Note from Jean: I’m on a blogging break to focus on revising and editing my stockpile of finished first drafts. In the mean time, here’s supernatural comedy author JK Bovi to answer the question, “What inspires you?”
Disclosure: this post contains Amazon affiliate links that will provide me with a small commission that will help support this website.
Take it away, JK…
I never intended to be an author of young adult humorous paranormal books, but when the wicked inspiration to write about ghosts came to me, I couldn’t ignore it.
As a child I always had stories in my head and as I grew older I put many of them into written words. But the inspiration for my first book, Wicked Haints, came unexpected and literally ‘out of the blue’.
I live in Savannah, Georgia, and one day I took a tour trolley around town. The guide talked about how people accented their porches with ‘haint blue’ paint to keep unwanted spirits away. After the tour I sat on a park bench and thought ‘what would happen if the haint blue paint was taken off a house and ghosts moved in?’ I took out my I-pod and began to write.
The characters and story came so fast and so easy that I was surprised I’d written it at all! I sent it to one publisher, they loved it and I was published! I decided that perhaps, being a ‘ghost writer’ might be fun.
The inspiration for my second book, Dead Man’s Fingers, came as unexpectedly as the first. I walked past an old Savannah building and thought ‘this looks like a perfect place to find an old skeleton hidden in the basement.’ And Brandon-Jack came back from the dead to have the best time of his deceased life.
My third book, Zombies Y’all!, came from my husband who said, “Ghosts are boring. Do a Zombie book”. I created ghost zombies and the story turned into a wild crazy Zombie Apocalypse with a collection of zany characters trying to save Savannah from becoming a ghost town without any ghosts.
My fourth book, Heels & Souls, was inspired by a woman who passed me on the sidewalk, pointed at my shoes, and said, “Hey girl take those shoes off! Don’t you know you can’t wear white after Labor Day?” The story I wrote about a jitterbugging ghost in search of her white dancing shoes kicked up some hilarious graveyard dust!
I was inspired to write Claire Buoyant when I saw an old tug boat being pushed down the Intercoastal Waterway to the Ships Graveyard. There was no way I was going to let that boat stay dead-n-buried.
The idea for my book, Coffin Droppings, came when a friend of mine purchased an old Savannah home and when I looked up at the attic. I thought, ‘there’s definitely bats up there, maybe even a vampire’. And so… there was!
I get my inspiration from people and places. To find a good story just keep your eyes and ears open, and it will come to you. But most when the inspiration hits, wicked or not, grab it and run!
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JK Bovi is a published author of humorous paranormal books that take place in Savannah. Her books are fun, easy-to-read fiction for teens and adults. For more information about JK Bovi and her books please visit: www.wickedhaints.com.
Are you an author with a good story about what inspires you? Check out my guest post guidelines here.
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