People frequently ask me where I get my ideas from. For me, it started when I was very young. I remember one of the first stories I wrote was about a rat named Ben. A bionic rat. I was so excited that I left the two-page story on the kitchen table one night for my mom to read when she got home. I can still picture the loving, encouraging note she wrote for me. Being a wonderful mother, she told me how impressed she was with the story and how perhaps I would be an author one day.

The truth is…we all have ideas. Often sparked by random moments or observations, or a vision that just wouldn’t go away. We all have ideas floating around in our heads, sometimes for decades, just waiting to be made into something. Almost like a factory. And in the end, we’re all idea factories.

My ideas come from the strangest places. A conversation. A post on Facebook. Or even a string of long standing ideas that slowly start to piece themselves together. In fact, when I put my author hat on and look around, there are stories everywhere. You just need to step back and see every item, every thing, for what it is. An item with some kind of story hiding inside. Whether it’s a rock, or an accident, or a secret. Fascinating ideas are practically hanging from the trees. It’s strange. Some people say they can’t come up with a good idea for a book. I can’t stop thinking of ideas. Maybe my factory is stuck in overdrive.

And yet the best part of it all, is that years after a silly story about a bionic rat, I’ve now become my mother’s favorite author.