Where Do Stories Come From? Authors are asked this question a lot. Most people would expect from inspirational authors the answer, “From God.” But, really, that’s not the whole story.
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Ernest Hemingway
I do believe that our Creator plants a story like a seed. Some seeds are tiny, like a mustard seed. Other are larger like corn or potatoes. Some seeds must push through the hard ground.
Some grow quickly, like Making Eye Contact with GOD—the Weekly Women’s Devotional which was written in six weeks. Others, like Sweet Rivalry took about a decade to germinate before I wrote it.
When a reader picks up any inspirational novel, they will receive part divine inspiration and part blood, sweat, and a bucket of tears.
Some of you may know that my friend and co-author Cynthia L. Simmons just signed a contract for a Middle Grade fantasy and mystery. We’re so excited. It will most likely release in 2023.
The working title? That’s for another blog. 😊
Where Did This Story Come From?
First, let me tell you about Cynthia. She loves history. I mean really loves history. She has a closet full of
costumes from several periods in time. Anything before WWI, she will research and research.
The Civil War period is her focus now. Her point of view is so unique. Which are reflected in her Southern Gold series. Each book is both a murder mystery and centers around how money changed during the war. Her first book, Pursuing Gold, came out in 2016. We met not too long after.
In 2019, Cynthia invited me to a homeschoolers’ conference where we shared a booth. Cynthia homeschooled all five of her children, including a son with autism. So, she is a favorite speaker. While she spoke, I worked the tables.
Most of the attendees were families, obviously. They loved meeting authors, however, for me, other than my devotional, my contemporary women’s novels weren’t very relevant to that demographic, especially the children. They wanted fantasy!
I suggested to Cynthia that she needed to write a children’s book based on her series. I brainstormed with her for months. After all the discussion we ended up with, she didn’t feel qualified to write a children’s book, and asked me to co-author the book. But I didn’t feel qualified to write historical.
And neither of us had written fantasy!
Write What You Know
There’s a saying “Write what you know.” Perhaps if we began there. Still, we were both nervous.
Finally, I offered to pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat and write a rough outline of a story.
Beginnings
I began with a boy around eleven, and his mother and little sister who moved to the south from Philadelphia, to live with his mother’s father. A grandfather the boy barely knew. The culture shock of moving from the Northeast to the Deep South was great conflict.
Then I “saw” the boy. His name was Mason, and he looked like my grandson, Darrell at that age.
Once Mason made himself known, the story began growing legs. Mason wasn’t happy about moving and he missed his father who was on temporary duty—a secret mission—in Europe. I “heard” Mason’s voice, along with his little sister, Olivia, his mother, and grandfather.
Because I “heard” their voices, Cynthia and I agreed, I would write the scenes with their POV (Point-of-View).
Since this book is a fantasy with history and time travel, Cynthia would write from those characters’ POV.
It took another year—between our busy schedules—to flesh out the outline. The story sat, a bit neglected, as we worked on our new books about to be released. Finally, late 2020, we had a rough draft. Then the real work began.
