Inspiration from everywhere

So, my book revisions are due today, so I’m hoping you–kind reader!–don’t mind if today’s entry is a little short.

I get my sources of inspiration from everywhere. My stories and novels are magpie nests, full of shiny bits and dark corners, lit on fire by deadlines. Architects of Memory alone needed nearly twenty years to form; it includes a cast I originally thought up during a college exam week in ’02, a story element that could only have happened after my blood clot in ’06, a bunch of research from ’11, and some advice from a mentor in ’16. Most of my published short stories so far include events I read about or experienced in some fashion combined with other bits that don’t necessarily match. After all, the best stories understand that real people, and the real world, are made of conflicted, mismatched, patch-quilt imperfection. Some things just need to feel wrong. Anything else just doesn’t feel right.

So that’s where my tales come from–and after all the edits are in on this book, I’ll revisit some of the magpie nests I’ll be building and develop them into stories, then see which one shines the brightest. After all, I’m going to need to distract myself from obsessively checking how well my books are doing*!

Why not go and make some magpie nests of your own?

(*my editor told me expressly not to do this and i am going to………………………………………………. try)