Tomorrow, April 10, 2022, is National Encourage a Young Writer Day. To contribute to this day, I will share one of the creative inspirations from my childhood.
I am often asked, “where do your story ideas come from?” The truth is that it usually begins with one small spark of an idea and grows from there. This spark might be a world, a character, or even a character trait, and then I build it out by asking questions.
“That is a cool world idea. Who might live there?”
“I would love to have such a superpower. What might someone do with it?”
Early Storytelling
Blueberry was super shy.
Some of my earliest stories were told with my sister as we played with our pony town growing up. Though I struggle to remember all of them now, each pony had a name, personality, job, and family. They lived in a world of our creation and interacted with each other through a make-believe daily life.
The regal, royal family. I think the big ones were called Fashion Star Fillies.
We had a royal family and a dashing fireman. Strawberry loved to bake crumpets to go with Mrs. Pots’s tea. Tic Tac Toe was the bad boy of the children, while his father, Parrot, was the smooth talker with the adult ladies. Butterfly had an attitude, often butting heads with Boat, but all the children helped out with the babies.
All the kids. Heartstrings and Lollypop were the sweetest.
These are still some of my favorite memories, and I’m certain their lives have influenced my work. To all the writers out there, what is one of your childhood inspirations? For all the young writers out there, don’t be afraid to tell the story.
The “fuzzy-fliers” were our favorites. Rabbit could fly super fast.
Last weekend, Little Cat (LC) had herself a furry freakout. While I worked on Hidden Sanctuary all day, my husband decided to take the time to tackle our pond out back.
It is a lovely addition to the yard and provides a soothing sound when we run the waterfalls. Unfortunately, water evaporates by the gallon in the summer. In the winter, it collects leaves and pine needles and then turns it all into algae and frog eggs in the early spring. We try to take all the eggs to a local wetland before the draining and cleaning take place. This year we relocated a frog along with them. One final pouch of eggs is still in a bucket out back—it was found late in the process.
I say “we,” but all of this work was 99.9% him working over about eight hours. A few patches of pond armor are still needed, but it looks amazing. We have a skimmer and a new vacuum, so we are hoping we can keep it sparkling this year.
Looking good for summer entertaining!
Little Cat Explores
LC has some squirrel friends she’ likes to watch during the day as she sits in front of the back sliding door. My cats are indoor cats, but every now and then we let them into the backyard to sniff around, usually with the harness and leash on.
As much as she loves the backyard, she is terrified of people. Whenever friends or family stop by—or even a delivery person—she bolts from whatever sunny spot she found to go hide under a blanket. We have no idea what drives her to be so afraid, but we let her calm down in her safe place.
On Sunday, her split personalities collided in spectacular fashion. After finishing with the pond, my husband found LC in front of the screen door, sniffing and listening to the outdoors. Mowers and trimmers were going, our pond vacuum had been on and off for hours. Despite all of that, she remained interested in the yard.
We put on the harness and leash and led her out back to show her the nice clean water. The trickling of the waterfalls raised her anti-water hackles, so she started pawing off between a couple of bushes. Everything was normal, calm… then the neighbor behind us yelled at his dog.
LC freaked the fluff out. She bolted so fast that the leash pulled out of my husband’s hand. Leaping over the grill, she was halfway up the window screen by the time he reached her. He caught her as the screen pulled out and away, starting to fall, only to have her scratching his arm up in her panic to bolt yet again.
She sprang away from him and climbed nimbly up the screen door, clinging to the top as the two of us worked to hold onto her while gently peeling her off her perch to bring her safely back inside.
Finally, she came loose. I had her scruff and bent to set her gently inside the doorway. The moment she saw her safety blanket through the opening, she decided to use my face as a springboard. Her back claws pierced my cheek and lip as she tore forward.
The leash caught her again, but inside she held still for me to remove it and take her to another safe spot upstairs. LC calmed quickly after that, and we three—including Big Cat—sat with her for a few minutes as she peered around cautiously. I palpated for bruises, finding no pain response. A half-hour later she was back downstairs, once more staring out the back window.
No permanent harm. The harness and slightly elastic leash kept her from hurting herself or running so far that she got lost. Her trust in us kept her from being traumatized. My face should heal fine, and you can bet your bum we will be scouting for stranger danger before she gets to sniff around out back again.
This week marked my fourth wedding anniversary. I married my husband on St. Patrick’s Day in 2018, which happened to be a Saturday that year. We had already moved in together a few years earlier, so the day itself did not change anything about our relationship. It was, however, a fantastic reason to throw a party with friends and family together.
Our dragon cake toppers and a couple of the dice!
In keeping with our personalities, the event was super nerdy. Our guest gifts were d10s with our initials and d20-shaped coasters. We topped our cake with two dragons in the colors we wore, and instead of a photo booth, we hired a caricature artist for the evening.
Our caricature was placed on the welcome table. Artist: Zach Bagley
Hidden Series Progress
I currently estimate myself behind on editing Hidden Sanctuary by about a week. This is based on my schedule of trying to release the paperback simultaneously with the ebook. The paperback versions require more up-front work with formatting and test prints. While the ebook schedule is well on-track, the paperback might be out a week or two later. I would rather push the release out than rush the editing process. This is a primary reason only the ebook is available for preorder.
My beta readers should receive it in early- to mid-April and then my editor in June. I’m starting to line up their time for those slots, pinning the schedule down as I progress through the alpha feedback. Once I post this blog, working through those revisions and edits will be the remainder of my day.
This week I sent the rough sketch and description of the cover to my artist for the series. He is doing research, and I hope to share the cover reveal with my newsletter subscribers early in the April newsletter (so don’t forget to sign up!). The rest of the world will see it sometime after, as I update it on Amazon and social media.
For today’s final note, I’m celebrating Hidden Memoryreceiving the tenth rating on Amazon! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a rating or review. Your support means so much to me.
If you have not yet purchased the first book in the series, you can find it in digital and paperback formats on Amazon. For those who have already read Hidden Memory, you can still go into your orders in your account to leave a review. I hope everyone enjoys these characters and this world as much as I do!
Big Cat is unofficially seventeen years old. I say “unofficially” because I celebrate his adoption day in early March rather than his birthday. Every year, he gathers more old-cat problems.
His kidneys have been slowly worsening for a few years now, but the vet thinks it is still relatively stable based on his numbers. He has difficulty “concentrating his urine,” which, in our case, means he drinks more and uses the box more often.
Not too bad. We have an automated litter box, so I only need to change the bag out more often. At least, until I periodically start finding puddles in front of the box.
The mystery begins…
He is not spraying or peeing all over the house. It is just in front of the box. Also, while we think it is Big Cat, there is a chance Little Cat developed some inappropriate bathroom habits, so we decide we must identify the problem to find the correct solution.
Brilliantly, we move the indoor Ring camera I received for a work anniversary to dangle over the boxes, trying to catch the piddler in the process. Days pass and puddles happen, but the camera picks up only a few jumps in and out of the box, no damning evidence. Its sensor is not sensitive enough to trigger with their sneaky little bodies.
Time for the next level: we borrow my father-in-law’s nature camera, stringing it up with rubber bands and twist ties. We catch the piddler in the act not even a day later! Big Cat sticks his head in, sniffs around, and proceeds in no further. With his front half inside, Big Cat lifts a leg to make a horrendous mess on the floor.
I have a theory…
Little Cat had just gone, and the machine had not turned yet. I’m thinking he does not like to use it dirty. I shorten the time between going and turning. Then, today, we spent an hour dismantling and scrubbing that machine down to get it nice and clean again.
I bring this thing in, calling out in a sing-song voice, “kitties!” Big Cat comes running. He eagerly jumps in the clean litter box, all four feet in, his butt still sticking out… and pees all over the floor.
*Pained sigh* It looks like he also has arthritis. It can cause them to no longer squat when they pee.
The vet talked about some gummies many people are raving about working well for dogs and cats, so I will reach out about getting some of those. Mr. Picky Pants (Big Cat) will probably turn his nose up at them, meaning I’ll need to get creative.
I love him still, and I continue to hope I have him for many more years, but cleaning up cat urine is getting exhausting. Fingers crossed we have this resolved soon with meds and intensive remedial litter box training.
I feel like I have been playing catch-up lately, and it has been forever since I have done a general status update, so here is all the stuff that I have not shared since the holidays began!
Holidays
I spoke before about seeing family for the holidays, which was great. I also received some great gifts from everyone. One was a cool cover for my ReMarkable2 notepad that can support it in different positions. It makes me feel better knowing it has something to protect the screen when I’m not using it. I’m currently wearing a blanket/poncho thing my parents gave me. Big Cat enjoys it as well for his lap time. A third thing I’m excited about is my new minimalist wallet arriving in the mail this week. I purchased it with a gift card received to pick one I liked.
After Christmas, I was cat-sitting for my parents during their visit with my brother and family in Florida. That mission was complicated by the week of snow we had in the area. They live within walking distance, so I made the trip every day. Footing became a bit treacherous on the ice and more effort than usual tromping through the snow, but the cat was not without company.
Going without trash service for three weeks during that period due to snow and ice became a bit more daunting. We don’t usually have too much trash, but a mix-up on recycling dates a month earlier meant we were already two weeks behind on that pick-up. Boxes were piling up in the kitchen with recyclables. When the bin emptied this week, we immediately filled it again. Hopefully, this catches us up for good this time.
Business
You may have noticed some picture changes on the website already. If you did, you may already suspect I had some professional pictures taken, and you would be correct. I contacted a photographer to take a handful of “casual, professional headshots” for my author materials. A couple of the pictures are on the website, I changed my Facebook profile photo, and one is on the back cover of my paperback.
This one is on another page, but Big Cat wanted to make an appearance here too!
That’s right! Hidden Memory is also out in paperback as of this week! I ran through a couple of author proofs to make minor formatting adjustments, and my first few author copies are on their way—probably still in the printing stage—now! If you signed up for my newsletter, you should have seen it in your inbox earlier today, and it includes a chance to enter to win a signed paperback! If you did not sign up in time for this giveaway, do not lose hope. There will be more in the future, so go to the home page and sign up now so you don’t miss out!
With the paperback complete, I’m focused on finishing up the current draft of Hidden Promise. I will pass polished chapters to my alpha readers and then revise Hidden Sanctuary in preparation for beta readers. On the business side, I’m learning about advertising on Amazon and hoping it does not cost me too much for the education!
I will end on a celebratory note this week. It has been just over a month since the book was released. I had a relatively successful launch, thanks primarily to word of mouth through my friends and family network to their networks. My advertising has resulted in eight additional sales. I have five reviews on Amazon, and I have two preorders for the next-in-series! Thank you all for your support!
Tiffany Shearn 
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