Mind Sparks: Lighting the way into the New Year

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Ideas that stick like strands of gray hair to a black sweater.

When I think back to the moments book writing topics come alive for me, I can usually pin point them pretty closely.   For instance, I remember the photo of my nephew and stepson in their baseball t-shirts, holding equipment and smiling into the camera in my brother-in-laws, back yard.  A whole story came from that one photo and the ideas it generated and eventually led to my first published book: The Insect Zoo and the Wildcat Hero…later published as Bees, Bugs, and Baseball Bats.

Another example is seeing the original Dog Soldier Ledger book art in the Denver History Museum for the first time.  It’s true I was actively in search of information for a new book, but this particular museum display and one nearby showing a Cheyenne Dog Rope led me down the trail of the Cheyenne culture and eventually to the events of the Sand Creek Massacre.

More recently, a mine tour down the Molly Kathleen Mine in Cripple Creek, spurred my interest in donkeys and their importance to Cripple Creek miners.  Maude Oliver, a fine specimen of a donkey, and her eleven year owner, are currently living a life of their own on the pages of Rescue in Poverty Gulch.  (LIKE Maude Oliver on FB)  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maude-Oliver/264720393591461?ref=hl

 

 

     

The exact moment of the spark is hard to describe, but I recognize when my mind smiles; it feels like the figurative moment when you reach for the golden ring and wrap your fingers around it…just before the pull.

Of course, there is that “pull” to deal with afterwards. A book can’t be produced from a single “ah-ha” moment.  The fictional path is filled with research, combinations of ideas, twists, turns, ruminations, false starts, stall outs, and sometimes the  magical days of wind surfing.  All of the above and more, but without that first flicker, the fire never kindles. Hold the match and reach out.  You’ll know when the flame starts dancing in your mind.