Some of my story ideas come from the picture of a hero, like Tiago here, from You Can’t Steal First, my novella, in the Hot Ticket anthology.
Some story ideas come to me in dreams. The castle in Sex and the Psychic Witch was a vivid, colorful, living dream that made me get out of bed and begin to type the details. I started recreating it at 7 a.m. and finished at 5 p.m. that night. I knew then that this weird castle would be the home-base setting for all of my triplet stories. My neighbors, triplets who were my inspiration for my new trilogy, and who shared their triplet secrets, told me that someday, when they settled down, they would not be able to live far away from each other. Graduate school in different parts of Europe was very hard on the three of them.
The Antiques Roadshow was a clear inspiration for The Scot, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I love to watch the program and always wondered how people’s lives will be changed by discovering they own a National Treasure. What if somebody who had a vested interest in the antique that came to you was watching the program? Television is certainly an inspiration. I dissect each story as part of the entertainment process. An old Pat Boone Song called Friendly Persuasion, with the words, “Put on your bonnet, your cape and your gloves, and come with me, for Thee, I Love,” was the clear inspiration for my first Amish Historical, THEE, I LOVE.
I get ideas from the world around me. One day driving to school, I saw an ambulance going too slow, but weaving all over the road, as if it were being driven by a drunk. I got an instant visual of a little old granny who had escaped a nursing home in a stolen ambulance. I love the inherent creativity available in daily life. Another story I wrote was inspired by a Lifebeat newspaper article about a town in Connecticut where a church bell rang hourly, twenty-four/seven, and angered a new resident.
To the Berkley Babes, what inspires you? What was your weirdest inspiration ever?
Readers, what have you experienced that made you think “I’d love to see a story about that some day?
Happy Reading & Keep warm everyone!
Annette
Everything inspires me. I can’t imagine ever running out of ideas because no matter where I look, one crops up and goes ME ME! WRITE ABOUT ME!!! I think the weirdest inspiration…hmm…I’ve had a couple stories totally lay themselves out in a dream and I just got up and wrote them–short stories. For books…well, using insulin as the murder weapon in Ghost of A Chance came from coping with my husband’s occasional low blood sugar seizures (he’s type 1 diabetic) in the middle of the night, and realizing that if I wasn’t there, he could easily slip into a coma and die. The fear of that, the panic over dealing with the seizures and pulling him out of them, struck home so deep I had to write some of it out of my system.
Yasmine
Comment by Yasmine — February 23, 2007 @ 2:07 pm
Yas, Thanks for responding. I think it’s cool that we both get ideas from dreams. Good job taking care of hubby. Must be scary sometimes.
Do you find that you work better when the ideas come to you, rather than when your editor says, write me a story about . . . whatever? I find being handed a plotline the hardest. Anybody else have trouble with that?
Comment by Annette Blair — February 24, 2007 @ 12:54 am
Who is that delicious man? I got distracted by him and forgot to read your blog
I’m going to go read the blog now!
Comment by Nalini Singh — February 24, 2007 @ 5:17 am
Hey,who doesn’t get distracted by all that eye candy.
Comment by danette — February 25, 2007 @ 2:10 am
I have no idea who the model is but when I saw him I knew he had to be the model for Tiago the millionnaire baseball player with a heart.
Can’t you just picture his bat? 
Comment by Annette Blair — February 26, 2007 @ 11:31 am