Ideas

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I stayed up way past my bedtime last night.

No, I was not partying!  (It was Wednesday, people.  In my house, that's a school night!)

But the end result is that at this point in the evening I can barely string enough words together to make a sentence and my eyes are threatening to close in spite of strict instructions to the contrary.

So we'll keep this short and simple.

My friend, Kathy, (and yes, I have five friends named Kathy, four of whom are writers, and I'm not going to try to explain which one!  The Kathy in question will be able to recognize herself by the details to follow!) but anyway, one of my five friends Kathy posted a comment on Face Book a little while ago.  She said she was riding on the train, and an older gentleman across the aisle from her was taking a picture of a stuffed animal looking out the window.  Right away, she wondered what lucky child would be the recipient of that photo, or whether he was taking the photo for a scrapbook of his own.

The very fact that she would notice, and wonder, tells you she is a writer.

On school visits, one of the questions I get asked most frequently (right after how old are you? how much money do you make? and what are your dogs' names? - serious writing questions all!) is where do ideas come from?  I answer that ideas are all around (because they are!)  You just have to keep your eyes and ears open.  And you have to wonder.  About everything.

I dropped a note back to Kathy:  write the story!

I hope she will, and I hope she'll share it with us!