Where I Get My Ideas

Okay, we all go through that moment where we say, OMG that would make a great book. I do. Maybe I'm weird. Not the first time that's been said. I won't give out all my ideas, but here's where I got a few.

I love Jon Togo on CSI MIAMI. If you read my earlier blogs, you might catch that. Now the most recent episode featured him, but that wasn't what caught my attention. He got to be bad. THAT got my attention. I thought, what if this sexy guy got to be the bad guy for once? Or better yet, what if he was really the good guy, but circumstances meant he had to be bad... Before I knew it, I had the outline of a story in my head and I paid no attention to the actual show. Praise God for the DVR.

Another idea I got came from NASCAR. Might have guessed I love NASCAR. Maybe. There is a commercial for NASCAR and Sprint (I think) that features Carl Edwards, among others. Not a big Edwards fan, but there is a moment where the special effects make his eyes flash green and red. That caught my attention and made me think of vampires. Don't know if I'd go for Vampire stock car drivers, but that would take reckless driving to an all new level.

I also love ancient Greece. In college, I toyed with the idea of junking my art ed major in favor of an art history degree. (I taught school in a HS for four years and hated it). My favorite classes were the Greek and Roman art classes. I happened upon a made for TV movie Julius Caesar starring Jeremy Sisto (he's another all-time favorite hunk). I know Caesar was not Greek, but that got me thinking and before I knew it, another plot formed in my head. What if a citizen wanted to marry a metic? It wasn't possible, but what if...

Then there are my friends. I love incorporating real into my stories (probably my downfall). I have three friends, all the same age, but in radically different stages of life. One got divorced, one can't find Ms. Right if she kicked him in the manhood, and one that's quite happy being who he is. I want to make them into an anthology, where all the stories combine at the end. Not sure how that one will work yet, though.

So, yes, rejection stinks, but why not get yourself out there? If you write great stuff and hide under a rock, no one will know it's great. But if you throw yourself under the bus and find out there's room for improvement, improve you can.

I'll leave you with Bruce Springsteen's immortal words (plus, my name is in that song!): Someday girl, I don't know when, we're gonna get to that place where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun, but till then Tramps Like Us, Baby We Were Born to Run