June 26, 2018:
Where do you get your ideas for your stories? That’s
probably the number one question a writer gets asked. I don’t have a set
answer, but I do have an answer for my latest idea--Sunday School class. You
never know when an idea might pop up, or in this case, be provided by someone
to you. In addition to writing adult romance mysteries, I also enjoying writing
children’s books. My latest effort is a picture book about, of all things,
field mice. Now I’m not personally acquainted with farm life, so I had to ask a
lot of questions about behavior on the farm. One thing that kept tripping me up
was where/how to position a baby goat in the barn in order for him to provide
transportation for my mice when they jump from the hayloft. Do I tie him up?
No, I dislike the notion of tying up any animal. Do I have him a free-roaming
goat? Or do I have him in a corral in the barn? I chose to go with the latter.
That scenario just worked in my mind for the goat to be the unwilling getaway “car”
for my run-for-your-life, it’s them or us, mice who made their home in the
hayloft. In Picture Books, where every single word counts, twists and turns
often can needle your noodle for days until you come up with the perfect
notion. Now let’s see if I can find an editor who will agree.
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