Fiction by L.L. Muir
  • Home
  • Books
    • Current Books list (with links)
    • The Ghosts of Culloden Moor
    • Time Travel Romances
    • Scottish Historical Romance
    • Regency Romance (Historical)
    • Western Romance
    • Romantic Suspense
    • Middle Grade Special Offer*
    • Coming Soon
  • About
    • L.L. Muir
    • Legend of the Muir Witches
  • Contact
  • Waiting Room (Blog)
  • New Page

Bottom line here...

7/17/2019

25 Comments

 
Okay, you really didn't expect me to start with the bottom line, did you?

The set up...
I've been dying to see the TOLKIEN movie for a while now. Since it wasn't released widely, I missed the opportunity to see it in a theater anywhere near my hometown, so I have to wait until it is released as a rental. I've got a couple of friends who are eager to see it too, so I'll probably do a viewing party at my house and make a celebration of it.
(Don't share any reviews of it. I want to see it through my own eyes, thanks.)

The interesting part...
The other day I was exhausted, absolutely drained physically and mentally, from moving out of the house we've spent the past 23 years in, the nest out of which we kicked four of our children and welcomed our first 6 grandchildren into. And that stress had me grasping for some distraction, something I could look forward to. I needed a light, any light, at the end of the tunnel.
And I remembered the TOLKIEN movie.
I thought about how it was going to make me feel, how completely it would make me forget my present stresses (if only for an hour or two), and I was instantly cheered. It was almost as exciting as hearing there would be another Harry Potter movie!

The "ahah" moment...
I suddenly realized that my humble contribution to the world of fiction is providing the same service for some readers!
Some terribly kind folks have told me they enjoy my work and it lifts their spirits, but I never really believed it until now. Rather, I imagined myself sitting on a stoop somewhere, holding out a tin cup and cardboard sign that reads, "Will tell silly stories for Pepsi and/or chocolate."
Believe me, I've appreciated every little coin dropped in my cup. But I doubted it would make much difference if I stopped writing and went back to arranging flowers for a living...
Until now.

Bottom line...
Now I have a bigger job to do. I have happiness to spread. No longer will I write just to expel stories from my brain in order to make room for new ones. Telling tales isn't simply a reason to have a sit-down job after decades of working on my feet. Or for bragging rights, to prove to a now-late brother that I wasn't so stupid after all, that I was smart enough to write a book, to finish it, to publish it. And do it dozens of times over.

Although many of those reasons got me here, especially the last one, I'm shooting for something bigger than vindication. My goal now is to inspire that TOLKIEN FEELING. I plan to stir up giant cauldrons of hope and happiness and ladle it out generously. I want your chest to expand when you hear L.L. Muir has a new release, a new series, a new audiobook. And I want to make sure my stories give you all the feels you were hoping for.

Hold on.
~L.L.R.R. Muir
*snort*

P.S. Here is the link to the movie trailer that has me so excited. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Girzu81oS8Q

25 Comments

    About the room...

    There are a number of rooms in my head. Behind one, there is a gnarly table covered with thick open books. If I close those and tuck them away on the shelves, my thoughts become less cluttered. I can focus on whatever is left on the table.

    The floor of another room has so many tasseled pillows you can never reach the surface beneath. Tapestries cover the stone walls. (This is from my childhood memory of a movie about Katherine the Great. I think Peter O'Toole was tickled there without mercy.) I loved her room so much, I created one of my own.

    The most trafficked place in my head, though, is The Waiting Room. Characters arrive of their own free will. Few are ever asked to leave--even the villains have to be allowed from time to time, though I try to finish their stories and hustle them out the door as quickly as I can.

    The room itself is square. No alcoves for characters to hide from me or initiate romances with characters from other books. For example, the main character from a Regency romance started flirting with Isobelle from 1496! I had to get to her story quickly before the relationship could threaten both their happily ever afters.

    I have an obsession with white-leather wing-backed chairs, so the waiting room is full of them. Let's face it, there's an actual duke in there and I can't just give him a folding chair from Sam's Club, can I? His given name is Stanley, and like Stanley, many of these characters have been waiting years for their turn. And though they need no food and water, no change of costume or trip to the loo, I like to think I've made them comfortable.

    I mentioned that few have been asked to leave. One of those was Mrs. Wiggs, a female gunfighter and a lovely woman for the most part. But she doesn't suffer fools or poor piano playing, so when she shot another character for a weak attempt to entertain the rest, I had to send her and her guns packin'. *snort* Get it? Packin'? 

    In any case, Mrs. Wiggs will have to bide her time in the waiting room of Bella Bowen until her trilogy is finished. (Bella Bowen is the pen name under which I publish Western romances.) She's better off there. Or at least, the other gun-toting characters will be able to defend themselves... As for the poor piano player, I don't think she's going to make it.

    Archives

    January 2025
    July 2020
    July 2019
    July 2018
    December 2017
    January 2017
    February 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All
    Character Development
    L.L. Muir
    Writing Process

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly