I get asked this all the time as a writer.
Despite writing ‘make-believe’ stories, a lot of us
draw from real life experiences, people, places and things.
A fellow writer confessed to me she’d used all her
friends as the basis for her characters. But I think we all do that as writers.
The highly successful Janet Evanovich, who writes the Stephanie Plum series,
said she based the much loved Grandma Mazur on one of her favorite Aunts.
Sometimes you just can’t make these people up! They’re living breathing
characters in their own rights. J
The story itself tends to come from what I call ‘the
Muses.’ They turn up every so often, noisily stomping into my brain, chucking
their tennis rackets in the corner. Saying things like, ‘Phew, that was jolly
hot work. Let me get a drink, then I’ll tell you a story.’ And they do.
I just dictate at speed what they have to tell me. J
But when it comes to things like characters or things
that appear in my book, they’re often based on people I’ve met, places I’ve
been and things I’ve seen. They often relate to me and my life.
Charlie’s big house is called The Grove. This was the name of my Great Grandfathers place when he first came to New
Zealand Devon in England Rhode
Island
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| The gorgeous Vanderbilt's Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island |
Izzy and Henry’s house in town (New Orleans)is called Four Seasons. This is one of my things
I’m always saying, “I’d love to live at the Four Seasons.” It’s one of my
favorite resort hotels. I love them. It’s a big old Plantation
I use some of my family names for my characters. Izzy
as Isobel in World War II, is called Isobel Lanyon. Lanyon is my Cornish family
name that goes all the way back to the beginning of time in Cornwall
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| My fun and funny mum Olwyn Loudon |
In the second book of the trilogy, The Chi Circle, Charlie
goes to the Volcano Arts Center Big Island , Hawai’i
It says:
In memory of my mum
Olwyn Loudon
Who taught me to laugh
Izzy Justine
If you go to the Arts Center
I base one of Izzy’s best friends Mea in the book on
my best friend in real life, right down to her gorgeous looks. Izzy’s dad Brian
is remarkably like my dad John. J The funny sayings in there are all things my dad
says. He’s always getting sayings slightly muddled up. His best one yet is: ‘As
useless as tits on a bucket.’ LOL.
Isadora who’s a wee bit of a character is loosely
based on my mum’s personality.
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| 'Mea' in real life |
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| My mum in younger days ~ very glammy! |
Noel Barber, my all time favorite author once said,
that he uses as many real settings as he can. He said it adds a real air of
authenticity to a piece of work. He wrote wonderful sweeping sagas, based in Singapore France Egypt
I include past lives in my stories. Most of them are
based on my own past lives or pieces of them and real events. The details are as
vivid to me as memories from this lifetime. I flew in the ATA in my last
lifetime as a woman ferry pilot. When I discovered this lifetime, I thought,
that can’t be right. Why would I be a woman pilot in WWII in England
But someone had clearly seen the uniform on me and it also seemed to explain how I dressed as a teenager. I always wore pencil slim skirts, just below my knee, a belted jacket, shirt and tie. I had hats made for me, which I also wore. A lovely little black pill box, and 2 lemon squeezers. I’ve had a great love of ‘wool great coats.’
As pieces of this past life came to me, I realized why I’d always loved planes, dressed the way I did and loved Big Band music. I hit18 in 1981.
None of these things were remotely in that era. We were all into New Wave.
But someone had clearly seen the uniform on me and it also seemed to explain how I dressed as a teenager. I always wore pencil slim skirts, just below my knee, a belted jacket, shirt and tie. I had hats made for me, which I also wore. A lovely little black pill box, and 2 lemon squeezers. I’ve had a great love of ‘wool great coats.’
As pieces of this past life came to me, I realized why I’d always loved planes, dressed the way I did and loved Big Band music. I hit
It was some years again after that I stumbled across
the information there were women ferry pilots who flew for the ATA – Air
Transport Auxiliary. Very little information was available about them at the
time. Only a handful of books were written and back then, no internet or
anything. But as soon as I found the information, I knew, that’s what I’d done.
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| ATA women pilots who ferried aircraft all over England during the War |
When I was learning to fly in this lifetime, I made a
mistake over and over, it drove me and my instructor up the wall. I would often
push the throttle in the wrong way. NOT a good thing to do when flying an
aircraft. You don’t really want to run out of juice up in the air and put all
your glide skills into practice.
I figured it had to be a past life thing, but what aircraft would have a reverse throttle on it? That didn’t make sense.
I figured it had to be a past life thing, but what aircraft would have a reverse throttle on it? That didn’t make sense.
I did a bit of research and discovered after a bit of
deep digging, that actually there were some P-51’s made with the reverse
throttle the French. Delivered by the English. How very French? Arse backwards.
J And
dangerous when you’re flying. But I must have gotten used to it in that
lifetime and carried the information over. I finally did a past life regression
and reset the pattern. I never had a problem with it again, flying in this
lifetime.
Henry’s lifetime in WWII is based on a real life
person I went out with in WWII. His name was Rick, an American B-17 flier. I
met him again in this lifetime and it took us a while to realise why every time
he left to go home, I was devastated. Utterly bereft, overcome with horrific
grief, which didn’t make an ounce of sense at the time. I always felt ‘I’d
never see him again.’ Well, in WWII, I didn’t. He went out on a bombing mission
one day and didn’t come back… |
| P-51 Mustang |
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| B-17 Flying Fortress and her crew of 10 |
Sometimes I ‘make something up.’ Only to find out
later, it was true. As if tapping into the Universal reservoir of collector
memories or the collective unconscious.
Isadora collects miniature silver. Izzy gives her a
silver wine barrel and glasses. Exquisite petite work. I found the piece for
sale on eBay by a Russian silversmith Vladimir Matuskovsky.
I also say, she has in her collection, tiny knives and forks. But had never seen any at the time I wrote it. I ‘made up’ the detail. I had Henry give her a miniature Russian Samovar as a Christmas present, which later got cut unfortunately due to word count. Much later, I was looking upVladimir
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| The samovar on the left. And the wine barrel on the right which came with 2 glasses. It stands just over an inch tall. The spigot even works on the wine barrel |
I also say, she has in her collection, tiny knives and forks. But had never seen any at the time I wrote it. I ‘made up’ the detail. I had Henry give her a miniature Russian Samovar as a Christmas present, which later got cut unfortunately due to word count. Much later, I was looking up
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| The exquisite miniature work of Greg Matuskovsky - silversmith |
I have a deep and profound love of Russian things,
people, and places. Henry and Izzy own a Russian Samovar, which has all sorts
of connections to it. It belonged to the Serebriakovs, who are actually another
lifetime of Henry and Izzy. I would kill to own a Samovar. I have a deep love
of them. On my list of things to own. J
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| A full sized samovar with teapot on the water kettle and the podstakanniki glasses |
Izzy drives a white BMW 650i. Also on my list. LOL. I
love Beemers. I’ve owned three, all 540’s and one 535. So, the 650 is my next
model I’m after. I love them! I also like the Jag, so Charlie drives one of
them.
Henry wears a clove scented perfume, reminiscent of
the sultry steamy smells of Singapore
I think for most authors, there are large pieces of
ourselves in our work. Whether it’s parts of ourselves, or people, places and
things we have experienced in our lifetime. Despite ‘making up stories.’ A lot
of us authors like to be an authentic as we can, taking from real life.
And here’s the question often asked of me as a romance
erotica writer J Are all
the sex scenes made up? Um… well… some of them are, but some are genuine
experiences I’ve had. J I’ll let you try and guess which ones are real and
which ones I just wish were real, or I have on my ‘yes please’ list. LOL.
