How Nora Roberts got me past my slump

Let me just preface this by saying I've never actually met Nora Roberts. But a week or so ago, when one of my stinking cats woke me up at 3:15 a.m, she became my new best friend. I know, I know, usually they're my darling cats. Not so much, however, when Mojo is jumping on the bed, stomping across my body and piercing my brain with his dentist drill meow, then launching himself from my hip to the floor, only to immediately repeat the process.

Which....is not the point. That would be that by the time I let both cats out and came back upstairs, I was wide awake. I had alllllll sorts of time to angst over the way I'd recently started spinning my wheels with my WIP. Listening to my iPod didn't help me back to sleep. Listening to the trains pass through the Sodo didn't either--although it did give me an idea for a scene. Finally, giving up the idea of any more sleep that night, I turned on my bedside lamp (the soul mate was out of town) and picked up Nora Roberts' Savor The Moment, the 3rd in her Brides Quartet, which I had had a hard time putting down the night before.

The woman has seriously mad skills. She writes wonderful dialog and such real guys. I just dug the heck out of that book. And as a wonderful, marvelous bonus, it broke the block I'd been experiencing.

Good writing has always done that for me (inspired me, that is, not broken a block, as this was the first I'd ever experienced) It has nothing to do with the subject matter of the book--there is just something about reading excellent writing that somehow inspires me to improve my own. I think it's because it drags me out of my left brain--and I've always had my best writing ideas when I'm in the right half. And that's how it was that ungodly hour of the morning--I just suddenly knew the direction I needed to go in.

So although I doubt you'll ever read this, NR, I thank you. Your writing rocks and I appreciate more than I can say that it got me back in the game with my own. The words are--well, not flowing, exactly, since they never do that. But they're dribbling out at a much faster pace.

How about you all? What, or who, inspires or motivates you? Have books ever gotten you past or helped you through a bad time?

Inquirin' minds wanna know.