T.P. Boje on Inspiration

Click here for my review of T.P. Boje's The Eye of the Crystal Ball, posted yesterday, and today I'm delighted to welcome her to my blog. The Eye of the Crystal Ball is a classic fantasy quest with a young girl crossing a magical world in search of a precious artifact. But where does the author find her inspiration? Over to you Therese...

Inspiration:

     Inspiration can come from places you would never expect. Like something you read in a newspaper, or hear people talk about at work or from something you remember from your childhood.
     The story in my latest book “The Eye of the Crystal Ball” is very new, but the main character - the gypsy-girl Sara – has been with me always. She appeared in my head when I was still a child.Where did she come from? Well, my parents actually. It is kind of strange I admit, but I think it is part of the reason why I have such a great imagination still as an adult. The thing is, my parents (mostly my dad – but my mom didn’t contradict him) used to tell me that I wasn’t their child. According to their story I was left on the doorstep at their house as an infant. They found me there in a small basket with a note on the pillow telling them to take good care of me. They told me I was a gypsy girl and that my real parents were going to come and get me one day soon.
     I know it sounds like a horrible thing for parents to say to their child, but it wasn’t like I was young enough to really believe them. But I loved the story, and it made me very interested in gypsies and whenever we went on vacation to the Southern of France – where we always went because we had an apartment there – I would always go out looking for gypsies and try to get in contact with them. I didn’t believe the story – but I think maybe a big part of me wanted to. And that is where I think my love for storytelling began. My dad would tell me vividly about the gypsy way of living (in order to prepare me for when I had to go back, he would say while winking his one eye) and I would get drawn right into these stories of the dark and mysterious people from distant and exotic places. Stories filled with music and dancing and fluttering skirts. And my new best friend became Sara, the gypsy girl in a long red dress that would dance in my mind and make me dream of being different, or at least something else than the pretty ordinary girl from a middleclass family in Denmark that I really was.

     As I grew up she followed me. I knew in my heart that I would one day write her story, and after having written four mystery novels, three in Danish that are published in Scandinavia and Germany, and one in English, I finally realized some time this spring that Sara had returned and she was getting ready to go on a dangerous quest to find a cure for her little brother’s strange illness.
     I told my parents that I had written the story and they laughed a lot about it. So did I. To their defense I can tell you, that they told my older brother that he came from the monkey-cage at the local Zoo, so I would prefer my story anytime over his.
     But to be honest I loved that they gave me a world of imagination and they made me believe that I could do anything. Even fly. Yes, you heard me. Fly. My dad told me that he could teach me how to fly and every weekend for a long period of time we would practice in the driveway. My dad would put me on our garbage can outside and then he would have me jump towards him while he yelled: Flap your arms, flap!
     And I jumped, of course, and flapped firmly believing that I one day would fly over the top of the roofs and look down at the small world underneath me.
     Some small part of me still believes that one day it will happen. As long as I keep flapping … and believing.


Thank you Therese. Don't forget to leave any questions and comments below for Therese to answer. And here's a synopsis of the book if you're wondering what grew from that inspiration.

Synopsis:

     When Sara was newborn her parents left her at the doorstep at Mr. and Mrs. Schneider’s house.
    When Sara was ten she discovered she was telekinetic. She began to move stuff around when she got angry just by her will alone.
    When Sara was twelve her real parents came for her and took her with them to live like the Gypsy that she was – or Romani as they like to call themselves. They told her she was going to fulfill a prophesy. That it was once said that out of the Romani people the greatest sorceress who had ever lived would be born.
     When Sara was thirteen she had a baby brother and when she was fourteen he got very sick with a strange illness.
     To save her baby-brother Sara sets off on a quest to find his cure – well knowing that it will cost her dearly.
     Soon Sara finds herself going through the Singing Cave, crossing Wild Witches Valley, talking to a ten foot giant snail, rescuing the Beads of Souls from the Hell-hounds, escaping a spell in Vamila, the Forest of Vanity, visiting the king at the City of Lights before she finally reaches the Black Castle where she is told the Eye of the Crystal Ball can tell her how to cure her brother’s strange illness.
   But nothing is free in this world - and as Sara soon will know - everything has a price.

Author bio:

T. P. Boje is a mother of two, a stepmother of another two and a hardcore cartoon lover, Tim Burton enthusiast, and enjoys any movie the Coen Brothers have made (with the big Lebowski being her favorite strongly followed by Burn after Reading). She is also a Y/A fantasy and mystery-writer. She is originally from Denmark but currently living in Florida, USA. Her books are translated into several languages.
To learn more follow her on Twitter, visit her fansite on Facebook or check out her web-page: http://www.tpboje.blogspot.com/