12. What inspires your ideas for a story? Where do you get your initial ideas?

Hi. The first novel I wrote was inspired from characters in a board game I had designed. In my second novel, the villain was inspired by a message I heard about internal trauma. (She maneuvers around modern society, luring people into circumstances that shatter their hearts.) My next novel that I wrote was partially motivated by two things. I knew I needed a change in style. I liked to ramble philosophically, so I knew my stories needed more action. So I added monsters like a zombie and a giant mutant tiger-lizard. And, I was playing with the idea of the heart—the human core which carries burdens, wounds, and aspirations. So the story revolves around a fictional society that tries to value each person’s heart. (And, when someone is deeply wounded and their heart shatters, they deteriorate into a zombie! Gotta have that action lol.)

That being said, I think part of being an artist, a writer, is having an eye to see the deeper story in the moments of life. For example, the book Legends and Lattes (a great, fun read) entirely revolves around the idea that a moment with a cup of coffee is beautiful—which is a moment I encounter every morning, but never had eyes to see the greater story. So, I would say, being inspired is just as much about the substance and quality of the thing observed as it is about a person having the time, the presence, and the eyes to see.