The idea for Nightmare Enemy, Dream Friend came out of the blue. I was at home writing on something else when the phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Are you a writer?”
“Yes, I am.” I had had a local google ad as “writer, editor, tutor, teacher”; it was on the same page as ads for tuxedo rentals and sales, and I had gotten more calls looking for tuxedos than for writers.
“I have a story that I think would be a great book, but I’m not a writer. Could you write it?”
“Tell me the story.”
Fifteen minutes later, I had the idea of what he wanted and I agreed that it would make a great story. Later I met him and we went over the story in more detail and I agreed to write it. Two and a half years later, I had written and published Nightmare Enemy, Dream Friend.
Another time, I was in the library at the college when a student I had helped in the past came in and said, “I had a dream last night that I think would make a great mystery. Can I tell it to you?”
“Go ahead.”
After she narrated her dream, I said, “Wow! What a dream! Yes, that would make a great mystery. Can I use it?”
About half a year later, I had written one of my favorite Buck Jaspers mysteries: Silent Partner.
In both instances, I acknowledged where the idea for the story had come from in the preface to the book. You can read the first pages on Amazon.com.
Most of my ideas aren’t given to me by other people. They come from the muse, and the spark could be almost anything.
I did a review of where my sixteen short stories came from in A Collection of Nickel-Plated Angels. It took a while but here is what I discovered:
I glanced at other collections of short stories and poems, and I found that in general, but with some variation from collection to collection, the above percentages hold up; however, I had a few wildly divergent sources, and I found another source of inspiration for poems: music. Several poems popped into my head while I was listening to music, for music and poetry are related. Also, when I learn about a new form of poetry, I often try my hand at the new form. In fact, my first published poem was a haiku, a Japanese form.