What's the Big Idea?

  

When I tell people I'm a novelist, the question I get asked most often is this: 

Where do you get your ideas? 

I never know how to answer that because, honestly, I don't know where they come from. I’ve heard a theory that ideas are released into the world like feathers floating on the breeze, just waiting for someone to catch them.

It’s a pretty notion, but it begs a question...released by whom? 

For Christian authors, the answer should be obvious. We have a God directing us, after all. Still, I don't know about my suspense sisters, but I have rarely felt like God landed one of those elusive feathers on my head. 

Often, He directs me using real-life stories I hear on a daily basis. For instance, a couple of years ago I was reading about nanotechnology and how it could, someday, heal certain diseases, like Alzheimer's. And I thought, that's amazing! Who wouldn't want that? 

And then an answer came to me: pharmaceutical companies who sell drugs to Alzheimer's patients have a vested interest in that disease not being cured. Not that most of those companies would sink to unscrupulous means to ensure those technologies weren't developed, but what if...?

And Betrayal of Genius was born. 

Sometimes, an image will pop into my mind. Now, I'm not a visual person--at all--so when I get a picture in my head, I pay attention. A few years back, I got an image of a woman sneaking into her hometown carrying an infant. That was it. 

I thought, who is she? Where is she going? Why is she sneaking? And where's that baby's father?

And Convenient Lies was born.

I'm not one of those writers who has a million ideas and not enough time to write them. In the past, I've worried that I'll never have another good idea. That this is my last plot, my last story, my last novel. But then I type The End, and another idea floats by...like a feather. 

And I snatch it and run with it and write another book.

I don't worry about ideas anymore. God has countless resources, and He knows what I need when I need it. 

Even though I still can't give a solid answer as to where my ideas come from, I know God is the Author of all stories. He'll lead me to exactly the ones He wants me to write. 

Would you like to win a story? I'm giving away either Convenient Lies or Betrayal of Genius. Comment to let me know which one you'd prefer, and I'll pick one winner and send the novel of his or her choice.