Christie Craig answers *THE* question: “Where in the world do you get your ideas?”

Macy Tucker was five years old when her beloved grandfather dropped dead in his spaghetti.  At twelve, her father left his family in the dust. At twenty-five, her husband gave his secretary a pre-Christmas bonus in bed, and Macy gave him the boot. To put things lightly, men have been undependable.

That’s why dating’s off the menu. Macy is focused on law school, and putting herself through—which means being the delivery girl for Papa’s Pizza. But cheesier than her job is her pie-eyed brother, who just recently escaped from prison to protect his new girlfriend. And hotter than Texas toast is the investigating detective. Proud, sexy…inflexible—he’s a man who would kiss her just to shut her up. But Jake Baldwin’s a protector as much as a dish. And when he gets his man—or his woman—Macy knows it’s for life.

“Where in the world do you get your ideas?”

In just a few days, Gotcha!, my fourth novel for Dorchester, will hit the bookstores.  Gotcha! is about Macy Tucker, law student and pizza delivery girl extraordinaire.  Macy’s history with men reads like a daytime talk show where words are bleeped out, noses are broken, and chairs are thrown.

Yup, Macy’s grandfather, while talking to the young Macy, died face down in his spaghetti.  Her father abandoned her and the family on her thirteenth birthday, and years later, she found her husband giving his secretary a bonus in Macy’s own bed.

Tossed in for the mayhem is a brother who gets himself thrown in jail for accidentally robbing a convenience store.  Then, sprinkled in for the suspense element, is a bad guy who cuts people’s heads off for kicks.  Spicing up the plot is a sexy detective who, after five minutes with Macy, decides if he can’t throttle her, he’s going to have to love her.  Yup, sexy, suspenseful and seriously funny describes Gotcha! in a nutshell.

And just what kind of nut is it?  Well, I’ll admit that my books are what some readers refer to as quirky.  Reviewers often compare me to Janet Evanovich, and let me tell you, if you’re gonna be compared to someone, she’s the gal.

The crazy thing is that I don’t go out of my way to come up with my zany stories. . .  which brings me to the subject of my blog and the question I get asked the most.  Where on God’s green earth do you get your crazy ideas?

Depending on my mood, my answer may vary.  I sometimes tell people I go to the idea store and rummage through the clearance racks to find a jewel I can make my own.  Something a little different.  Maybe even a bit like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, something no one else would think about taking home.  But I just know if I add the right elements to this discarded idea, I can make it sparkle.

Another way I answer this question is to explain that the idea fairy flew by and accidentally dropped something and I found the treasure stuck to the bottom of my tennis shoe like a piece of gum.  You know that ABC gum that is so hard to get off?  Well, sometimes it’s as if some fallen idea gets stuck in my head, and my first thought is, “Oh, hell, no way!  Get outta here.  There’s a reason the idea fairy dropped your butt.  You are a complete reject!” But the idea hangs on and on, until I begin to see the value in it.

Now, neither of those answers are lies.  Because heaven knows that sometimes it feels just like that.  But I suppose the answer closest to the truth would be that my ideas stem from a collage of experiences, events, and moments that make up my own life.

Yup, I’ve had a few defining moments.  I guess you could say that most of the events that have propelled me to write humorous suspense are the times where I. . .  well, brushed up against the law.

Now, don’t misunderstand, I’m not like some hardened criminal.  Truth is, I’ve never even been arrested.  Okay. . . there was that one time.

I’ll admit I called the officer a friggin’ pig. Actually, I called him that a dozen or so times, trying to eliminate the southern drawl from my voice.  I was told I said the word pig as if it had two syllables.  But more importantly is that I was the one who threw the bottle at the patrol car and broke his windshield.  Ahh, but there was still no arrest made.  I won’t deny that the handcuffs came out, but before I was read my Miranda Rights, the director yelled, “Cut.”

Yup, I was an extra in the made-for-TV movie, Kent State, that was filmed in my hometown, Gadsden, Alabama.  And my one and only speaking part, which I’m sure would have made me as big as Julia Roberts, was left on the cutting room floor because I couldn’t talk Yankee.  Needless to say, the experience of playing that bad girl and going eye to eye with the. . .  “Pig” (I’m still trying to say it in one syllable) it inspired me to think like a villain–a mixed-up southern villain, of course.

And then there was the time I was caught with a five-ounce bag of weed by the Los Angeles police.  I swear I thought it was oregano.  Wait, did I say “caught”?  It was more like I walked up to the cops with the bag of oregano in my hands.  Yeah, those cops couldn’t believe it, either.  Neither did they buy the whole oregano story.  But then I told ‘em.  “Look at me, I’m blonde, I’m not lacking in the boob department, and the stereotype was created for a reason.  And while I may be dimwitted at times and can’t pronounce ‘pig’ in one syllable, I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday.  I would not have walked up to you if I thought this was marihoochi.  I was just going to give it back to that guy you just put in the back of your patrol car because I saw him drop it before you walked up to him.”

But the experience that really stands out as propelling me into becoming a humorous Romantic Suspense writer is the time I was caught by the LAPD, down on my knees, in the floor of an unopened Pizza Hut with thousands of dollars strewn around me.  Yeah, that day was the beginning of a really bad day. If you’d like to read all about it, it will be posted, along with the details of a new contest, at Dorchester on June 1^st.

I know that today we’re hosting a contest, and then every Tuesday for the next two weeks, I’ll be hosting a contest at Killer Fiction.  The winners, all you have to do to is post a comment, will win a copy of Gotcha!, as well as some other promo items.  So y’all make sure to stop by and say “Howdie!”

Thanks for having me today and here’s hoping my zany, quirky stories give you something to smile about.

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Thank you, Ms Craig!

You can learn more about Ms Craig’s writing by visiting her website.

Comment on this post to enter a drawing for a copy of Gotcha!, a personalized Christie Craig notepad & pen.

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