Inspirations: Blue Butterflies

Actually taken after I chose to use blue butterflies.

Butterflies are a major part of my upcoming release, Into the Tides. But where'd I get the idea?

I's always the innocent things that are the creepiest, that stay with you the longest, when they're portrayed as evil. There's a reason people find old dolls and small children speaking in perfect harmony scary. I wanted something innocuous, something that scares almost no one. And I wanted to make it terrifying, because I wanted my novel to come alive for my readers, and to stick with them after they'd finished reading.

I wanted to make an impression. A terrifying impression.

One day I was surfing the net and found a gif of a monarch butterfly migration taking flight in Mexico. I thought, "There's something beautiful."

So I chose butterflies.

Blue butterflies, especially. I had this mental image of swarms of butterflies in blue, which just feels more magical to me than orange and gold monarch butterflies. Although the first butterflies you meet in the story aren't color-specified, in my head they're blue and white.

What other usually innocent creatures have you encountered in a novel portrayed as something scary?