Where do Ideas Come From?

Where do Ideas Come From?

Originally published 5/21/2010 by Phyllis Irene Radford.

Many years ago, when I first started taking my writing seriously, I thought I was writing romances.  I belonged to Romance Writers of America and met regularly with a critique group and had written a contemporary and was working on an historical.

Then one night at dinner my 13 year-old son sat staring into the distance for a long time without eating.  Out of blue he said, “You know, mom, I think dragons are born that dark pewter color, like the miniature on the shelf.  As they grow older they more silvery until they are as clear as glass, like the one Uncle Ed and I gave you for Christmas.

Ding, ding, ding.  My brains chimed and swirled with ideas.

Within a month I got my first rejection on the contemporary romance, my orthopedist told me I couldn’t maintain my current job in retail because I had to stand too long, and my audiologist told me I shouldn’t work in an office because the noise of telephones, printers, etc would aggravate my tinnitus.

When I climbed out of the hole of that depression I decided that if I could do what I was supposed to do: write romances and work for a living: I would darned well do what I wanted to do.

So I sat myself down and wrote The Glass Dragon, Dragon Nimbus Series #1.  That was my first professional sale.  And I got a 3 book contract out of the deal.  Eventually I wrote 10 books about glass dragons.

My therapy book fulfilled its mission.

For more about her and her fiction please visit her bookshelf here on BVC .

Or her personal web page .