The Scary Routes Around My Brain

People ask where authors come up with their ideas. Here’s an example of the strange and tenuous connections that can result in a story.

Yesterday, I went to SOKY Book Fest in Bowling Green, KY. While I was there I met several romance authors who will be attending the Romance Writers of America national conference in Nashville this summer. During the conference, several of the writers were talking about past job experiences, which for me, included a former colleague who made my life kind of difficult. We also talked about our inspirations, which includes my mother. We got back from Bowling Green, got the kids settled down. I noticed that the fridge was looking like a bad science project, so I’m going to need to clean it out soon.

So all of these elements mixed together while I was sleeping and became the following dream: My former co-worker was loading his stuff into a van because he was going to have to drive down to Nashville with my mom (who was glaring at him like she could make him burst into flames with the power of her mind.) And the whole time, I was packing dirty Tupperware into the van.

And that's how my mind works. (Shudder.)