Inspiration and Aspiration

Good Thursday morningm y'all! 'Tis almost the weekend!!!! ;)

So this morning may be a bit of a repeat of an older blog, but it's still gonna be a good one. I promise. :)



Writers teach and inspire each other simply by our work. Different voices, various perspectives all help us to grow and improve our craft. I can list numerous writers that have inspired me and who have helped me to grow and improve as a writer.



There is one, however, who created the highest level to which I aspire. That writer is Grant Nieporte.

Mr. Nieporte wrote a movie which I consider one of the most well written stories ever, Seven Pounds.




Seven Pounds is so original, so beautiful, so powerful. It is cerebral, emotional, cathartic. In my humble opinion, it is the perfect story.



Nieporte met someone who inspired him to write the story. He met someone he called, "one of the saddest people I've ever met in my life". He did not give a name, but he described this person's eyes, their aura, their body language. This person was involved in a horrible accident which left seven people dead.



Nieporte then takes that and uses that as inspiration to write Seven Pounds. What he does is create a new story from this one person's true story. He weaves new characters, new emotions, new actions and a new ending. What he crafted was a true masterpiece.



That's what I want to create. I want to write stories that touch people. I want to craft a story that is realistic, unqiue, beautiful, inspirational, emotional.



I think it's important for all of us to aspire to new things in our various ventures in life. Stagnancy is never a good thing. So, we set goals for ourselves and we work towards them. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we exceed even our own expectations and yes, sometimes we miss the mark. But as long as we move forward, we never truly fail.



This is me continuing to work and write in the hopes that one day I can craft a story that will touch you in the same way Seven Pounds touched me.

Happy reading, everyone!!! :)

Love is Blind Blog-A-Thon

I am of mixed race. I don’t necessarily look it, but my heritage includes white, black and indigenous. I grew up in a major metropolis, going to school with children of all races, colors and religions. So, when I began writing my two-set story (Imperfect and Impeccable), I had no idea what I was getting into when I joined a black woman with a white woman.
I have friends in interracial relationships, and I myself have had friends and lovers of all backgrounds and races. The thought of an interracial relationship was (and still is) normal to me. It didn’t faze me. I really didn’t think it was an issue. I just thought I was writing another love story.
Then, the story began to write itself. Suddenly, I was seeing the world through black and white glasses. People were suddenly defined by their skin color, not by their character. It was a very eye-opening experience to write about prejudices that were completely foreign to me. I actually learned a lot by writing this story.
I learned what it was like to see people from a different perspective. I started to see the labels: black, white, gay, straight. Now, I am not justifying the categorization of people. It’s just that some of my characters labeled other people and I wrote words and dialogue that you would never hear me say.
Being the colorblind person I am, I made sure to counter that with words and dialogue that were my own. Words that showed our humanity. Words that expressed acceptance, not just tolerance. Words that would help my prejudiced characters – and potentially even readers – see people for WHO they are rather than WHAT they are.
My tag line is, “stories of love without boundaries.” For me, love knows no gender, no color, no religion. Love is love. It is a connection between two people. It is the connection between their souls, not their skin. When I write, I write stories about people. What they look like has nothing to do with who they are. They are simply people in love.
I love writing about love. And honestly, I love writing about people from all walks of life. I love diversity, I love humanity. I will continue to write stories about people: white, black, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern – you name it! It doesn’t matter to me what my characters or my readers look like because in the end, we are all simply human.

For more information about Imperfect and Impeccable, as well as my other works, please visit the following pages:
Website: www.leharvey.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/leharvey77
Twitter: @leharvey77
Please feel free to e-mail me at: leharvey77@gmail.com

One lucky reader/commenter will be chosen at random to receive a FREE e-book copy of both Imperfect and Impeccable! Leave a comment and you may just get chosen! ;) Good luck and happy reading!

A Visual Feast in Words

I am a visual person. Don't tell me to go south on Main Street. Tell me when I reach the old church, turn left. A 22 gauge need has a blue cap, a 25 gauge needle has a red cap. I do so much by sight. I even write based on images.

Images help me to describe. Describe a face, a location and even an emotion. The dark, dank, dusty old antiquated building elicits a different emotion than the bright, light-yellow colored dining room with windows that stretched from the depths of the ground to the heights of the clouds. How did I do that? By looking at an image and selecting certain features in order to emote.

I have always had certain actors or actresses in mind to play the characters in my books should they ever be turned into movies. Often, I would study their faces and then create my own little twists so that the characters were indeed their own entity. But again, I used an image to help me.



Writing has been called "painting with words." I love that. Seriously, I simply adore the idea of putting words on a page that will help you to paint an image (and even an emotion) in your mind's eye. I do take painting with words somewhat seriously.

Lately, I have been using google images to search for my current WIP as well as the prequels to Loving Her (that's right, LH fans! You asked for more of these women, you're getting them! Hopefully this year, if I can get them all done!). I have been discovering actors and actresses that I hadn't heard of before, but they would be perfect for these characters. It's a lot of fun, honestly. I look at faces and narrow them down until I have the "one." And then I will look at lots of pictures of them. It's so exciting to put another face to the face that is in my mind. And as I study, I write. Like an artist or sculpter looking back and forth between their canvas and the model, I go between the images and my writing.



I can't describe why, but it gives me such excitement and joy. I just have so much fun writing this way. It makes it that much more enjoyable.

I hope that my writing elicits wonderful paintings in your mind and that my joy is detectable as you read.

Happy reading! :)