Inspirations and Shenanigans

My new persona: MJ

If anyone had told me ten years ago that I’d be an author, blogger, keen photographer and poet I’d have rolled around with laughter at such a whimsical tale. Sometimes dreams come true and I have a new persona – MJ to prove it. I’ve always wanted to be a superhero’s girlfriend, and Spiderman’s my favourite! Dearest MJ gets up to mischief, adding unusual statuses to my Facebook page. Perhaps the like of – Marje has bungee jumped or parachuted out of a plane, or stripped as a life model, or engaged in a Boudoir Photo shoot. Oops, one of these may be true! If it is let’s keep it a secret, I love secrets. What fun! Can you imagine? One day, (if I’d been a life model or indulged in such a photo shoot)… I’d smile, an old granny, a glint of mischief glistening in my eyes as I would flick through some amazing art or photos of outrageous me looking mighty fine. Oh, the ego! What a narcissistic creature I am…

A Black Cat Inspired Me

So, back to FB statuses – unusual ones, a while ago I’d been hunting for a cat model for my charming black cat character Shadow who plays an important role in my debut middle grade/YA novel – The Curse of Time – Book 1 – Bloodstone. Sounds daft, I know, luckily my blogging friend Gary Gefferies didn’t mind. He’s a writer too. After receiving my odd request he didn’t unfriend me instead he suggested I might be a white witch! I laughed! I’d originally called my blog Kyrosmagica – crystal magic, so a witch seemed fair comment. Gary knew the perfect person, fellow blogger, (who knows she might be a white witch too?) Samantha Murdoch. How fortuitous! Not only did Samantha love cats, but she loves crystals, and has a keen photographer son, Alex. I couldn’t have asked for a more fortuitous introduction, or a better friend. Samantha’s black cat Lily became my black cat supermodel! Isn’t she divine?

More Photographic inspirations

My daughter Georgina is studying diplomas in Photography, Business and Media so she created wonderful portraits of my male and female characters:

Ryder – modelled by Joseph English

And Amelina – modelled by Elise Hackney

Prior to Georgina’s fabulous contribution I’d stumbled upon another amazing connection, the Corpus Christi Chronopage invented by the esteemed John C. Taylor, OBE, photographer and inventor. This magnificent invention became my central theme, changing the title and the direction of my manuscript from the lighter bejewelled Crystal Cottage to the darker shadowed Curse of Time.

Time had whizzed in and had stolen some of my attention away from Juniper Artland’s extraordinarily inspiring crystal grotto The Light That Pours Out of Me by Anya Gallario which I featured on my blog HERE.

Here is my photo of the grotto encrusted walls:

A Pantser Approach

All of these extraordinary developments knitted together in a puzzling inspiration pressure cooker. I’m no plotter. Au contraire, I am a complete and utter pantser–a writer who doesn’t plan, and who procrastinates daily. My stories develop out of a riotous outpouring of my imagination. Initially, this unstructured method has major drawbacks. So, don’t try this at home! I don’t recommend it. It’s like a cluttered house, you can never find what you’re looking for. My first drafts were a complete mess! Luckily, my daughter Tasha, an English Literature graduate and two amazing writers– Graeme Cumming, (my first draft beta reader,) and Colleen Chesebro, painstakingly drew the writer out of me and Colleen mentored my development by taking me under her fairy wings.

The puzzling story of this crystal cottage, cum mystery, time yarn, and curse disaster began to untangle and take shape, and with Colleen’s encouragement I wrote masses of Tanka poems to head each chapter, or Puzzle Pieces, as I called them.

An Artistic Collaboration

Recently, I embarked upon a collaboration with artist Carolina Russo to design and paint a custom piece depicting Esme, a character who started off as a sketchy portrait in my writer’s mind and who has since developed huge potential. I have plans for further potential artistic collaborations.

Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club

Before, I shoot off and say goodbye I’d like to mention an amazing club that I founded on Facebook – Authors/Bloggers Rainbow Support Club. It even has a hashtag – #ABRSC. This group is for bloggers, writers, authors, and book reviewers, a friendly, supportive community of like-minded individuals. It is growing, and has become a wonderful resource for advice, a chat, sharing posts, and indulging in celebrating a shared love of writing, and creativity. Three rainbow perennial girls, (a term that Debby Gies coined) – myself, Colleen, and Debby run this group together in perfect harmony!

Please join us – Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club.

A Detangled Perennial Rainbow of Excitement

This writing journey has been remarkable. I’m now a detangled, perennial rainbow of excitement that’s raring to go! I started off a newbie blogger, with a messy manuscript and no clue what I was doing. Now, after attending three Bloggers Bash events in London I can truly say that I have a professional much tidier novel, lots of blogging friends, and all thanks to starting my Kyrosmagica blog. Blogging has inspired me in ways I would never have imagined. I truly hope you will join me in this wonderful journey. I would be so thrilled and honoured if you would read and share your impressions of my debut novel: The Curse of Time–Book 1 – Bloodstone.

Thanks and Credits:

Art Credit – Esme – Carolina Russo – Carolina Russo

Photography Credit: – Ryder and Amelina – Georgina Mallon

Models: Joseph English, Elise Hackney.

Photography Credit: Corpus Chronopage – inventor – Dr John C Taylor, OBE.

Photography Credits:

Shadow the cat – Alex Marlowe

A capture of Samantha’s cat Lily – Samantha Murdoch

Author Bio:

I am a debut author who has been blogging for three years. My interests include writing, photography, poetry, and alternative therapies. I write Fantasy YA, middle grade fiction and micro poetry – haiku and tanka.

I love to read and have written over 100 reviews.

My alter ego is MJ – Mary Jane from Spiderman. I love superheroes! I was born on the 17th of November in Lion City: Singapore, (a passionate Scorpio, with the Chinese Zodiac sign a lucky rabbit,) second child and only daughter to my proud parents Paula and Ronald. I grew up in a mountainous court in the Peak District in Hong Kong with my elder brother Donald. My parents dragged me away from my exotic childhood and my much loved dog Topsy to the frozen wastelands of Scotland. In bonnie Edinburgh I mastered Scottish country dancing, and a whole new Och Aye lingo.

As a teenager I travelled to many far-flung destinations to visit my abacus wielding wayfarer dad. It’s rumoured that I now live in the Venice of Cambridge, with my six foot hunk of a Rock God husband, and my two enchanted daughters. After such an upbringing my author’s mind has taken total leave of its senses! When I’m not writing, I eat exotic delicacies while belly dancing, or surf to the far reaches of the moon. To chill out, I practise Tai Chi. If the mood takes me I snorkel with mermaids, or sign up for idyllic holidays with the Chinese Unicorn, whose magnificent voice sings like a thousand wind chimes.

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