Today on Facebook someone asked me how I get all my “off the wall”  ideas.

My answer? I watch and I listen, and I watch and I listen.

I take a spark of an idea, whirl it around, juggle it, give it one more spin, and it’s on the pages…

For example…

1.  In my novel, Henry’s Sister’s,  a young teenage daughter named Kayla is exploring different religions, much to her staunch Catholic mother’s dismay. Kayla is currently wearing a full length, head to toe, black burka and her mother, Cecilia, has just about lost her head over it.

The spark for the teenage rebel came from a close friend of mine whose son was trying out different religions. Mormon, Lutheran, evangelical Christian. He had even made a shrine to Jesus and genuflected in front of it.

My friend is Jewish.

2.  In Julia’s Chocolates the women have Breast Power Psychic Night and Getting To Know Your Vagina Psychic Night, etc. I needed the women to have a reason to get together, but not the usual chat – fest. I had a bra on that day. (As usual). It wasn’t too comfortable. I took it off. Hence, taking off a bra, hence Breast Power Psychic Night.

3.  In The Last Time I Was Me, Jeanne Stewart drops peanut oil into her cheating boyfriend’s condoms knowing he will use them with another woman. The cheating boyfriend is allergic to peanut oil. How did I come up with that? I was super mad at my husband one night.

He is allergic to nuts.

4.  In Such A Pretty Face Stevie Barrett needs a second job.  She dresses up as a giant chicken for a chicken restaurant and stands on a street corner waving at passing cars.

I saw a chicken doing the same thing in my neighborhood one afternoon. I thought that if things got bad, I could cluck around like that.  I knew I’d make a good chicken.  That night, it was in my book.

5.  In The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life, a teenager named Shoney insists on using spray paint in the thick of the night to paint pictures of naked women on the backs of buildings and on any free wall in town he can find.

I was inspired by graffiti I saw in Portland and a renaissance painting in a museum that day of those naked, voluptuous women next to flying baby cupids.

6.  In A Different Kind Of Normal, out in August, I have triplets who wear Halloween costumes. For example, they dress as bananas, lady bugs, dragons, and pirates. They refuse to wear normal clothes. This was inspired by my own children who dressed in some very creative outfits when they were young.

My son wore layers of clothes. He would often hang them up in the living room by hangars, as if the living room was his closet. I don’t know why he did this.

My oldest daughter wore only two dresses, switching off each day. One was from a garage sale, the other a hand me down. This went on for two years.  No other clothes. My youngest daughter wore one ponytail on the side of her head, the other a braid.  She also liked to wear a yellow tutu.

7.  In Suzanna’s Stockings in the Comfort and Joy anthology, a woman rams her car into her own store, glass shattering, wood breaking, because she’s ticked off at her husband. I had a friend going through a divorce from a nasty son of a gun. I pictured her ramming her car through her husband’s shop. (He would have deserved it).

8.  In Whale Island in the Almost Home anthology, there’s a character named Gina who is a pet communicator who is also obsessed with the care and safety of animals.

My sister loves animals and has rescued many horses, dogs, cats, and pigs. I soon had Gina sneaking into a barn of an abusive horse owner and stealing a skinny, ravaged horse and putting it into my main character, Chalese’s, dining room to hide it.

I would not put this past my sister. (Sister is pictured below.)

9. In A Very Merry Christmas in the Holiday Magic anthology, there is a minor character named Katie who is a devout Christian with many children but falls asleep in church every Sunday because of her husband’s escapades in bed the night before.

She and her husband play games called “the twister,” and “the hurricane,” and she sometimes has to wear a trench coat. One time her husband stood naked on top of the stairs and blew a duck whistle at her, as a “mating call.” She got dressed in her waders and suspenders, no shirt, grabbed a gun and started chasing her husband around the house as foreplay, while he duck whistled at her.

This was taken, and spun about a bit, from a story my cousin told me about a friend of hers and her duck whistling husband at the top of the stairs.

That’s how I got the sparks for a few of my off the wall ideas.

Remember writers: Watch and listen, watch and listen.