Goodreads asked Susan Rivers:

How do you get inspired to write?

Susan Rivers I'm often inspired by what I experience in the natural world; I'm a fanatical gardener, and the cycle of seasons and growth in my southern garden offers a wealth of themes and images. But I also hear powerful truths in what people say, in how they express themselves. For instance, I taught freshman English at local colleges for 9 years. I had a student in one of my community college classes who was bright enough but was unwilling to put any time into his studies. I called him in for a conference and told him he simply had to work harder on his assignments or he wouldn't be successful in the course. He told me I sounded just like his father, whose favorite saying to young Travis was: "don't worry about the mule, just load the wagon." Afterwards, I couldn't get that expression out of my head, because it begs the question: how's that working for the mule? The expression found its way thematically into the novel I'm completing now, which takes place in a cotton mill town in upstate SC in 1912, because it perfectly exemplifies milltown mentality: that the individual's only value is as a working unit, one that brings money into the family and sustains it. You never turn down work -- you just load your wagon and pull, no matter how heavy it is, and no matter what other interests or aspirations you have to set aside. Mill families depended on this compact applying to everyone in the household if they were to survive, and I understood that better after hearing what my student, a descendant of cotton mill workers, had been told by his own father. I was productively inspired by those very authentic words of wisdom.

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