From where to you get your story ideas?

[Theodore]

I'm beginning to think that half of good writing is just (1) living a long life, and (2) keeping your ears open.

I'm a big fan of "faction" (fact + fiction). In fact, all of my noves and short-story anthologies are based on fact or are ripped from the headlines. (Even my first illustrated children's storybook, Pepe [the penguin] Builds a Nest] is based on fact.)

So, there I am, in the gym earlier this week talking with a neighbor with whom I've worked out for the last five years when he happens to mention that his father was the tail gunner on the B-29 that dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. I immediately went home and penned the following piece of Flash Fiction for my new book in the same genre to be released next January:

Cockpit (copyright, Theodore Jerome Cohen, all rights reserved)

“Hello, Skipper.”
“Go ahead, Navigator.”
“Half a minute to go, Skipper.”
“Roger, Navigator.”
“Hello, Bombardier. Bomb bay open. Okay when you are, Bombardier.”
“Right, Skipper.
“Steady, boys . . . steady . . . steady.”
“Counting down, Skipper.”
“Right, Bombardier.”
“Five, four, three, two, one, zero . . . Fat Man away, Skipper!”
“Roger, Bombardier. Turning now, boys . . . hang on . . . turning, turning, turning. Hang on! Hello, Tail Gunner.”
“Tail Gunner here, Skipper.”
“Do you see anything, Bierman? Anything at all?”
“Not yet, Skipper, but—“
“Bierman? Skipper to Tail Gunner! Bierman! Are you okay?
“Sir, I am looking into the Gates of Hell!”

The inspiration for this story was Sergeant Melvin H. Bierman, tail gunner on the Enola Gay for the flight when the Fat Man atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

What inspires you?

[Theodore]

Alex wrote: "That's a good little piece.
I tend to get my ideas from all around me, they pop into my head at all times of the day and night, and I can be anywhere when they hit me.
Some are inspired by things..."

Neat! When I was growing up in Milwaukee in the 1940s, a man kept a small red race car in a garage on our alley. As well, the local rag man kept his horse in a similar garage not that much farther down the same alley. Great memories...and good grist for our mills.