Story Ideas and Other Things…

Where do you get your ideas from? Like most authors, I get this question all the time. Interspersed with the inevitable I have a great idea for a story. You can write it, and we’ll split the money. Sure. Let me check my calendar.

Ideas come from everywhere and anywhere. A line in a song, a movie, a book, something someone says, in church, at the supermarket, bank, post office. As long as there are places and people, ideas will come.

Oftentimes when I rode the train to work years ago, I would make up stories about the passengers. Since I ended up riding with the same people most days, these stories became continuing sagas. Then I would meet one of them on the street and feel sorry because that poor woman’s husband was cheating on her and she didn’t know it. Hmm. Not so – I made that up.

I have a regency novel releasing from Entangled Publishing in April, The Elusive Wife, about a woman named Olivia. Got that idea while sitting in church and a woman in front of me called to her little girl Olivia, come here. I took out my checkbook and outlined the entire story on the back of a check. Sorry, Pastor Dave, I really didn’t mean to ignore your homily.

I love being able to write stories, probably the Irish in me. They’re known for their story telling skills. Blarney I believe it’s called? Creative and artistic juices run in my family. My nephew just signed a contract to write a biography and my cousin is a playwright. Three nieces sing like angels, my son is an artist, my daughter designs jewelry, and another niece makes designer cakes.

So what does this all mean? Absolutely nothing. Just felt like rambling today. Hope you have a super Thursday cause we’re starring at the weekend right now. Or as the duchess said in Downton Abbey “What is a week-end?”