A Story is Born

I am often asked where my stories come from. My response: everywhere.

The Promise of Change is the result of a trip to Christ Church College, Oxford University in Oxford, England. I spent three summers taking a course as part of Oxford University’s Adult Education Program. A way cool experience! You can read more about my experiences here.

A trip I took to Costa Rica with my husband inspired Rescuing Lacey. An actual experience on a small plane while in that country appears in the book and was the first chapter I wrote. The story grew in both directions from there, but first I had to ask why was my heroine there? What was at stake? And what role did the hero have in her journey?

Now, I have no idea what inspired my latest book, Dreams of Perfection, which is the first in a three-book series. Also, when I began writing Dreams of Perfection, I had no plans to write a series. For Dreams, I started thinking about what would happen if a romance writer’s hero actually came to life, a la Pygmalion, and the story took off from there. About a third of the way into the book, I realized two secondary characters, Laura and Millie, each deserved their own stories, and the Dreams Come True series was born. Laura’s story, Ship of Dreams, is available on Amazon. The "first meet" scene from Ship of Dreams actually happened to me. When the inspiring incident occurred, I hadn’t yet started Ship of Dreams. I had the characters, and I had the premise, but I didn’t know how the story would start or how my characters would meet. Then, voila, an incident with my shoe. Perfect.

Dreams of Her Own, Book #3 in the Dreams Come True Series, features Millie's journey, and will be out Fall 2015.

Beyond the series, I have lots of ideas percolating in my brain – so many that I’m having a hard time deciding which one to write next. One in particular that I’m leaning toward was inspired by one of Sting’s old songs that I’ve always loved. Another sprang from an RWA workshop I attended way back in 2012, and yet another grew out of my, ahem, thirty-year class reunion in 2011. Then there’s the idea that came to me while riding down a two-lane road through Sonoma County, California, where my husband and I were vacationing, when I saw a dilapidated Victorian house sitting on the corner of a forgotten vineyard.

So many stories, so little time. Sigh.

In sum, my story ideas come from travel, songs, experiences, and the firmament (as in Dreams of Perfection). I can see a person standing on the corner and wonder what her story is. And since I can’t know, I invent. And another story is born!