Got Cold? by Jo Ann Brown

One of the fun things about being a writer is that we live in the future...even if we write about the past. We live with the next deadline and the next publication date, which usually are nine to twelve months apart.
But we also live in different seasons.
The first time I realized how this could affect me as a person was when I was working on a book set in the Yukon gold rush in 1898. My characters were going to be living through multiple months in the far north, including the winter months. I was writing the book in the midst of an August "dog days" heat wave. My characters were facing a “three dog night.” Remember the rock group by that name with their song “Joy to the World?” I was amused to find out the source of that name – that the night was going to be so cold that someone needed three dogs cuddled up next to them to keep them from freezing to death. So my characters were freezing, and I was typing in a heat wave. How did I feel in my house with no air conditioning and sweat dripping down into my eyes?
Chilled!

How is that possible? It’s because an imagination is a wonderful gift...and a very powerful tool. It’s one I’ve always used to help me with climate control.
My sister and I, when we were young and living in northern New York, would tell each other on our walk to the bus each snowy, frigid winter morning how warm we were. We’d point out flowers we were passing, discuss the color and the scent and the bees and butterflies. Again, imagination pulled us out of the freezer and made us feel less cold. Or it could have been the laughter as we each tried to out-imagine the other.

As I write this, a cold front is diving toward the southeast, and there are whispers that it may snow in northern Florida. Blizzards are forecast for the northeast, and fountains are freezing in Charleston, SC. More than half the nation is shivering in below zero temps.
So what’s the solution?
It’s not like we can change the weather on a whim, so the only thing to do is think warm. How? By reading a book with a tropical/warm-weather setting or by creating something with our imaginations. Right now, I’m working on a project with a spring setting, and I’m reading a book set in Savannah, Georgia. Both allow me to think of sunny days and warm breezes and beautiful bushes weighted down with flowers or fresh fruit. It’s the reason we love to read beach books in the winter and tales of the hero and heroine on a ski slope while the heat index heads toward 100+ degrees in the middle of summer. I read as many books set at Christmas in July and August as I do in November and December.

I came up with the idea for An Amish Arrangement, set in January in northern New York in an imaginary version of the town where I grew up, in the middle of the summer. I've written Christmas stories in the spring and the summer...but never in the winter. In fact, my writing is always a season or two off, so I'm imagining warm weather during the cold and vice versa!




That’s why my advice to you as the temps head toward record lows is to get something hot and chocolate to drink (with whipped cream, of course),pick up a good book and let your imagination take you to spend a cold winter evening somewhere lusciously warm. After all, spring and warm weather have to return sometime...right?

How Do You Come Up With This Stuff By Patty Smith Hall

Several weeks ago, I helped my cousin’s second grade class complete an English project. In the days before my visit, the kids were assigned to come up with a list of characters and setting for a story that we would complete together in class. The day of my visit arrived. Over the next hour, the kids and I weaved an imaginative story filled with battles and learning right from wrong and the power of a grandmother’s love.

Once we finished and the kids were assigned their new project, I sat down with another cousin who decided to visit that day.

“How do you do that?” she asked after the usual inquiries about grandchildren. “I mean, how do you come up with that stuff?”

I wasn’t sure I could tell her it all started with Batman.

Now, I’m not talking about the George Cooney-Ben Afleck-Val Kilmer caped crusader. I’m going old school with the campy television version starring Adam West and Burt Ward as the dynamic duo! With a right hook(BAM!) and a left upper cut(KAPOW!) these caped crusaders cleaned up Gotham City every week from the likes of the Joker, the Penguin and Catwoman.

But for me, Batman was so much more. It sparked my imagination for the first time in my young life. Many Sunday afternoons while on long boring drives with my parents, I’d step into the fantasy world of Gotham City, coming up with different stories with Batman and Robin. And of course, me.

Silly, I know, but looking back, I realized how much I learned about storytelling basics from the show—romantic conflict(Batman and Catwoman’s charged relationship,) chapter breaks(how would the dynamic duo escape the Riddler’s clutches THIS time?) and satisfying endings(the caped crusaders save the day!)

What were some of your favorite TV shows when you were growing up?

A multi-published author with Love Inspired Historical and Barbour, Patty lives in North Georgia with her husband of 30+ years, Danny; two gorgeous daughters, her son-in-love and a grandboy who has her wrapped around his tiny finger. When she’s not writing on her back porch, she’s spending time with her family or working in her garden.