Posted by: cowgirlbeth | March 27, 2008

Inspiration comes in all forms

One of the questions I get as an author is “where do you get your ideas?” Most times they marvel that all of my books come out of my head (scary or not, I’ll let you decide).

Sometimes I don’t have an answer. LOL! Sometimes I do. You’d be surprised at just what inspires writers, what is that spring board from which our story ideas flow.

Let me give you a for example. My new series, Devils on Horseback, was inspired by an oyster dish. *holds up hand* I swear, for real. You see, I was at a Christmas party with DH at a restaurant. We were browsing the menu when an appetizer caught my eye.

Can you guess the name?

Ayup, Devils on Horseback. It’s oysters in hot sauce (we luv our hot sauce down here in NC). That name just echoed through my head like someone had run a great big bell next to me. I literally turned around and dug in my purse for paper and pen to write it down.

Now I have two books published in the Devils on Horseback series, with three more planned. I created an entire history for these five men simply from three words I read in a menu.

Other inspirations include an abandoned white house 100 yards from another abandoned white house. I used to see them every day and wonder why they were built so close together and so mall (figure they’re probably a hundred years old). That got me thinking… what if it were a bride who didn’t want to be married and insisted her husband build a separate house for her? Kablam! The idea for a book called Find Me was born (as yet unfinished).

One thing that actually feeds my ideas, and my imagination, are other writers books. If I don’t read, I can’t write. It’s kind of like a ying-yang relationship. They both fuel my dreams. Holy cow, my dreams are like full-length movies! LOL!

How about y’all? Do you have dreams that stay with you after you wake up and keep popping up in your head? That’s what it’s like for me just about every day. :D If I don’t actually write, it all clogs up my brain until I start talking to myself, or worse, the characters.

Funny isn’t it? Inspiration really does come in all forms. I can get inspired by anything and everything. Anybody want to share one of their strangest or most memorable dreams?

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Responses

I LOVED the first book in the Devils on Horseback series!!

As for dreams, yeah, I have some strange ones and really interesting ones. Mine are like full-length movies too…I have always thought it would be cool if you could actually record your dreams to share with others…like a video…LOL. I also always think some would make good books if I were a writer. Then there are some that are too strange to ever be books.

One of those is a dream I had as a kid, but that has stayed with me. It was one of the strangest dreams I have ever had. I was at a yard sale being chased by Beetlejuice and suddenly he tackled me and turned into Edward Scissorhands and I woke up…not exactly book material…LOL

Another interesting dream was a couple of years ago, but really stuck with me. I was at a mob wedding (why? I don’t know) wearing a bright (and hideous) pink bridesmaid dress and holding a baby when suddenly someone started shooting at everyone. I turned and ran up this long, wide staircase hunching over the infant in my arms when a bullet hit me in the back. I arched my back in the dream and it woke me up in real life.

See, I have strange dreams, but some of those really stick with me and I can recall them in vivid detail.

*backs away slowly from all those staring at her* LOL

By: Jennifer Y. on March 27, 2008
at 1:25 pm

Hi, Beth…great blog!! And I commute a long way to work, so I’m always day dreaming, and creating little stories in my head for people I see or houses I pass all the time. There are these identical mirrior image houses, really, really large houses I used to go by that I had this whole world created for…two twin brothers who were so close and had created a buisness together. When they met and married the loves of their lives, they built them dream homes right next to one another, with little ponds and gazebos out front, kids playing in the back…lol, you get the picture…Had this whole little world created for them, and had NO idea who lived there, he/he.

By: Melissa on March 27, 2008
at 1:37 pm

My dreams are often strange. Really strange, and unfortunately, often violent. A long time ago, I had a dream of people playing laser tag (in a huge church - don’t ask) - only it was a game gone wrong. Somehow, they were real guns, and people were dying. I’ve had dreams of getting chased and shot at - running and hiding with friends, and other “friends” doing the shootings. Recently, I had a dream about being in this endless [somewhat nice] warehouse, trying to get specialty ice cream…
Last year I had a really strange dream about a professor working behind the counter at a grocery store coffee shop- with a huge huge line, then him leading everyone to a really old house, down into the basement [with the really old slotted wooden stairs, and a dirt/cement floor] - and making us all pray… the day before he told the class that people had cheated on the Property midterm and that law students should know better.
Very odd.

By: limecello on March 27, 2008
at 2:13 pm

Great post.
I very seldom dream and don’t remember them if I do.

By: Estella on March 27, 2008
at 5:00 pm

Jennifer Y ~ Yay! Thanks for letting me know about Nate. :) Sounds like your dreams are as vivid as mine!

Melissa ~ *nods* Yep, me too. I drive 19 miles to work and my day dreams are always with me.

Limecello ~ Hm, do you read a lot of suspense books? That may explain all the action-packed dreams. Lovely imagination you’ve got there!!

Estella ~ Thanks! My DH says he doesn’t dream either and if he does, he doesn’t remember them. I think it’s because he sleeps very deeply.

By: Beth Williamson on March 27, 2008
at 7:04 pm

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