Goodreads asked Amber Foxx:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Amber Foxx My most recent publication isn't full a length book; it's the free short story The Outlaw Women. The idea came from two places.
I wanted to offer readers a free introduction to my series with short story, but I was at a loss for an idea. The Calling is so clearly the beginning of Mae’s journey as a psychic and healer, I thought nothing could come before it, and yet, if I set a story between books, it would be either be a spoiler, or confusing. I asked my critique group members for suggestions and they independently came up with exact same idea—a short story set during Mae Martin’s childhood, featuring the grandmother whose special gifts she inherits. As soon as I realized I was going to wrote about Rhoda-Sue Outlaw Jackson, I knew the story. It had been on my back burner a long time, from another source altogether.

When James D. Doss—one of my favorite authors—died I wished he’d written something that wrapped up the relationship between Daisy Perika, the elderly Ute shaman, and the young woman she’d been training, Sarah Frank. The relationship between Charlie Moon and Sarah reaches a satisfying ending in the final book in the series, but not the Sarah-as-shaman’s heir story. As both fan and writer, I kept imagining what he might have done with that story line. That led me to write about the folk healer Rhoda-Sue’s last days, and her concern for passing on her gift. The story isn’t a mystery, but it is mysterious.

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