“Mind if I lift your kilt?”

Where a Writer Finds Her Inspiration

Thank you so much for having me here on Writerspace today! I’m Heather McCollum, mother of three overly dramatic kids, wife of one Highland hero (so I know what’s under his kilt!), ovarian cancer slayer, lover of chai lattes and dragonflies, and USA Today bestselling author of Scottish historical romances. I’m here celebrating the release of THE HIGHLANDER’S TUDOR LASS.

I’m often asked where I get my ideas. I feel like ideas are just floating around out in the world everywhere, and I have fun picking them out of the tangle of must-dos and everyday occurrences. It means that I’m sometimes hyperaware of my surroundings. The worlds around us are our own personal settings, just like settings for characters in books. Just like I need to recognize the sights, smells, and sounds in my books, I try to take those all in while living my life.

Then I let my mind wander and expound upon those details. For example, I walk my dog each morning through my suburban neighborhood. Being the conscientious dog owner, I pick up her poop and drop the biodegradable baggie in the neighborhood dog waste cans set along the streets. Almost every time I lift that lid to toss it in, I imagine something unexpected being in there. Like, what if there was a severed arm in there? What would I do? What if it had a diamond ring on its finger (no I wouldn’t steal it, but it would make me know it wasn’t a robbery gone wrong)? What if my crazy golden retriever jumped up and grabbed it and ran off with it? Would I scream? Call the police? Yell at her to drop it?

I also try to choose which house I would investigate first if suddenly I was the only one left on the planet. LOL! And what if I rounded the corner where the house sits that is surrounded by mulch (they have no grass in their yard at all) and see a lawn service guy there looking suspicious? Or a man riding a horse in a kilt who stops to ask me what year it is in a heavy brogue? See, ideas everywhere! Or delusions depending on who you ask!

Even though I write 16^th and 17^th century romance, themes and lessons about love, hate and revenge carry through the centuries. Here’s a TMI example from my own life. I had terrible menstrual cramps as a young adult, crippling even. One night in college, when I was dating my future husband, a false fire alarm went off. There was three feet of snow outside, and I was having extremely bad cramps. My boyfriend literally carried me through the snow to his dorm and then proceeded to wake up everyone by knocking on doors until he could find me ibuprofen. I believe that was when I decided to write about brawny, golden-hearted heroes.

This modern life event translated into a scene in one of my first books, CAPTURED HEART, where the hero rides through the night to get raspberry leaves to bring back for the heroine who is in pain from her “monthly flux.”

So when asked where I find my ideas, I really have to say that they are everywhere from tossing dog waste to suffering from cramps to surviving chemo to stopping to stare at the morning dew on the perfect red rose. In THE HIGHLANDER’S TUDOR LADY, the heroine wears Tudor court dresses, so my mother made me a full Tudor gown with stays, bum roll, and stomacher so I could feel what it was like for my heroine in the costume. Thank goodness, my mother is a very talented seamstress and lives right down the street!

Recently I journeyed to Scotland and explored some castle ruins. Talk about inspiration! It was everywhere from the dustiest corner in a 15^th century pub to the heavy silence in Edinburgh’s St. Margaret’s Chapel. But I can find ideas at home too. I just have to remember to open my eyes, breathe in the smells, touch the rough stone walls, listen to the whispers in the breezes, and lift my husband’s kilt – LOL!

Do you like to explore historical places? Where have you been? Where would you like to go?

A randomly drawn commenter will win a signed copy of THE HIGHLANDER’S UNEXPECTED PROPOSAL and a fun Highlander swag gift package (US only, International winner will receive a $10 US gift card to Amazon).