ASK THE SISTERS!

This week Gail asks: I'm wondering where you get your ideas and plots for your stories. Do you base them on current news events, things that happen to family or friends (loosely of course), or do they just pop into your brain or maybe come to you in a dream?

For submitting her question, Gail’s won a copy of Nancy Mehl’s book, Simple Deceit.

If you have a question for us, leave it below. You might be our next winner! You could win a book by one of today’s top suspense/mystery writers – or a gift certificate to Amazon! (Questions submitted without contact information won’t be considered.)

 

I got the idea for my most recent book, INCOMPLETE SENTENCE, from several news stories about a bad guy nicknamed "The Unicorn Killer." I based my villain on him, though in my story, things turn out quite differently than in real life! I got the idea for my novella, THE APPLESAUCE WAR, from the musical, "The Fantasticks." Ideas are everywhere!

E.E. Kennedy

Mine come from a picture, something I heard, or pops into my head

when I'm spacing out. God has given me a multitude of story ideas. I can only hope He keeps me here long enough to write them all! :)

 Cynthia Hickey

My inspirations come more from settings than anything else. My family laughs when I get "the look" and say, "Wouldn't that be a great place for a murder?" Or, "What if a dead body was over there." 

Gruesome, huh! LOL! But thankfully, my fam is used to it and will chime in with "what ifs" of their own!

Marji Laine

Like most authors, I get asked that a lot. I used to say we had a

secret site called “Ideas dot com,” until I discovered that’s really the name of a legitimate site, so I stopped that. Each of my novels has been suggested by an actual event, person, or (sometimes) feeling—like the one I got when going to the medical school parking garage after dark one night. My thought was “This would be a great spot for a kidnapping.” That was the inspiration for Stress Test.

Richard Mabry

I wish plots would come to me in a dream! LOL! Most of my ideas

really do just pop into my head.  Sometimes I get the seed of an idea from something I read or see on TV – but then my imagination takes off and keeps going until I get a plot I can work with.

Nancy Mehl