The conception of the Idea Boutique

SCENARIO:

American Author sits down to do a booksigning. She's eager to meet her fans and talk about the genius behind her new bestseller. Fans #1, 2 & 3 want to linger and discuss Joe John, the to-die-for hero in Author's debut novel, but fan # 4 politely asks for a signature and smiles before asking eagerly, "Where do you get your ideas?"

Author forces a smile and bites back the retort that comes quickest : "Walmart."
Instead, she just shrugs and laughingly says, "I don't know. They just come to me."

Fan #4 is slightly disappointed that she hadn't learned this world-changing secret.
Author signs fan #5's book a little to gruffly, exasperated that yet another reader would waste a valuable introduction by asking such a useless question.

So, I'm doing the world a favor here. I'm going to get that question answered for the readers, and hopefully help stifle that question for the authors.

The truth is, each book comes about differently. Something different sparks the idea for book A than the one that sparks book B. To ask where we get our ideas is unfair, simply because answering would involve a drawn out explanation for, sometimes, many books. Or else, we give an explanation for one book that has nothing to do with all the others. You might then know where the idea for Book A came about, but still be clueless about the process that created the other dozen books in that author's backlist.

The Idea Boutique will be petitioning authors to give their "lightbulb moment" for certain books, describing how the idea came to them or the tiny event that sparked a single scene, which in turn evolved into an entire novel.

If there's a particular author or book you're curious about, let me know and I'll see what I can do. But for now, look for the first post to be about my own debut novel, (THE DEVIL'S POSSESSION, due out Aug 2007). Hey, it's my blog. I should plug myself a bit before giving it away to everyone else .

Heather