Love and Writing in Winter

Here in Wisconsin, we’re buried under so much snow this winter that driving down the street is like navigating a maze, with huge drifts to each side of you, and no visibility. The trees are coated with glass following an ice storm, and the world’s breathtakingly beautiful. I’m less impressed, however, with the fact that my car froze to the driveway yesterday. And the icy, treacherous roads. And the sub-zero temperatures.

As writers, I think this type of atmosphere is guaranteed to affect us in some way. If we’re not inspired by the beauty or jolted into action by the bitter cold, the opposite’s likely to be true. We either forge ahead and write for all we’re worth, or we crawl onto the couch with tea and books and stare hopelessly at the computer in the corner.

This year, I lashed out with every bit of creativity and heat I could summon and turned out a scorcher of a novella during the past few weeks, in the midst of major snow, winter illnesses, and drafts coming through the sliding glass doors in my office that merited gale warnings. No kidding, I wrote with a scarf on most of the time!

And what I turned out was this fun, wild novella with the most alpha male hero I’ve ever created. Larger than life, in every conceivable way, my Wind Wanderer has the wings of an angel, the tail of a demon, the dominance of a true alpha, and the face of a god. And my heroine, a witch with kick-ass supernatural powers, matches him every step of the way--bravery, stubbornness, a penchant for breaking rules, you name it, she’s right there with him.

So winter may be a literary hardship, but this year I found it an amazing catalyst to conjure up some fierce heat between my characters. I think winter also reminds us of the basic comforts, the things that make us human, really. How our characters touch, talk with, and comfort each other. That a hug can be as important as a shattering orgasm. That drifting off to sleep curled up against each other can seal a heroine and hero’s fate even more so than the fierce sex that preceded their slumber.

Stay warm everyone, and happy reading and writing!