A Little Visual Stimulation By Catherine Greenfeder Where do you get your ideas? Right by my computer, I have a cork board with a photo montage of what I’d consider cover art hero material. This reminds me a little of my teen years where I’d post magazine photos of male idols I crushed on, it helps me with visual stimulation for story characters. Whether clipped from ads, Avon brochures, or an autographed postcard such as the one I recently received from the hunky, dark-eyed Billy Freda, the male cover model for Ellora’s Cave, they inspire. It might come out as a scene or in dialogue. Visual stimulation in nature helps me too. A walk in the park, a hike in the woods, and a stroll along a beach to collect seashells and listen to the surf can all stimulate the subconscious and aid with writing a scene later on. When I wrote WILDFLOWERS, set along the Oregon Trail in the late 1840’s, I had not walked the harsh prairie like those courageous pioneers, but I definitel...