"So, how do you start a fantasy novel? I mean, where do you get your inspiration?"

"So, how do you start a fantasy novel?  I mean, where do you get your inspiration?" That is the first question people ask me when I'm at a book signing, or maybe at a restaurant where someone introduces me and then starts talking about my books. And I'm never quite sure how to answer them. I suppose that's because I don't get inspired per-se. My inklings and fancies live inside me—have always been there. Kind of like my spleen or my esophagus. In fact, the illusions and fantasies are probably more important than either of those body parts. Because the fantasy is what makes me…well me.

When I was small I had a terrific memory. I used to go around the house reciting all my immediate, and extended family's birthdays—including the year.  Our clan numbers well over one hundred. I would also drive everyone to distraction by spouting long poems. A particularly intense fascination with The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere caused the population of my household to duck into another room when they saw me coming. It caused a nervous tick in my mother's left eye for at least a month. And she forbade me from even reading The Raven ( a personal favorite) aloud.

She asked me once why I felt compelled to do it. My answer startled her. I told her I had a large storage room in my head with endless rows of tall cases comprised of many, many tiny drawers. Most of the drawers were empty then (after all I was only about seven years old) and I knew I needed to fill them—with stories, and poems and necessary tales that begged to be told. My "story- keeper" was a fellow named "Hob," who the family later came to call my invisible friend. Hob is still with me today—busy as ever, filing and storing the necessary tales. He is also the inspiration for the character Hob in my first novel November in Salem: the Bargain of Witches. So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it…   Now it's my turn…Where do you get your inspirations from..?