Kamlyn Paige is a young woman whose son was killed in front of her by a demonic figure. Just when she feels her life is over, a strange neighbor opens her world by revealing all the things nightmares are made of are actually true. She joins the Chamber of Darkness as a Huntsman and dedicates her life to fighting evil creatures and beings while searching for the one who took her son’s life.
Cara Bellamy is Kamlyn’s best friend. When her parents died when she was nineteen and seven months pregnant, Cara moved in with her to help her raise her son Danny. She works at a 1950’s inspired diner for a day job and helps Kamlyn with her supernatural research by night.
Don Vander is the one who introduced Kamlyn to the Chamber of Darkness and the monsters they fight. When tragedy strikes the Paige household again, Don is there to pick up the pieces while Kamlyn leaves for revenge.
Sariel (AKA Sari) is part of a fallen angel group called the Watchers, who make sure the best Huntsmen of earth can get through their jobs safely. But there’s more to his guarding of Kamlyn than he first reveals…something deadly.
Adena is a fire witch and the oldest of the four in the sister coven Kamlyn and Sari track down. There’s something fishy about these girls, and it’s not just the fact that their grass is green in the middle of a Maine winter.
Brook is a water witch in the sister coven. She’s bright and bubbly.
Aura is a air witch. She is scattered and a little messy, but full of life.
Demi is an earth witch and the youngest of the sister coven. She’s sweet and innocent with an especially green thumb.
Baba Yaga is an ancient being. Some say she is a witch. It is said she lives in a small one-room hut that sits on chicken legs for stilts. In stories she often helps or hurts the hero with their journey. Which will she provide for Kamlyn?
Rob is Danny’s father and Kamlyn’s only ex-boyfriend. He bailed on her when he found out she was pregnant to run away to LA to be an actor. In six years he never got a single acting job.
I thought I’d put together a post about different types of inspiration. With technology there are endless ways to find your muse. Here are a few that have hit me lately for my Kamlyn Paige series and how I organized it all so I could go back for reference. I hope this helps you in some way with your own projects!
Musical Inspiration
This has never really been a big one for me. I don’t know why, because music is a constant part of my life. But when it comes to inspiring my stories, it just never has…until last week. I had just finished an intense session of yoga at the library (don’t let its name fool you. There was nothing gentle about that stretching!) and I was driving home singing obnoxiously to the radio. Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams came on. Now this wasn’t the first time I heard the song, by far, but for some reason that time it struck a chord with me (sorry for the pun). I saw my main character Kamlyn Paige in a situation with another minor character I never planned to show again. It completely changed the direction the series was headed, but in this really great way!
To make sure that I didn’t forget about the song and the idea it gave me I went over to Spotify to create a playlist for my series. (If you don’t have it, then you should download it. Great way to discover new music!) Wildest Dreams would have been the first song I added if Miss Swift hadn’t declined having her album released on Spotify. Oh well, that’s what youtube is for. But I still plan to create a playlist on Spotify for inspiration and it’s also great for marketing because you can share that playlist on your social networking sites. It may get you new readers just because they like a song on your list.
Another song that I feel embodies the entire series is by
30 Seconds to Mars called This Is War
Taylor Swift – Wildest Dreams
Character Inspiration
This is something I have done for a long time now. When I create a character I already have a vision in mind of what they look like, a short description, and I try to find someone online that embodies that so I can put an image into others to possibly get them interested in the story. (If they like the actor I picked as the inspiration for my character then maybe they’ll think the book is worth checking out.)
Most of the time I already know which actor or actress is my inspiration and I’ll just pull up an image on google and save it to share as an inspiration photo on Instagram, Pintrest, Twitter, and Facebook. But if I haven’t found that right person yet I will type in a short description (like long wavy brown hair) and see what comes up. If I sift through enough photos I usually find one that’s close. When it comes to sharing this inspiration I would say, for me, Instagram and Twitter work the best. I still haven’t created enough of a following on Pinterest and to be honest, I just don’t get it yet. I liked creating boards for my own references, but that’s about it. I don’t really know if anyone else looks at them or not. I really like posting them to Instagram now that they have the layout feature, too! I have created some really great inspiration collage pictures with it that I use to promote.
I will often post a pictures of the character inspiration and then attach a brief profile of that character to share on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.These have gotten a lot of responses, especially when they aren’t for people like the creatures and beings of Broken Angel.
Setting Inspiration
There’s a lot of times, especially in the Kamlyn Paige series, where I’m writing about a place I’ve never been to. In those situations I always Wikipedia the town to learn all I can about it. This often includes some pictures, but to get a real feel of what it’s like there I will use google maps street view and basically take a virtual tour of where I want to write about. This has come in super handy for lengthy descriptions I would have otherwise been lost on.
Spencer, TN for my upcoming Kamlyn Paige novel Earth Angel
Mythology Inspiration
This one is a toughie sometimes because there’s so much out there. It seems like every time I tried to look up “Supernatural Creatures or Beings” for a list, everything from the TV show Supernatural came up. I wasn’t looking to copy their monsters. I wanted to find my own. I finally found what I would call a master list of monsters on Wikipedia that has been the most helpful research for the Kamlyn Paige series and I’m sure many books after them.
Other than that, I just use google to search monsters, beings, creatures, spirits, demons, and anything else I can think of in hopes that a Supernatural fan site doesn’t come up. (Not that I’m not a fan! I love that show!)
I just want my work to be original and not remind my readers of someone else’s work. So those are my major inspirations right now and how I like to organize them. Mostly my organizing is all done on my computer in ways that it makes it easy to share with my social network sites.
I hoped this has given you some inspiration! If you have any of your own inspirational tricks, leave them in the comments section for others (and myself!)
If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why?
I would have wanted to have been the original author of the Harry Potter series. It’s been my favorite series since the first book came out almost 18 years ago. J.K. Rowling has an understanding of people and their nature, reactions, and actions that I have yet to see in any other author.
Writers are often associated with loner tendencies;is there any truth to that?
I can’t speak for all authors, but for me there is a lot of truth to that. Growing up I only had one or two close friends I would spend time with. I liked to spend most of my time in my room blowing off homework to read. Even today when my husband asks if I want to go to the bar with him and his friends, 9 times out of 10 I’ll say no thanks because I’d rather have the quiet house to myself to work on my book or read. (That’s not to say I can’t let my hair down and have fun every now and then, too).
Do you believe a book cover plays an important role in the selling process?
Everyone always says not to judge a book by its cover, but that’s exactly what most readers do these days (whether they admit it or not). I strongly believe that the cover is what draws a reader in. The description on the back or on Amazon is what convinces them it’s worth reading or not. And the reviews and short preview inside the book are what convinces them to buy it. There’s been many times where I have bought a book based on the fact that I liked the cover.
Do you read and reply to the reviews and comments of your readers?
All the time! I love to hear what my readers think of my work. It helps me to grow as an author. The good ones make my day and the bad ones are usually followed by a spike in sales for some reason (don’t ask me why. I have no idea!). Getting to know your audience is important and reading their reviews is a perfect way to do that.
How much of yourself do you put into your books?
I put a lot of myself into my books. I first wrote Dead Soilbecause zombies are kind of mine and my dad’s thing. We used to watch The Walking Dead together every week and even now we’ll talk about the show after it airs. I wrote the book because of that bond we have together and it turns out that I really enjoy writing about zombies. They’re so fun for me. I’d have to say Girls Like Us, my first and currently only Women’s Fiction novel, has the most “me” in it. It reads like a collection of short stories that follow two best friends through their ups and downs. Some of the stories in there happened with me and one of my friends and some of them are completely made up (I’ll never say which is which, though!).
“Dead Soil is a zombie novel, as you can tell by the title already. It’s set in a world that is cursed with an incurable flue, a fatal one. The probability of it being lethal has people panicking – little did they know that it will raise the dead from their graves. At first it’s unnoticeable, because the zombies rise in little groups, but soon the plague starts to spread like wildfire.
It’s the beginning of an apocalyptic world. There is a young and thriving scientist determined to find the cause and solution to this infestation. The story revolves around many lives within the city simultaneously – the scientist, comic book store owner, and other people who are trying their best to unite against this zombie apocalypse…” Read the full book review
Kamlyn Paige joins a group of supernatural hunters in search of her son’s killer
When a mysterious neighbor sees her weeping on the sidewalk, he helps her up and introduces her to a new world. She goes with him to the Chamber of Darkness, an underground society, where she learns to fight evil beings and creatures as a Huntsman. Will she be able to make it through training in order to find her son’s demonic killer and bring it to justice?
Kamlyn Paige is a young woman whose son was killed in front of her by a demonic figure. Just when she feels her life is over, a strange neighbor opens her world by revealing all the things nightmares are made of are actually true. She joins the Chamber of Darkness as a Huntsman and dedicates her life to fighting evil creatures and beings while searching for the one who took her son’s life.
Cara Bellamy is Kamlyn’s best friend. When her parents died when she was nineteen and seven months pregnant, Cara moved in with her to help her raise her son Danny. She works at a 1950’s inspired diner for a day job and helps Kamlyn with her supernatural research by night.
Don Vander is the one who introduced Kamlyn to the Chamber of Darkness and the monsters they fight. When tragedy strikes the Paige household again, Don is there to pick up the pieces while Kamlyn leaves for revenge.
Sariel (AKA Sari) is part of a fallen angel group called the Watchers, who make sure the best Huntsmen of earth can get through their jobs safely. But there’s more to his guarding of Kamlyn than he first reveals…something deadly.
Adena is a fire witch and the oldest of the four in the sister coven Kamlyn and Sari track down. There’s something fishy about these girls, and it’s not just the fact that their grass is green in the middle of a Maine winter.
Brook is a water witch in the sister coven. She’s bright and bubbly.
Aura is a air witch. She is scattered and a little messy, but full of life.
Demi is an earth witch and the youngest of the sister coven. She’s sweet and innocent with an especially green thumb.
Rob is Danny’s father and Kamlyn’s only ex-boyfriend. He bailed on her when he found out she was pregnant to run away to LA to be an actor. In six years he never got a single acting job.
Hello Readers!
