A lot of times I am struck by a word, phrase, or picture. One book I wrote was based on watching an old Buster Keaton silent film. I took one of the women involved in that movie and started wondering what would happen if she and her movie partner were suddenly living out a series of real life cliffhangers. The other book I wrote was based on a real life unsolved murder in Minnesota in the late 1930’s. St. Paul was a gangster haven in the 30’s,so I tied her case into that scenario and started writing away. My current one is because I was reading a biography of Henry VIII an noticed that the Duke of Norfolk from that time looked strikingly like my late father. Seemed like a fun idea to have them both haunting each other through time. Occasionally I just start writing and see what happens. Predicting how the muse strikes me is tough.

The time absolutely flies when I get in “the zone” and if I hit a prolific stage I can do a few pages a day easily. That’s when its the most fun. When I struggle in life, I find my creativity suffers too.