We all draw our inspiration from different sources, but the majority of mine comes from books. Some of my favorite authors include Julia Quinn, Lauren Willig, Stephanie Laurens, Lisa Kleypas and Sabrina Jeffries...just to name a few! There are some other phenomenal books out there that I think everyone should read like The Alchemist and Beneath a Marble Sky. And of course there are many research books that inspire ideas: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew is wonderful, though A Treasury of Royal Scandals is quite a scintillating read!

I also draw a lot of inspiration from movies - period movies, to be exact. My favorite (though I know a great many people really dislike this particular movie) is the recent version of Mansfield Park with Frances O'Connor. I won't list them all here, but if it's a Jane Austen adaptation or of a similar ilk, I love it!

Many draw from music, and having been a musician myself, you would think I would too. However, I find music to be distracting oftentimes or it pushes me to melodrama in my writing. Sometimes Christmas music in the background is okay, but mostly I prefer silence.

Lastly, I think pictures are a great way to get a feel for the time and inspire ideas. Please enjoy some of my favorites below...