Authors - What was the inspiration behind your book? Readers want to know!

[Mary Pat Hyland]

"3/17" was inspired by my experiences as a traditional Irish musician playing St. Patrick's Day gigs over the past two decades. From the viewpoint of the stage, I've witnessed some bizarre ways that people commemorate the feast day of Ireland's patron saint. (Shall we start with the concept of green beer?? Sacrilege!  )
I love the traditional folk music of Ireland—its haunting airs played on uilleann pipes, feather-light slip jigs and toe-tapping reels. People are missing so much when they settle for the Americanized Tin Pan Alley-era songs. There's so much more to Irish culture than the circus mirror version we're served up in the States.
I'm a longtime student of the Irish language, Gaeilge—even studied at a school in Connemara, and use it in all my works (three novels, a collection of short stories not yet published). My books include lexicons at the end for Irish phrases and slang used throughout.
Sláinte! (Cheers!)

[Miriam Minger]

For our readers, you see from the posts so far that there is always a story behind the story.  Please feel free to join in with questions or comments for any of the authors who've shared their stories of inspiration.  It can be a bit like baring one's soul.

Miriam Minger

[R. H. Watson]

I always liked the idea that, as much as people want the future be predictable, it isn't, and that includes scientific discovery. In this case, I thought it would be funny if, due to an unexpected discovery in genetic engineering, it became possible for women, and only women, to play and survive gladiatorial sports. I loved imagining all those frustrated male egos having to sit and watch girls do what they desperately wanted to do. I think the kernel of this idea showed up when American Gladiators was first on TV. I had my premiss.

Before that I was living in New York City and had several women friends who were dancers. They were dedicated, smart, creative, and often at least a little bit insane. Given the opportunity to adopt this fantasy genetic technology, it wasn't hard to imagine them moving from contact improvisation workshops to sword fighting. I had believable characters.

It only took another 20 years or so, before I wrote the story.

[Miriam Minger]

My very first historical/adventure romance, Twin Passions, was inspired by a trip to Norway at the impressionable age of 17 with my grandmother Bodvild to visit relatives.  Ever the romantic, at every turn I envisioned Vikings and their dragon ships sailing along the fjords.  I even fell in love with a Norwegian sailor, Egil.  Of course I had to set my first novel in that ruggedly beautiful country that so inspired me.  

A few years later I wrote another Viking novel, The Pagan's Prize, but this one was set in medieval Russia when Vikings roamed the rivers that flowed from the north of Rus Land to Byzantium.  Just love Vikings, I guess.

Miriam Minger



[Sorry, no links to your books in the body of the post outside the Book Bazaar, it consitutes self promotion.  --Betsy]

[williammeikle]

As for BERSERKER...

Big beasties fascinate me.

Some of that fascination stems from early film viewing. I remember being taken to the cinema to see The Blob. I couldn't have been more than seven or eight, and it scared the crap out of me. The original incarnation of Kong has been with me since around the same time. Similarly, I remember the BBC showing re-runs of classic creature features late on Friday nights, and THEM! in particular left a mark on my psyche. I've also got a Biological Sciences degree, and even while watching said movies, I'm usually trying to figure out how the creature would actually work in nature -- what would it eat? How would it procreate? What effect would it have on the environment around it?

On top of that, I have an interest in cryptozoology, of creatures that live just out of sight of humankind, and of the myriad possibilities that nature, and man's dabbling with it, can throw up.

I also love Vikings -- tales of death and honor, blood and glory have always stirred my soul.

All those things were going round in my head when I first sat down to write Berserker. So come with me, to a cold fjord in Northern Russia, where three Viking longships arrive at the place where the hairy ones dance...

[AmyJ]

Soul Quest was inspired by a really weird dream.  My hubby is a night owl and loves to stay up late watching the history channel.  I had this dream about a "little boy" standing in the middle of mirrored room. The little boy looked just like my son did when he was just 3 years old with his cute chubby cheeks, curly blond ringlets and beautiful hazel green eyes.  Anyway, the little boy was watching images flicker on the mirrored walls in the room.  They showed images from historical disasters (Hitler's dictatorship, Martin Luther King Jr. and Kennedy's shootings... you get the gist.  Anyway, it had a major impact on me.  The next day I asked my husband what he was watching and he said it was a special episode on the history channel dedicated to the worst events in history.  He acknowledged all of the above mentioned tragedies were part of the episode. I suppose as a mother the dream was symbolic of the wrath of the world posing a threat against my children. Anyway, I decided to turn it into a positive thing.  So... my little boy became Hala, the Great Spirit (a being as old as time itself who resembles a child) and the quest for justice against evil began.  Since I work with teenagers it was only natural that they become the heroes in the plot.  The basis of the book is good verses but I tried to weave into the underlying tone... Life is about choices, good and bad. What kind of choices will you make? 

[Philip Chen]

I've discussed this elsewhere, but here's the recap.  In 1990, I had a series of horrible nightmares about gangs of what looked like ordinary Americans attacking buildings and killing other citizens.  I say buildings destroyed and people dying horrendous deaths.  I wrote Falling Star in 1990-1991 in about one and one half months and have been trying to get it published since.

For twenty years my book was rejected by agents and publishers alike because they said, "it wasn't strong enough".  I now understand that they probably thought that my premise that foreign agents could live in the US for decades, marry innocent Americans, raise children, buy homes, and assume the identities of dead babies was preposterous.  Thing like that just don't happened; especially not in the US!  Until, of course, it happened in June 2010, when Russian spies were found to be doing exactly what my fictional spies had been doing for twenty years.  The only difference was that my spies didn't grow hydrangeas.  One of my foreign agents was even a gorgeous female who posed as a financial consultant.  I decided to publish in August 4, 2010 just in case any more of my story got played out in prime time news, like that mysterious missile launch off of Santa Catalina Island.

My claim can be challenged, of course, and it should be.  I simply respond to skeptics that they should go to http://scribd.com/PhilC68 and read the excerpts of my novel that I started posting in May 2009, including segments on these spies.

[oliewankanobe]

The one I have out now, which is a longer short, bordering on novella-- My Boyfriend's Back-- was a way for me to wade into self pubbing.  I banged it out and formatted it just to get something up by Valentine's Day.  I am told I have a natural talent for humor, so I did a fun story.  I did have a few screw ups in the manuscript, but I learned a TON.  So it was good for me and I still kind of like the story.  Fun.

My next release (Echo's Lyric, coming later this spring) was written during the darkest time of my life, and set aside.  It was inspired by:

1. My familiar at the time-- a ferret whom I miss every day.  She passed about 12 years ago.
2. My own journey out of darkness.
3. The idea of writing a bildungsroman for young women in which the feminist hero rejects the urge to be saved by anyone or anything but her own strength, courage, and gifts.

[R. H. Watson]

The book I'll be releasing in April (see avatar) was inspired by recalling how much I loved the Satin Slippers series (about teenage girls at a ballet boarding school) as a preteen. But then I thought it would be fun if those same aspiring dancers got involved in solving mysteries.

"3/17" was inspired by my experiences as a traditional Irish musician playing St. Patrick's Day gigs over the past two decades. From the viewpoint of the stage, I've witnessed some bizarre ways that people commemorate the feast day of Ireland's patron saint. (Shall we start with the concept of green beer?? Sacrilege!  )

There are some fascinating inspiration stories here, but these are the two that, so far, most caught my fancy. Amanda, it seems like such a standard mystery trope to come up with an unexpected solver that it's hard to fine one that stands out. I think however, yours may do so. I'll be looking for the book when it's published.

Irish, your comment here, along with the Amazon description and sample, convinced me to drop the 99 cents (what a steal!) and buy the Kindle version.

[Mike McIntyre]

The Scavenger's Daughter was inspired by a museum exhibit of medieval instruments of torture, many from the Spanish Inquisition. I travel a lot, and I kept bumping into the same exhibit in places like San Gimignano, Italy, and Carcassonne, France. The exhibit—"Inquisition: Torture and Intolerance"—came to my town and became the most popular show in the 100-year history of the San Diego Museum of Man. One day while staring at such cruel contraptions as the Iron Maiden, the Judas Cradle and the Pear of Anguish, I imagined a latter-day Torquemada trying to update the Inquisition. But instead of a medieval torture chamber, the monstrous zealot works out of his self-storage unit.

[Lanette Curington (MidnightWriter)]

Lots of interesting stories behind the stories!

For Starkissed, it was... What if the hero in a science fiction romance novel isn't just a human-looking man from another planet but really doesn't look human?

For Jule Reigh and the Jim Stone Affair, I wanted to write a spy spoof, reminiscent of those old 60s movies, involving an Interpol agent and an international jewel thief. With sex.  And a twist/surprise ending.

For Immortal Ecstasy, inspiration came when I was with a small e-press years ago. They had an imprint called "Sons of Zeus". My brain went in its usual peculiar direction and asked... What if a daughter of Zeus disguises herself as a man and the hero, who has never been attracted to men, falls in love with him/her?

Lanette

[cortney]

Cool thread.

I got the inspiration for Lost at like 4 in the morning.
So i got out my trusty pocket sized journal out and Boom!!! Lost was born.
It was pretty bad so the next morning I beefed it up and i've been working on it ever since!
 

[Holly A Hook]

Thanks so much for starting this thread!

Tempest--Well, I left some mini burgers from Ruby Tuesday sitting out for three hours before I decided to eat them.  I had a weird dream that night about people who could turn into hurricanes, and came up with the idea for Tempest the next day.  I don't think I could've come up with it any other day.

Rita Morse and the Sinister Shadow--This is based off some ideas I came up with back in high school about immortals trying to oppress teenagers all over the world.

[Mike McIntyre]

The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America was inspired by a stranded motorist I encountered. This was in the middle of the Nevada desert, on Highway 50, the Loneliest Road in America. I was doing ninety and hadn't passed another car for an hour. Then I saw a young man walking away from a vehicle, his thumb out, a red gas can in his other hand. It was hot. No one else was around. The nearest town was twenty miles east. The guy clearly needed my help.

I blew right by him.

I figured that the gas can was a ploy to get me to stop, that the guy was a highway robber—or worse.

But I drove on through Nevada, then into Utah, thinking about the guy. I was troubled. Not by leaving him in the desert—but by how easily I'd reached the decision. I never lifted my foot off the accelerator.

There was a time in this country when you were a jerk if you passed someone in need. Now you're a fool for helping. Somewhere along the line, I Don't Want to Get Involved became a national motto.

I thought of my final destination, New Orleans, the setting for Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire. I recalled Blanche's famous line at the end: "Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

The kindness of strangers. It sounded so quaint. Did such a trait exist in America anymore?

A year later, I decided to put the country to the test. I quit my job in San Francisco, gave away the rest of my money to a panhandler, and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. My goal was to trek from one end of the country to the other without a penny in my pocket, relying on the kindness of strangers, accepting only rides, food and shelter.

How did America respond to my continental leap of faith? Did it catch me? Or did it let me fall? I don't want to spoil the ending, but I owe a huge thank you to that stranded motorist in the desert.

[Miriam Minger]

I also love Vikings -- tales of death and honor, blood and glory have always stirred my soul.

All those things were going round in my head when I first sat down to write Berserker. So come with me, to a cold fjord in Northern Russia, where three Viking longships arrive at the place where the hairy ones dance...

I think we're kindred souls when it comes to Vikings, Willie.    More great tales of inspiration. 

Miriam Minger

[Carol R]

The inspiration for my books comes from my own dreams.

[Jeff Sherratt, Novelist]

My latest novel, Detour to Murder, is based on the old film noir movie Detour. Detour was a penny row film made in 1945 starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage. What makes this movie special is that is what made on a very limited budget and has tons of plot holes. The film was so bad, the copyright was not renewed and it went into the public domain. Here is the interesting part - in the 1970's the film started being viewed by kids in college that thought it was a genius film. It since went on to be the most talked about example of film noir and is one of the Smithsonian's picks to be saved for posterity. Go figure. Anyway, my character, Jimmy O'Brien, revisits the murder and events while trying to free the main character in the film, Al Roberts. If you like film noir and mysteries, you will enjoy Detour and Detour to Murder.

[williammeikle]

My Watchers series came from a love of vampires in the movies that stretches back a long way.

I grew up with the sixties explosion of popular culture embracing the supernatural and the weird. Hammer horror movies got me young. And the one that hooked me was Dracula.

I first saw this in about 1970, on BBC2, on an old black and white TV which was about 10 inches square and made everybody look like short fat cubes. But even that didn't detract from the power of this film.
This Hammer horror version sticks fairly closely to Stoker's original novel, and as such is a purist's dream.

Lee plays the Count as no one before or since. His flat demonic stare sems to ooze pure evil. The count has become a cultural icon in the past forty years, and has even been parodied and made fun of (Count Duckula anybody?) but I challenge anybody to look Lee in the eye when he's on the hunt and not feel a frisson of cold terror.

Vampires have been humanised recently (and have even got a soul in Angel's case), but it shouldn't be forgotten that they are bloodsucking bas*ards - that's what they are, that's what they do. The high cheekbones, sex-appeal and good clothes sense are just nice-to-have after thoughts. And in Lee's case you can believe that the bloodsucking is the important part, judging by the relish he shows for the deed.

And just because Buffy can stake a dozen or so without breaking sweat, it shouldn't be forgotten that the vampire is traditionally a great evil force of destruction. Lee never lets you forget it.

Which brings me round to The Watchers trilogy, my retelling of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion in Britain. Bonnie Prince Charlie, and all his highland army, are Vampires and are heading south to claim the British throne. The "Watchers" of the title are the guards of the old Roman wall built by Hadrian, now reinforced to keep the vamps out. It is constantly patrolled by officers of the Watch, two of whom become the main protagonists of the series. I got the idea on a walk along what is left of the wall, and by the time I'd had finished my walk and had a few beers the first part of the trilogy was fully formed in my head. Think "ZULU" or "Last of the Mohicans" with vamps and you'll get a feel of what I was trying to do.

I was dealing with a retelling of the Bonnie Prince Charlie story, where romantic myths have subsumed the harsh reality of a coup gone badly wrong. I needed to strip all the romance out of the Highlanders and build them up from the bottom. Making them a shambling army of vamps and mindless drones seemed an obvious place to start. The Watchers series is a swashbuckler, but there is little lace and finery. What I do have is blood and thunder, death and glory in big scale battles and small scale heartbreak. I love it.

[ASparrow]

Three things inspired Xenolith:

1) An amazing rock I saw in the window of a fossils and minerals shop (a chalcopyrite, to be precise).

2) The abuses of executive power during the Bush years (some of which continue).

3) A desire to escape my (then) present circumstances.


So I wrote an escapist fantasy adventure with a deeply embedded social and political subtext (so buried, some of the character names are anagrams of well-known political figures) -- e.g. Rabelmani).

Contrary to popular belief, it's NOT prehistoric or about a little bird named Xenolith.

[Bob Mayer]

’ve always been fascinated by myths and Atlantis is one of the oldest.  I delved deeper and found there was only one true source mention of it:  by Plato in his dialogues.  Everyone else was riffing off that.

So that was the moment of conception of my Atlantis series:  What if Plato was talking about a real place?  And what if the force that destroyed Atlantis came back to threaten our modern world?

So that’s idea.  What about story?

I was also taking a graduate course in physiological psychology.  In the bicameral mind (The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind—not a beach read) the two sides of the brain mimic each.  But there’s one part, on one side, that doesn’t mimic the same part on the other side—in fact, no one is quite sure what it does.

So.  Now I’ve got Atlantis.  The brain.  And military last stands.  Yes, my mind has some weird parts in it too.  I’ve always been fascinated by them.  But what if they could serve some higher purpose and be connected to a priestess who has a brain that’s different and that area that no one knows what it does—it does something, but only in connection with the spirits of warriors fighting in a doomed battle—do you see how a writer’s mind works?  So I ended up with Custer’s Last Stand, Isandlwana, Pickett’s Charge, the 300 Spartans, a gladiator in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD—all eventually were woven into the main storyline.  And, oh yeah, I brought Amelia Earhart back from the dead.  Three times I think.  Well, not back from the dead, but from parallel worlds where she was still alive.

Is your head hurting?  Isn’t this fun?

[julieannfelicity]

I love reading this thread! I hope more author's join in.

My inspiration for writing The Kindness of Strangers was all the kids/teens out there who have been through the same situations described in the book. It was partially for my own children. They don't know a lot about my past, or my biological mother's past. They only know the things I tell them. To shield them, I haven't told them very much. I don't think they need to hear all the nitty-gritty details until their older - maybe. The real story isn't as positive as what the book describes. I did that on purpose. When a child is abused, especially by a family member, they learn to build up barriers and trust goes out the window. I wanted to write a story that showed positive things can happen once they've been removed from those experiences/situations.

My niece was actually the inspiration I needed to write From Heaven. I'm not entirely sure why, but I believe it has something to do with her parents getting divorced. She's not the same little girl anymore. She's slowly blossoming into an adult and it's intriguing to me to see the things she does, given the choices she has.

The Last Curl was inspired by my desire to open my home to foster children. Having been a foster child myself, practically my entire life, I know what it feels like to be a scared, little child in a stranger's home. I wanted to change my perspective and try to write things from the view of the stranger (aka foster parent). Unfortunately I won't be able to be a foster parent for a long time, but maybe some day.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I was born in the UK and emigrated from Liverpool to South Africa in the 1970s.  My experiences moving to a new continent (and those of fellow expats) were the inspiration for my humorous novel ‘But Can You Drink The Water?’

I worked in the R&D department of a large bakery for several years. When I began work there were three large bakeries that had all started as family bakeries. By the time I left they had all been bought out by a large conglomerate and I was reminded of the adage 'clogs to clogs in three generations.' This gave me the idea for ‘The Breadwinners,’ a family saga spanning 50 years and set in Durban.

I like animals, humour, detective stories and mysteries, so when I decided to write a children's book I incorporated all four, plus I wanted to make it educational as this was what publishers were looking for. Leon Chameleon PI and the case of the missing canary eggs is a librarian's nightmare. This was followed by the case of the kidnapped mouse.

Bheki and the magic light was inspired by watching the herd boys tending the cattle and then returning to their kraal at sunset. There are still rural areas where children have never experienced electricity, so I had Bheki's father take home a torch, and this was Bheki's magic light.


Something to Read on the Plane came about after hearing numerous people come into the charity bookshop where I worked to look for 'something to read on the plane'. I put together some of my previously published humorous articles and  short stories, added some malapropisms, a quiz, an agony aunt column, a couple of limericks and  50 reasons for feeling fifty and put them into a pocket-sized book and I sell at them at airport bookshops (only in SA unfortunately - wish I could get them worldwide )

[J. S. Laurenz]

Freiburg, Germany!  My husband got a Fulbright Grant to do research there, and I did my own research and wrote my historical romance To Conquer the Heart of a King.  Freiburg is a magical place nestled in the heart of the Black Forest.  Lots of castles around to stir the imagination. 

[Miriam Minger]

Freiburg, Germany!  My husband got a Fulbright Grant to do research there, and I did my own research and wrote my historical romance To Conquer the Heart of a King.  Freiburg is a magical place nestled in the heart of the Black Forest.  Lots of castles around to stir the imagination. 

Yes, I've been to Freiburg as well.  Wonderful place and wonderful title for your historical romance. 

Keep those stories of inspiration coming, authors, and readers--join in if you'd like and mix things up a bit with us. 

Miriam Minger

[williammeikle]

I'm currently working on a CARNACKI novel to complement the HEAVEN AND HELL collection.

As I've said before, I write to escape.

Starting writing, twenty years ago now, was like switching on an engine, one that has been running steadily ever since.

And most of the time, the things that engine chooses to give me to write are very pulpy. I'd love to have a chance to write a Tarzan, John Carter, Allan Quartermain, Mike Hammer or Conan novel, whereas a lot of writers I know would sniff and turn their noses up at the very thought of it.

Most of the aforesaid characters are trademarked and off-bounds for writers without paying licensing fees.

Carnacki however is fair game.

Nowadays there is a plethora of detectives in both book and film who may seem to use the trappings of crime solvers, but get involved in the supernatural. William Hjortsberg's Falling Angel (the book that led to the movie Angel Heart) is a fine example, an expert blending of gumshoe and deviltry that is one of my favorite books. Likewise, in the movies, we have cops facing a demon in Denzel Washington's Fallen that plays like a police procedural taken to a very dark place.

My interest goes further back to the "gentleman detective" era where we have seekers of truth in Blackwood's John Silence Sherlock Holmes... and William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki.

Carnacki resonated with me immediately on my first reading many years ago. Several of the stories have a Lovecraftian viewpoint, with cosmic entities that have no regard for the doings of mankind. The background Hodgson proposes fits with some of my own viewpoint on the ways the Universe might function, and the slightly formal Edwardian language seems to be a "voice" I fall into naturally.

The eight tales in HEAVEN AND HELL see Carnacki pitted against a variety of foes. and sees me working out more aspects of the cosmology.

There will be more to come in CARNACKI: THE DARK ISLAND which is underway, and the most fun I've had with my trousers on.

I write to escape.

I haven't managed it yet, but I'm working on it.