Places As Inspiration

By Lucy Felthouse (Guest Blogger)

One of the most common questions I'm asked when interviewed is "Where do you get your ideas from?" My answer is always the same: Anywhere and everywhere. Overheard conversations, people, places, TV shows, books... the list goes on.

Perhaps one of my most common inspirations, though, is location. I spend a lot of time outdoors, visiting all manner of cool and quirky places, and often these places spark ideas in my mind. An example is in one of the stories in my latest release, lesbian mini-anthology, While the Boys Are Away. One of the stories in the anthology, Beside the Seaside was inspired by a visit to Lyme Regis last year. It was my first time there, and the row of colourful beach huts along the seafront caught my eye, not to mention my imagination.

Therefore, I wasn't surprised when I started writing a story based at the seaside, and involving beach huts. I don't want to give too much away, but here's a little snippet:

She was heading along the promenade towards the row of brightly coloured beach huts that delighted tourists all year round.

Of course, living locally, I’d never needed to use one. I could scuttle home from the beach and hit the shower in ten minutes flat. This was clearly not the case with Candy as, once we reached the end of the row, she rummaged around in her pocket.

Bringing out a key, she grinned at me. “Wanna guess which one is mine?”

Looking at the wooden huts, I wondered if it was a trick question. They were all painted in pretty pastel colours, but that was it. None had any defining features, other than a unique number to identify them.

Candy nudged me playfully, almost causing me to drop my lunch on the floor.

“I’m just messing with ya,” she said. “You’d never guess. If it was up to me, I’d have whacked jazzy patterns or something on ours. But they’ve all gotta stay uniform, or summat. My grandad’d kill me if I did anything. It’s his really, you see, but he lets us all use it pretty much when we want.”

“Oh.” I said, my brain having lost the ability to think of anything more intelligent or interesting to say. I needn’t have worried; Candy was plenty chatty enough for us both.

“Hold this,” she said, handing me her parcel of food. “This lock’s a bugger.”

You'll never look at beach huts the same way again after reading the story ;)

Thanks, Lisabet, for having me here and allowing me to share a little information about the background to my writing.

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Three hot lesbian short stories for your delectation!

While the Boys Are Away

On a camping trip with their boyfriends, best friends Amelia and Gemma are having a great time. However, when the boys have trouble lighting the barbeque, the girls decide it’s time to leave them to it and beat a hasty retreat to the shower block. Once there, they take a seriously steamy shower together and become oblivious to everything except the taste of one another.

Beside the Seaside

When Ella meets Candy outside the tattoo parlour, she’s instantly smitten. Candy is cute, confident, and what’s more, she’s recently had her tongue pierced. When Candy suggests that she and Ella should go and grab some fish and chips, Ella is more than happy to go along with the plan and spend more time with her new crush. But it soon becomes apparent that Candy has more on her mind than a good meal – and Ella’s about to get up close and personal with the newly pierced beauty.

The Inner Circle

When Adele spots her good friends Donna and Josie spending time together and being all chummy without her, she’s devastated. After seeing the two women heading into one of their houses together, she’s determined to find out exactly what’s going on. Peering through the front window of the house reveals more than Adele was betting on, and what’s more, she likes it.

More information and buy links: http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/while-the-boys-are-away/

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Lucy is a graduate of the University of Derby, where she studied Creative Writing. During her first year, she was dared to write an erotic story - so she did. It went down a storm and she's never looked back. Lucy has had stories published by Cleis Press, Constable and Robinson, House of Erotica, Noble Romance, Ravenous Romance, Resplendence Publishing, Summerhouse Publishing, Sweetmeats Press and Xcite Books. She is also the editor of Uniform Behaviour and Seducing the Myth. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9