Story Seeds (Cross Posted At the Writer Babes Blog)
Apr
14
2006

I was talking on the phone with my mom yesterday and filling her in on the storyline for my WIP, Goddess With a Blade. At one point she said, “how do you come up with all this stuff?” And I explained to her how this particular story came about and she laughed and said she thought I was left on their doorstep by elves.

For me, inspiration can strike anywhere. For GWAB, the basic story came to me on a recent trip to Las Vegas. We went to two different strip shows, The Thunder From Down Under (which, come on ladies, I can’t lie, was the best damned time I’ve had in a while!) and Bite.

Now Bite is pretty high on the cheeze scale. Really, the entire point was breasts but there was juggling and flamethrowing and other crazy stunts to try and disguise the fact it was about breasts but whatever. Anyway, the concept is that they’re all vampires, the women are the harem of the “Vampire Lord” (and we’d so hoped he’d be hawt. He did have green glowing contacts though). The Vampire Lord lost his beloved and so every night at 10:30 in the Stratosphere hotel, he trolls the audience to find her.

Anyway, I started thinking about vampires and how in a lot of modern fiction, they’re often portrayed as good. I wanted to do something different.

The story started to brew then and I kept adding bits and pieces until I worked out an outline. I’m fairly superstitious about my WIP so I’ll just say that really, the book doesn’t resemble that cheezy strip show, but it gave me the basic seed and I ran with it.

For Triad, I was in New Orleans with a friend to see Pearl Jam and I fell in love with the city. The music, the magic in the air, and I started to think about the city as a character in a book, and then Lee came to me and her family later on.

Sometimes it can be a song lyric, a scent, an ad in a magazine (that Matthew McConaghey Stetson ad has inspired me a lot!). I get a lot of inspiration when we go on trips. The different surroundings always jolt my creativity and I’m always studying people and places for story ideas.

This is a sort of ramble. Other people work differently. I am by no means claiming to be an expert on this or that my way is the only way to write (I have a thing about authors who are so rigid that when they talk about writing, it’s always in a tone that says if you don’t do it their way you’re wrong or bad)

3 comments to “Story Seeds (Cross Posted At the Writer Babes Blog)”

  1. Sasha White
    April 14th, 2006 at 8:57 pm · Link

    OMG!! I LOVE the MM Stetson ad! Especially the Black one.



  2. Lauren Dane
    April 15th, 2006 at 9:55 am · Link

    Oh yeah! I have a “folder of inspiration” for every book I write but that ad gets tucked into each one. Because he’s so beautiful, so naughty, shiver!



  3. Meljprincess
    April 15th, 2006 at 10:16 am · Link

    I’ve seen that Stetson ad, too. YUM! LOL! Did you see Matt in PEOPLE?
    It’s interesting to hear how authors come up with ideas for stories. And, you’re right, inspiration can be found everywhere. Very cool.
    I was in Vegas in Dec. and saw ads for those shows but I didn’t go. I did hit Madame Toussaud’s, though. Fun.