderlust series, flies on crows’ wings. It’s also great to have waited for the perfect project to explore the dark bird, and since I’m also on the lookout for inspiration, I realized I didn’t have to go too far.

Entre Ciel et Terre, mix media on canvas, 16” X 16”

An artist friend of mine is also exploring crows through her work. I ask her why and she says, ‘‘I relate to the Amerindian view of the bird’s sacred side, a guardian of magic, creator of light, fire and water. The crow symbolizes reason, the messenger to our subconscious inviting us to look into the great below to find answers to our questions.’’

Marie Claprood has been painting for more than twenty years, has participated in international solo and group expositions, her pieces sold all over Canada, the United States and Japan. Through the years, she’s been dipping her brushes into environmental issues, so dear to her heart, trying to put into images the interrelation between Nature and Man. In constant evolution with her paintings, she now explores crows after having expressed the bird nest, the horizon line, and the tree on her canvases.

I tell her the crow is so dark, often reminds us of what lurks in the night. She says, ‘‘We all have a dark side, it’s part of human nature. Everyone has bugs they’d rather not see and confront, but if we avoid our dark side, it will catch up sooner or later… To confront our dark side frees us to move forward in our lives.’’

I love her work and enjoy her friendship, stop by her website and discover Marie Claprood’s fascinating world.

6 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Musing

June 5, 2011

Musings & Little Obsessions

By Anne Michaud

I find inspiration in every single thing I touch, I see, I feel. This blog is about what I take from it and how I transform a note, a raindrop, a funny-shaped stone into a story.

And more often than not, my musings turn into a dark, little obsession.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in Musing