Inspiration is a Lighthouse

"Where does your inspiration come from?"

That's a question writers are constantly asked, and it's one we really can't answer. At least, that's how I feel. The word "'inspiration" (or "awen", its Celtic equivalent) means to breathe into something, but where does that breath come from? Unless he's intentionally copying another creator's work, no writer can simply point to where inspiration comes from. That said, every now and then, we catch a glimpse of what drives our creativity; we gain some insight into the workings of our own minds. That happened to me this weekend, while visiting friends in Finistère, Brittany.

After a wonderful evening out and a good night's sleep in the port of Lesconil, I took my family to the Eckmühl Lighthouse in Penmarc'h on Sunday morning. I don't yet know how climbing this sixty-five-metre tower built at the end of nineteenth century will inspire me and find its way into one of my stories, but I know that it will. I felt it before I started climbing the two hundred and fifty steps to the top. That, my dear readers, is perhaps the closest I can come to telling you where my awen comes from. 

The Phare d'Eckmühl is an active lighthouse in Penmarc'h, Finistère department, Brittany, France. At a height of 213 feet (65 m) it is one of the tallest lighthouses in the world. The tower was built following a decision on April 3, 1882 to modernize the coastal lighthouses and raise the focal height of the Penmarc'h lighthouse, built in 1835, to 60m. However, engineers reported that the old tower could not support such an extension, so in 1890 it was decided to build a new lighthouse, the plans of which were completed on April 3, 1882. Funding came unexpectedly on 9 December 1892 when Adélaïde-Louise Davout, Marquise de Blocqueville, left substantial funds for the new tower in her will, provided the lighthouse was dedicated to the memory of her father, a marshal of the First French Empire Louis Nicolas Davout, who was "Prince d'Eckmühl", a title he won after the Battle of Eckmühl. The tower was inaugurated on October 17, 1897.

The people you meet, the places you go, an unexpected moment in time... This is where our inspiration comes from. This is what feeds our fire. And a good keeper doesn't let the fire go out!