What Writers Do

I like this quote. I liked the book, Running With Scissors. He has many more books which are on my TBR list (Herman) and I can't wait to get to them. The author's one liners, like this, are amazingly insightful. If nothing else, they show that yes, this is what writers do, they mine the depths of their own psyches in order to tell stories. Thank goodness for that. Isn't it great to live vicariously every now and then?

Easy to Write

Why is it easier to write when I know I have only a few minutes? Is it a form of procrastination? The Freudian flip-side, perhaps?  If I have a whole day to devote to my characters--or they to me, as the case may be--then I find a hundred little things that must be done immediately, in succession, or better yet in tandem, so that no one thing is ever completed . . . but if I have only a few minutes before I have to be out the door, the words flow like water.

So I've developed a faucet solution to a Freudian problem. It's actually very simple: I sit myself down at the computer (knowing I can only stay a moment or three), then I turn on the tap and let the letters flow. After a bit, the faucet goes off and I jump up and sweep the floor, take a walk, shampoo my hair, or a even just load the washing machine. That's when the ideas break over me in waves . . . and then I rush back to the computer and try to capture them in print. Somedays, it's as exhausting as treading water in a storm. But the words do flow. Maybe they aren't the perfect, good china words I long for, but as someone much wiser than I once said,

The Genesis of Stutter Creek - Romantic Suspense

My beautifully covered little suspense novel, STUTTER CREEK, hit Amazon’s bestseller lists back in November of 2014. It went right up to #1 on both the Romantic Suspense list and the regular Suspense list. It was very exciting for me to be on the same list with the big boys—even if it was only for the week of the promotion. Dang.

Since then I’ve had a few folks contact me and tell me their thoughts on the story. I LOVE when this happens. Writing is such a solitary game—okay, the Internet has changed that, a lot—but still, to really get anything done, one has to cut off contact with the outside world for a certain number of hours each and every day. Where was I going with this? Oh yes, I love it when readers contact me and tell me their thoughts about the books and stories I toiled over in my little cave. I especially like it when they want to know more, such as . . .

What gave you the idea for this book?

That’s an easy one. STUTTER CREEK came about because of two things; the first was a news story about an incident that occurred near our small West Texas city. A man threw his four-year-old son out of the car beside the Interstate in the dead of night. The little boy was found wandering along the shoulder of the highway early the next morning covered in cactus spines, four hundred cactus spines to be exact. When his father was located, he was determined to be suffering from schizophrenia. That story haunted me from the day I read it until the day I wrote about a similar—fictionalized—character in STUTTER CREEK.

The second incident that inspired this story was very simple. Each year our family reunion was held in a mountain town in New Mexico where we always stayed at the same set of rustic little cabins. Those were some wonderful reunions. I also included a fictionalized version of that cabin in the story. I did not include the bit about my uncle having to dive into a Dumpster in search of his wife’s dentures. She’d taken them out and wrapped them in a napkin at a restaurant. The napkin was accidentally thrown away—but retrieved by her own Dumpster-diving knight in shining—stinky—armor and we never let another reunion go by without asking her if she had her teeth. (He also carried her big purse for her from time to time, but he said it was all right because it matched his cowboy boots.)

So there you have it, the genesis of STUTTER CREEK. Of course I added lots and lots of different things to make the novel suspenseful because, well, I love tingly suspenseful stories and a writing instructor once told me to “write what you know,” but I took that to mean write what you know you would love to read...

Please, if you have any comments or questions about my books or stories, feel free to email me or leave a comment. I’d love to base the next blog topic on your question.

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Yes, someone actually asked me that question the other day.  Boy, did I have a lot to say . . . you see, my ideas come from anywhere and everywhere.  To keep track of them, I have an IDEA FILE on the computer, I have several spiral notebooks (the small, fat, chunky ones that fit in a purse or pocket), I have a NOTES app on my iPhone, and of course I have the umpteen slips of paper scattered all over the house.

These ideas don't all pan out of course.  Sometimes they're related to a story I'm currently working on, but sometimes, they're just random.  A sudden snippet of conversation, something I've read on the Internet or in the newspaper, sometimes it's just a word or two that pop up out of nowhere.  When that happens, I think it's the Muse talking.  It usually happens in the middle of a story, but not always.

When the lady asked me about my ideas, she was referring to Stutter Creek, my newest novel from 5 Prince Publishing.  That's an easy one.  In fact, if you've read some of my previous posts,  you already know where I got the idea for this book.  I ripped it right out of our local headlines.

The article that had such an impact on me was about a mentally ill man who threw his four year old son out of the car along the Interstate near our town.  The boy was covered in cactus spines (more than 400 were pulled from his small body at the hospital) when he was found early the next morning, wandering along the shoulder of the highway.  I've posted about this awful occurrence before, and that's usually how I exorcise these awful images, but this time, it wasn't enough.  The horrific occurrence became the basis of the father/son relationship in Stutter Creek.

There were a couple of other things in this novel that were also based in real life.  The spirit-texting father?  That was based on something that happened after my mom passed away.  One day, my phone wouldn't dial any phone but hers . . .  and those folks in the grief group?  Some of them are real, too.  Of course I've fabricated a lot of the details to protect the innocent, but the germ of the scene is authentic.

So there you have it.  That's where I got the idea for Stutter Creek.  And if you've actually read the novel, you will also know WHY I wrote it.  I guess it's the same reason I write anything--I'm a control freak.  I like being able to change--or control--the outcome of events (and darned if that isn't a pretty cool idea right there, hold on, let me go put that in the idea file, brb).  Okay, done.  And yes, for those of you who know how the story ends, I admit it, I do have a bit of a vigilante streak in me.  Actually, it's about a mile wide.  =)

Afterthoughts: Next time, I'll tell the true story of the idea for Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot.  So tell me, where do you get your ideas?