Hi everyone–
People always ask writers where they get there ideas. Once you’re a pretty steady novel writer, it’s hard to answer that question because the answer is everywhere. But that wasn’t true for me for many years. I’ve been a non-fiction writer my whole adult life. Because i write for marketing reasons, the ideas are always present in my clients’ products and services, or i pry them out of engineer’s minds. For years, people told me i should write a book, but i simply couldn’t imagine what i would write about. And you probably know the story — i started reading erotic romance and, for the first time, thought it would be fun to actually write a book. But what about?
Okay, so i knew erotic romance–all romance, in fact — is fantasy and i’ve always been good at fantasies. So i thought, what are some of my favorite fantasies? Hmm. I’ve always thought older woman/younger man books were hot, so i decided to try that. Okay, i needed an older woman. It would be great if she was a powerhouse. I like powerhouse females. So a client of mine worked in a company that did genetic sequencing and the person who had invented their system was a woman. Okay, cool. I made my heroine a geneticist.And the younger man would be her research partner. Then i know you know this part. I read my first male/male book and loved it. I wanted to write some M/M romance so, bingo, i added another man to the book. I kept imagining this scene in which the heroine asks the hero about his girlfriend and finds out it’s his boyfriend. I don’t have to tell you that the book is Genetic Attraction, my first published novel that went on to be nominated for Best Contemporary Romance of 2011.
By that time, ideas were starting to show up pretty regularly. A friend showed me an Aussie Bums bathing suit commercial and my beach romance, Volley Balls, grew out of it. Another friend from London took me to the ballet and i created Golden Dancer, the MMM menage that is also romantic suspense. I saw a picture of a black cat and created Spell Cat, my MM paranormal about witches.
Most recently, Loose Id asked me to write a book for their Pick Your Pleasure special collection. I remembered that one of my characters was a gourmet cook and decided to make the pleasure food! The book is Genetic Celebrity, and it releases on July 24th with a healthy dose of food porn.
A friend of mine today told me a story and then said, “Don’t put it in a book.” He’s wise to admonish me because another friend’s stories about rebreather diving made it into Beach Balls. Today, ideas fly at me from every corner. There are so many books i want to write, there won’t be enough years to complete them all. Never again will i say “I don’t know what to write about.” And that’s a lot of fun.
Thank you for visiting the blog. I love blog followers.And if you would like a chance to win Genetic Attraction, go over to Beautiful Boys Books and follow the directions! : )