How’d that go again?

Our topic for this week is about whether an incident with family and friends will make an appearance in one of our books or stories.

Frequently bits and pieces of conversation make appearances or inspire scenes for me. At my husband’s work Christmas party, people were talking about their first dates and these stories always fascinate me. How people met, decided to go on a date, and how the first date went. One person talked about how she developed the stomach flu on her first date with her now husband. She ended up vomiting in the front seat of his brand new car. Upon hearing this, my brain started spinning. What if the heroine didn’t have the stomach flu, what could induce her to vomiting, and how would the hero react? The story I came up with appears in In for a Pound, when Sidney learns something about her fiance.

 Another comment that inspired a short story happened when my dad was quite ill with blood clots in his lungs that were loosened by chemo therapy. My dad, in his mid-seventies, ended up being hospitalized for several days. He ended up recovering, but suffered quite a bit of damage to his lungs. A few months after, my uncle passed away after a surgery. Someone commented that they thought my dad would have died instead of him. That comment inspired a story comparing two men in similar situations.

Other events from my dad’s illness also appear in In for a Pound through Buck’s experiences.

I tend to listen carefully to stories and tuck them away in case I need them later for a story. So when I start writing, I have a treasure trove of snippets for inspiration.

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