You’re My Inspiration with Lindsey Duga

One of the most common questions authors face is a deceptively difficult one to answer: “Where do you get your ideas?” Yet, the answers to that common question can be almost as interesting as the resulting story. Welcome to You’re My Inspiration, a new column dedicated to discovering what inspires a particular author and their work. Whether it be a lifelong love of mythical creatures, a fascinating bit of history, or a trip to a new and exciting place, You’re My Inspiration is all about those special and sometimes dark things that spark ideas and result in great stories.

This week, we bring you guest author Lindsey Duga, who joined us last year to share her Favorite Things! Today, we’re celebrating her latest release, Glow of the Fireflies, which came out on October 1st from Entangled Teen!

Annie Sullivan, author of A Touch of Gold and Tiger Queen, said:

“Glow of the Fireflies will sweep you away into a world of folklore and magic. Its rich descriptions and lush settings will entrap you so you won’t want to leave!”

So how did Lindsey write such rich descriptions and lush settings? Sit back, and let Lindsey share a certain “bookish spirituality….”

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A Bookish Spirituality

Ever been to a place that feels…spiritual? And I’m not talking strictly religious — though many take it there. Rather, I’m referring to a place that resonates with your spirit.

But what does that mean exactly? Well, it could mean different things to different people and different places. Maybe you feel at peace there, or maybe you are filled with awe, wonder, or inspiration. Perhaps you feel connected to it through your own past, or maybe that of your ancestors. Either way, that place does something to you, and it sticks with you.

For me, that spiritual feeling inspired me to create a whole story about it. Glow of the Fireflies is a book about a girl who returns to her childhood home that she doesn’t remember due to amnesia, but still feels inexplicably — and spiritually — connected to. Of course, that spiritual feeling is just one of the many things that inspired this novel, but since it’s the most difficult to grasp, let me try and expand on it through the lenses of my own experiences.

I grew up visiting my grandparents every summer in the mountains of West Virginia, right in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. We would rent cabins near Blackwater Falls and Seneca Rocks — places that had beautiful scenic overlooks where you could see miles and miles of mountains. I remember my parents having to pull me away to hike back down, because I couldn’t get enough of the scenery. We would also visit my great grandfather’s old farm that was on top of a mountain, and around the back, the earth dipped down into a cone shape that we referred to as “The Center of the Earth.” In the middle was a gigantic tree that took up the whole bottom. It was so strange and fascinating that it made the place seem magical.

Another place that gave me this feeling was my great aunt’s garden. It was overgrown with flowers, and I used to sit out and watch the “moon flowers” bloom at sunset — also known as “tropical white morning glory” or my aunt called them “seven o’clocks” because they would unfold their petals at around seven in the evening. That in itself was so mystical to me that I had to think surely, surely that was the work of nature spirits or fairies.

Each of these places I connected with, spiritually. Whether it was because I felt a connection to my family’s homes and their past, or because it was so beautiful and ethereal that it gave me a feeling of serenity. And that feeling made me want to write a whole book about it!

My Childhood: I already mentioned that I visited my grandparents every summer in the mountains, but it wasn’t just the mountains that inspired this book, it was the childhood memories that came along with it. My cousins, older brother, and I would spend long hours playing outside until dusk, and even then, we wouldn’t go inside. Because that’s when the fireflies came out. Using mason jars or old peanut butter jars, we would catch the fireflies and hold them for the evening, letting them go after we had gotten a popsicle or ice cream bar.

Being the only girl in my group of cousins, I relied a lot on my imagination to keep me entertained while they could spend most of the day playing video games or talking about Star Wars. So I would often make up stories that had to do with the mountains and the magical creatures I believed lived in them. I’d spend hours making up these stories until I was called out for a water balloon fight or slip n’ slide.

These childhood memories were precious to me, and they inspired me to write a story about a girl who doesn’t have any…it might seem a little backward, but that’s what makes writing interesting. The big what if? What if someone is just missing the first ten years of their life? Critical memories that might have made them who they are. Are they still the same person? Someone new? What must that be like?

The Great Smoky Mountains: If I haven’t already talked about the mountains enough, let me reiterate: I love the mountains! Especially the Smokies. There’s something truly otherworldly about them. When I set out to write this book, I wanted to include as much real world information about the Smokies as I could. So I went on a mini-tour through them and learned a lot of really interesting facts that I wove into my book (while also connecting it to the magical in my world). For example, did you know…?

• There is a species of fireflies that synchronize their lighting patterns.
• The rivers and creeks in the Smokies are a consistent sixty degrees most of the year.
• The Tuckaleechee Caverns in the Smokies hosts the most sensitive seismic station on Earth.
• The “Blue Smoke” of the Smokies is actually vapor from the vegetation that is released and the molecules that make up the gas scatter blue light from the sky.

Synchronous Fireflies: Back in college, I took a trip with some friends to stay in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. While we were outside around a campfire, my friend told me about the fireflies that live in these mountains, and how they were the only species in the Smokies that had synchronized lighting patterns. I simply couldn’t get over that. How did they light up at the same time? What made them do it? After a bit of research, I discovered that scientists believe it to be due to mating purposes, but for a while I was thoroughly convinced that it was due to something much more magical. Kind of like my own nature myth, I came up with an ethereal reason as to why they light up at the same time.

Side note: I encourage everyone to go see these fireflies in the Smokies! Tickets and parking passes during the viewing in the Great Smoky Mountains are difficult to get, but worth every second!

New Age Spiritualism: Ever walk into a shop full of crystals, tarot cards, incense, and wonder, what is all this about? I used to love going into these “New Age” shops but I never truly understood this movement. So I Googled and started doing some research. 

For those of you not familiar, the New Age Movement was a term thrown about a lot in the 1970’s — think of pop culture “hippie” references like Across the Universe and the musical, Hair. While often considered to be a religion, New Age Spirituality does not have many of the traits of a traditional one. There is no religious text, central organization, recognized clergy, dogma or creed, and definitely no formalized membership. Instead, it is more of a culmination of many ideas, practices, philosophies, and teachings like Astrology, Taoism, Hinduism, Theosophy, and others. New Age Spirituality is very much an individualized religion, yet it stresses the individual’s effect on the world around them. The Age of Aquarius was all about eliminating discrimination caused by racism, nationalism, and gender biases. It strove for a world of equality and spiritual freedom and expression.

But I digress. I didn’t mean for this to sound like a term paper! Going back to my book… while reading about New Age Spirituality, I came across some theosophists’ ideas that would work well in the world-building elements of Glow of the Fireflies. According to Theosophist Geoffrey Hodson, there are spiritual creatures that influence nature called devas. Deva is a Sanskrit word and it means “heavenly, divine, anything of excellence.” In Hinduism, a deva is a divine, godlike being. In New Age beliefs, devas play a more specific role in nature and are thought to influence ecology by manipulating elements. This inadvertently gave me the idea to have nature spirits that could control the basic elements: earth, wind, water, and even fire.

But the biggest New Age belief that influenced my books was the idea of the three planes of existence: the physical plane (where physical matter resides), the astral plane (where spirits live), and the ethereal plane (the boundary between the two). Using these planes, I created a world of nature spirits in the Smokies.

As you can tell, I poured a lot of heart and soul into Glow of the Fireflies. And yes, all authors do — for all their books. But there is a lot of ME — Lindsey Duga — in this book. It’s both exciting and absolutely terrifying to put so much of myself on these pages, but I’m truly proud of how it turned out. I hope you enjoy my story that much more now that you know the behind-the-scenes inspirations for this world and its magic.

And next time you go to a place that you can connect to, search your soul to see if you have a book inside you. I bet you do.

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Lindsey Duga is a middle grade and young adult writer with a passion for fantasy, science fiction, and basically any genre that takes you away from the real world. She wrote her first novel in college while she was getting her bachelor’s in Mass Communication from Louisiana State University.

Other than writing and cuddling with her morkie puppy, Delphi, Lindsey loves catching up on the latest superhero TV show and practicing yoga.

Find Lindsey at her website, on Twitter, or on Instagram.

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