There are no dumb questions. Okay, yes there are.

I was looking through my email for reader questions to answer on my own blog later today and I started thinking, which as Mark can tell you is always a dangerous proposition with me.

Why are some questions so prevalent in the writing community? Specifically, why is where do you get your ideas so popular?

I HATE this question. Hate it. When it comes up I want to scream STOP IT STOP IT STOP it and hold my hands over my ears and throw a fit. Because it's un-answerable, and as a borderline obsessive Type A personality I NEED to have all the answers. NEED, people. You're seriously messing with me by asking me this.

Ideas can come from anywhere. Literally anywhere. I've written books that started with ideas from:

-Bad TV shows
-Good TV shows
-Dreams
-Folklore
-Comic books
-The song "Voodoo Child" by Jimi Hendrix
-Everywhere else

So there's your answer. They come from eeeeeeeeeverywhere. [spooky hand movements.]

I'd much rather answer questions about how I write than why. (Because it's easier than getting a real job, FYI.) I'm happy to discuss my process with you at great length, the path that lead to a finished novel, writer's block, alcohol consumption, research or lack thereof, sex scenes, my childhood traumas or who will play Captain America in the new movie. Unlike Laurell K. Hamilton, you really can ask me anything and I will respond with good cheer, or alternately rude hand gestures and cursing. Because some people can be real idiots when they get up at author events.

Just not The Question. Please. I'm begging you.

(And the first smartass to comment "So...dur hurr...where do you get your ideas?" is getting thrown out of the clubhouse.)

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