You’ll all get an email from me tomorrow morning with this weekend’s topic.

And remember, if any of you have an idea you’d like to become part of the weekend forum, just send me an email at kathieaustin@yahoo.com and we’ll talk about it the following weekend.

Kate

I realize that there aren’t a million movies about women that aren’t romances but there are some.

Which movies do you love? Which movies might inspire you in your writing? Tell us about them and why they work for you.

Kate Austin
www.kateaustin.ca

How do you name your characters? The town or the street they live on? Do you check a baby name book or a website that tells you what’s popular or what the name means? Do you check to see if you have replicated the name of a real place? Do you ever have to change your names part way through?

I’m in the middle of a book where the town I’m setting part of the story in is a real place, but I’ve realized – 2/3rds of the way through – that I’m going to have to change the name because many of the things I’m having happen there, didn’t. Bah.

Tell us about your naming experience.

We’d love to hear from you.

Kate

We’re on to Week 3 of the forum and so far, it’s been a great success. I’ve found books I definitely want to read thanks to your comments and books I absolutely need to read again.

This weekend I thought we might talk about setting because I love books where I feel like I can walk right into a place and imagine it in all its sensual details.

What books do this for you? And why?

I’m ready to add to my list!

Kate

It’s a little bit about inspiration and a little bit just pure curiosity. Do you listen to music while you’re writing? Do you listen to different music when you’re writing different things?

I know many of us write across genres – romance, science fiction or fantasy, erotica, women’s fiction – and I’m wondering if what you’re writing changes what music you’re listening to – or if you listen at all.

I’m the seldom-listen-at-all type but a friend who has soundtracks for every book sent me a copy of the soundtrack she’s been using for her newest book and I have to admit I’ve been fascinated. I might not go quite so far as to say hooked, but close. Prior to this soundtrack if I listened at all it was to a classical music station.

What about you? What’s your experience with music? And what are you listening to now?

Kate

Let’s start at the very beginning,
A very good place to start,
When we read we begin with ABC,
When we write we begin with ???
(with my apologies to Julie Andrews and Rodgers and Hammerstein)

When we talk about what we love, we begin with the women’s fiction books that got us started writing.

For me? I can still remember reading Alice Hoffman’s Turtle Moon. It blew me away, still does. It’s one of those books that I re-read every single year and I still get shivers when I read about the teenage boy trapped in the tree beside the drive-in and the man who blames himself for that boy’s death.

Alice Hoffman’s Turtle Moon is the book that took me past the joy of reading women’s fiction to the place where I wanted, more than anything, to write a book like that.

What about you? What book convinced you to start writing?

Kate