Goodreads asked Rod Collins:

How do you get inspired to write?

Rod Collins My grandfathers were great story tellers, straight from the rich oral story telling tradition of rural America. Grandpa Charles Augustus Troops would hold people spell bound with his tales of growing up in the Oklahoma panhandle country. Some of his closest friends were Cherokee, and he learned to speak the language.

Grandpa Truman Collins told tales from Missouri where his grandfather homesteaded in time to be arrested during the American Civil War by the North as a Southern sympathizer, and in return by the South as a Union sympathizer. The stinging worms story in Bitter's Run was based on one of his tales.

Consequently, I grew up liking stories and grew up wanting to be as good at story telling as my ancestors. One thing leads to another, and I began writing my first novel when I was thirteen.

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