A few days ago, my buddy Mary blogged about where she got the ideas for the books she’s written. I thought it was an interesting idea and wondered if I could remember the nugget from which all of my manuscripts had sprung. Well, here goes:
My first manuscript was a historical set along the Oregon Trail. I’d been fascinated with the Oregon Trail since reading the Dana Fuller Ross Wagons West series. A few years ago, I followed portions of the trail (in some spots wagon ruts are still visible) through Wyoming and Nebraska.
The second, third and fourth books were a trilogy set in and around Yellowstone National Park, one of my favorite places. I became interested in the area and the types of stories a writer could set there when my sister worked in the park for a year.
Book 5 came about when I wondered how a woman would reclaim her life after spending several years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit.
Book 6 was born after I visited the beautiful but rugged Texas Hill Country.
For Book 7, I drew on my own fear of flying and an interest in setting a book in an unconventional American setting (North Dakota). It was the first time I’d set a contemporary book in a locale I’d not visited first, but I later did trek across North Dakota to verify my descriptions. Good thing because I found one thing I really needed to change.
Book 8 was crafted from the idea of how a serial killer would “sign” his work. I can’t remember how I got interested in this. Must have been something I saw on TV.
I wrote Book 9 after taking a weekend field class in the Smoky Mountains on synchronous fireflies.
After another trip to Yellowstone, I set Book 10 in nearby Cody, Wyoming, which I’d visited for the first time on this trip.
Book 11 was my first young adult novel, and it grew out of an idea that the heroine would have all these misadventures during the course of the book while trying to win a contest.
Book 12 was the first novel I wrote with a paranormal element. It was one of those “what if” kind of things.
For Book 13, I tried my hand at a women’s fiction novel and the themes of how we hold on to and eventually find the strength to let go of the past. I set this in a beautiful area of Tennessee that I’d visited numerous times for my job.
Book 14, I went back to romantic suspense. The idea for this book (the current Golden Heart finalist, Fanning the Flames) came from a brainstorming idea I had with my agent.
Book 15 was never finished. All I have of it is a partial (3 chapters). It was my first and only attempt at chick lit, and I may go back and revamp it at some point so that it’s less chick litty and more straight romance. I don’t know.
Book 16 was my second young adult (the other current Golden Heart finalist, The Wishing Tree). It came to me as another “what if” question. What if a teenage girl runs away from home and somehow manages to hide and survive on her own until she’s eighteen?
Book 17 (which I just finished the first draft of yesterday — yippie!) is another women’s fiction. It’s one of those combo type stories — a bit of me, a bit of make-believe.
Okay, I’m having deja vu, so if I’ve blogged about this before, please just ignore me. 
March 30th, 2006 at 8:45 am
The size of a river. I just saw it on the map and used it in the story. Okay, I live where you can actually float a canoe on a river. When I drove down to where this “river” was, I kept thinking, “How did I miss it?” Turned around and went back. Dude, it’s a creek! And a tiny one at that. Anything I can step across is not a river.
March 30th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Oh, I remember those Dana Fuller Ross Wagons West series!! I loved them too!
I also remember being horribly upset when one of the heroines ended up with the wrong hero!
Trying to remember the details…they were in love, but couldn’t quite get it together. He was I think a bad boy kind of guy, and there was another potential hero, who was like the wagon master, or maybe a minister, or some other straight-laced, nice guy kind of person.
The tension and love sizzled between bad boy hero and heroine; but something happened and they never got together and he had to leave or disappeared…so that gave nice-guy hero #2 the opportunity to poach on bad boy’s territory, and they ended up getting married!
So when bad boy came back, there was this wonderful, angsty scene where they realized they should have been together and weren’t.
And I am still pissed about that to this day.
Do you remember this? I would love to remember the details and the characters and if you felt the same disappointment.
And on another weird note, I was at a church the other day where they had a stash of old books on a set of bookshelves, just there for the taking; donations. And one of those Dana Full Ross books was there!
It was the first time I’d thought of them in ages!
March 30th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Colleen, it has been so long since I’ve read them that the details have faded from memory. I think I may have to reread the series. That would be fun.