What inspired me to start writing? by Rita Karnopp

Inspired!  I’m often asked what inspired me to start writing, and I must say…if it hadn’t been for a challenging childhood, I might not have wanted to write.  We were poor and an extremely dysfunctional family.  At night, hungry and trying to block out parents screaming at each other, I would climb into bed with my four siblings, close my eyes and dream up stories to block out the rest of the world….I was ten years old.

A little left of center? To this day I start my night by creating a story in my mind…before falling asleep.  How has this process influenced my writing…it’s been incredible.  It helps me think my story plot through as I play the scenes through like a movie in my mind.  If the ‘story’ I’m working on stalls…I will bring that scene into my mind…and start dreaming.  The next day I sit in front of my computer and start typing… the story unfolds beneath my fingertips!  I’m not joking… many of my stories are created or resolved this way.

In the beginning….I started writing when my kids were little.  My office was in the front room living room, and fortunately we had a nice family room a little further away.  I never told the kids I didn’t’ have time for them, but they were wonderful in their attempts to tip-toe past my desk.   Most times it was way after 10:00 or 11:00 pm before I was able to sit at my computer and start writing…until the wee hours of the morning. 

It was only later that the kids shared their many stories about the click…click…click…of my keyboard they listened to as they fell asleep!  I never knew that until they started teasing me about the click…click..click…pause… and they’d hope I was done for the night … low and behold it would start up all over again… click..click..click…pause!  (Of course I would stop only to think before clicking away again!)  I love them all the more for never complaining or giving me grief about it!  And of course my husband has been nothing but 100% behind all my efforts.   We are married 40 years this October and I think he’s more proud of me… than me!

I’ve started writing and I can’t stop!!  It seems like I’ve been writing forever!  Help!!  It’s my goal in life to be an International best selling author.  I’m happiest when I’m writing.  I get lost writing about Native Americans in the 1800s, and although I didn’t live in the 1800s… you might say I feel I have.  I sense the air, the mountains, the land, and of course the people.  I can relate to the laws of the people and the way of their lives. 

I put how I feel about relationships in my books.  I interject the conflict of the times such as white vs. red.  Prejudices haven’t changes all that much…they are still wrong and cause heartache and grief.  People in the 1800s were no different than we are today… we want to love and be loved.  We want harmony and happiness.  And of course I love humor…and I strive to add as much as I can into my books.  Indians loved playing jokes on each other and teasing.

I write from my heart ~  I don’t think there is anything more sexy and ‘breath-taking’ than a Native American warrior with a bare chest and wearing nothing but a breechclout!  Maybe it helps that I’m about one-sixteenth Chippewa Cree Indian and I’m drawn to anything with feathers, beads, and leather!  I love the history.  I love how the tribes existed and how they carved a living in tune with nature and each other.  If the white man (napi’-kwan) hadn’t been so sure they were right…. they might have learned a lot from the red man.

I write mainly about the Blackfeet tribes.  Why?  Because everyone writes about the Sioux, Apache, Comanche or Cherokee… but who writes about the Blackfeet, the fierce and most feared tribe of the plains?  Rita Karnopp does! 

It seems I’ve been writing forever… I have just released my fourteenth book with Books We Love.  I write Indian historicals and suspense, but no matter what genre’ I’m writing…you can be sure you’ll experience either the west of the 1800s or the west of today.