I have an Idea...

My family cringes when I say "I have an idea," but they listen anyway. Some of my ideas don't work or never get done or run into huge brick walls. But I have them and I share them and I do write them down. A notepad is by my pillow, another on the passenger side of my car and another in my studio. This may seem like an organization nightmare but I do take these notebooks and compile them – occasionally.

My idea of painted baseball fans for a theater set. Can you tell which one is me?

I get my ideas in dreams and while driving and sitting by the ocean. I get them from old friends and old people and old photos. I get them from my muse and my cats and my memories. I find ideas under rocks, behind the trees and in the sky. I see them in the moon and the stars and the great hot sun. And, well, I guess a better question for me would be be, "Where don't you get your ideas?"

I've got writing several works-in-progress going at the moment. Including a non-fiction Picture Book story about crab apple tree and Middle Grade about a boy who stows away on a hot air balloon and a Young Adult about a teen who inherits her Irish grandmother's Pooka.  I'm discovering the writing in one genre opens up ideas and better writing in the other ones. For instance writing a picture books forces to me find the essence. Writing MG is usually done from a narrator or storyteller's POV and YA is almost always 1st person. It stretches my mind. It also improves my typing skills and my spelling. And it provides me with text to illustrate.

I write at least 1 hour a day. I draw at least once a day and don't limit my time. The rest of the time life, people, theater, family, cats, Puget sound and books get the way. I have an idea, lots of ideas and I always will.