From asking myself, what’s a story only I can tell? Ideas come from the way we see the world, and these unique perspectives are shaped by our experiences, our beliefs, our upbringing, our passions, our quiet observations, our education, our reading history, our relationships, etc.
When these interweaving strands ignite my imagination, I get an idea.
For example, I moved into a new house and was amused by the Eastern cottontail rabbits in my yard. I remembered beloved animal stories from my childhood. I had been thinking about the power of intrusive narrators in fiction. I had also been worried about how we as a nation seem to be becoming more polarized instead of uniting in community despite our differences. All these threads plaited together to produce the characters and themes in my third novel, The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow… which features as its hero a storytelling rabbit that must put her trust in other species to save the day!