A question I get a lot is ‘where do I get my ideas for my books’.

Quite honestly, it’s just life happening and realizing I can fit it into a story one way or another.

The first book, The Bakers’ Patio, came to me while barbecuing outside with my grandson. He started stomping on anthills and as I was watching him, I was wondering how the ants felt about that. So  I wrote a story from their point of view.

Then I started wondering about ants and their lives… What do they do when it rains? Or when a member gets stuck in a spider web?

Then, as I wrote, I started putting the colony in situations we go through. Taking things for granted. Lying. Feeling independent. Not listening. How to treat people.

It doesnt hurt having grandchildren and watching their behavior.

For the other series, where a grandfather puts his grandson down for the night and is asked to make up a story. A lot of that comes from discussions with my grandkids. For the book Elevator, that contains two experiences.

Staying at a hotel with my grandsons and their fascination with an elevator.

And a discussion with a grandson about keeping squirrels out of my birdfeeder … and after all of my wonderful strategies, he stated, “Papa, they’ll just build an elevator.”

When I visit schools, teachers want me to talk about idea creation with their students. One day I asked a student what they did at recess. She said, “she played on the monkey bars”. I replied do you think monkeys play on ‘people bars’? 

I use the zoo a lot when talking about idea creation.  What jobs certain animals would have. One of my favorites was what would a cheetah do?  A child said deliver pizza. That led to a  whole discussion about types of pizza zoo animals would have.

Once I had my worlds created, living life created the ideas and scenarios for the characters.

Make sure you read today!