Welcome Kait Nolan!

Please welcome Kait Nolan, debut author of Forsaken by Shadow, to my blog today. I met Kait on Twitter and I enjoy following her writing progress. And look at that gorgeous cover!

As part of her ongoing blog tour for the month of May, Kait wrote up a fabulous post about the age-old question all of us writers are asked so often. Feel free to weigh in about where YOUR ideas come from!

I’ve been talking a lot to readers lately asking about what they want to hear about on writers’ blogs.  We all typically talk about writing (big shock), which is great for networking with other writers but isn’t always the most interesting for readers.  The overwhelmingly consistent question that keeps popping up is “Where do you get your ideas?”

I don’t know about other writers, but I hate this question.  Not because I find it annoying but because I find it incredibly difficult to answer in any way that readers find satisfying.  Because the short answer is: everywhere.  News reports.  Discovery Channel.  Science Channel.  National Geographic Channel.  Spike TV (yes, I’m serious—I watch a lot of shows like Deadliest Warrior, Fight Science, Fight Quest, and the like—they really help with fight scenes and make the hubs happy).  Anything goes, especially when you write paranormal and don’t have to take things literally.

Occasionally the inspiration will have an obvious and direct connection with the outcome.  For example, a few months back when I saw that news report about that football player Michael Vick who was arrested for dog fighting, my immediate response (after a choice diatribe of cursing and opinions on the fact that they ought to leave his punishment to the dogs—the jerk), was an idea about how one of the illegal sports in my paranormal world would be werewolf fighting.  That somehow the wolves would be in collars that would keep them from shifting back, and they’d be kept in an animal state and forced to fight.  Talk about a new definition of bloodsport. 

Other times, there’s no logical connection to the outside observer between inspiration and outcome.  I read an article about the Turritopsis nutricula, a variety of jellyfish that is biologically immortal.  No seriously, go look it up.  It’s really cool.  Well I took that idea and twisted it into an origin story for each of the major paranormal races in my world.  What do immortal jellyfish have to do with wolf shifters, vampires, fae, and other paranormal races?  Well, you’ll have to read my Mirus series to find out.  :D 

There’s also the popular eavesdropping inspiration.  You know the routine.  You’re out in public somewhere and overhear a scrap of conversation.  You probably don’t know the context, so your writer’s brain comes up with one.  I’m particularly fond of this method for the smack talk men consider banter.  

And of course you can’t forget dreams.  Would you believe the original inspiration for my return to paranormal romance was a whacked out dream in which I went to Germany to rescue a friend who’d disappeared, and while there became surrogate mother to a pack of wolf cubs?  Like actual wolf cubs.  There was this sexy wolf shifter doctor…  And he became the hero in what was supposed to be my first book in this series.  It’s actually going to be more like the third and bears no resemblance to the dream except that he’s still a sexy wolf shifter doctor, but that’s neither here nor there. 

I think readers often expect some actual logic or magic to where we get our ideas as writers. Or perhaps, since they say everyone wants to write a novel, they’re looking for some transmissible secret to success.  I guess the reality is that we look at the world just a little bit differently. 

***

My debut paranormal romance novella, Forsaken By Shadow, is available at Scribd, Smashwords, Amazon, and the iBookstore.  It is the first in the Mirus series.

Cade Shepherd is on top of the world as this year's Ultimate Fighting Champion. He doesn't even remember his life as Gage Dempsey, a Shadow Walker with the ability to magically transport himself from shadow to shadow. In fact, he can't remember anything before waking up in a cheap motel room ten years ago with mysterious burns on his hands--not even the woman he almost died for.

Embry Hollister has picked up the pieces of her life, learned to control her ability to generate flame, and now works an enforcer for the Council of Races. But when her father is captured by the human military and the Council refuses mount a rescue mission, Embry has no choice but to go rogue. All she has to is find the man with the new name and new life who was completely wronged by her people, give him back the memories they stole, convince him to join her on what's probably a suicide mission, and hope that after ten years of living as a regular guy he still remembers what her father taught him.

And after that, she just has to leave him. Again.

Sounds amazing, doesn't it? I can't wait to read this one! Be sure to pick up Forsaken by Shadow at Scribd, Smashwords or Amazon.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, Kait! Want to find out more about her or her books? Follow Kait on Twitter or visit her webpage!