I blogged earlier this month about where I found the ideas for RIDING THE STORM, my October Blaze.  I got thinking afterward that all my life experiences these days seem to end up in a book.

Not that my life is always a romance novel.  Thankfully, I’ve already battled my way to my happily-ever-after and I’m fortunate to live it with my husband and three sons.  But the world around me provides ideas constantly.  And if it doesn’t, I tend to kick start things with a vacation or a new adventure that will provide food for thought.

For example, I took a cruise just so that I could write a book set on a cruise ship. (A particularly Machiavellian bit of wifely manipulation, but my husband ended up having a great time.)  The Pleasure Trip was the result.  My yearly trips to the nation’s ballparks wound up in Double Play and Sliding Into Home.  An old trip to the Jersey shore (pre-dating the show by the same name) provided the inspiration for my Wrong Bed, Up All Night.  The months I lived in Miami’s North Beach area gave me tons of material for my Single in South Beach series, starting with Sex and the Single Girl. 

But I don’t always need to travel for inspiration.  Sometimes, I fall in love with a TV character or a great book, and that morphs into an idea.  The summer I read about Boldt Castle in the Thousand Islands area transplanted into Getting Lucky for a fun American Gothic setting.  The year I watched all the Sopranos shows came through in my Night Eyes books, especially Don’t Look Back, where a cop has to deal with a gangster in her past.  Oh, and remember the Gilmore Girls?  Their snappy dialogue really informed my mother/daughter characters in Wild and Willing.

A frequent interview question that I’ve gotten is “Where do you get your ideas?”  It would probably be easier to answer “Where don’t I?” as the list would be much shorter.  Ideas are all around me in the form of character voices, settings, conflicts and happily ever after moments.  I just have to be observant and take it all in. 

***See a book of mine that you’ve missed?  Tell me what stories are missing from your collection and I’ll send one random poster a copy of the book they need!

An Easter Egg is a hidden feature, inside joke, or message in places like software, movies, video games, DVDs, or books. For example, George Lucas references his first movie, THX-1138, in every film he makes. In STAR WARS, Princess Leia is held in cell block 1138.

For fun, I put one in my second Blaze, HIS LITTLE BLACK BOOK, out this month. It’s on page 28. Readers not in the know will miss it, but I’m letting Blaze Blog readers in on the secret.

I try not to repeat main character names even after forty plus books, so when Sophie the pug dog visited last year I thought, “There’s a good name,” and used it for Sophie Callahan, heroine of “Text and the Single Girl.” When Sophie the pug arrived, she deliberately checked out every room of the house. She disturbed nothing, merely observing the status quo. Then, with a Grand Duchess air about her, she set about being the dog of the house. Her self-confidence became part of Sophie Callahan’s personality. Months later, in a funny coincidence, Sophie came to visit for a week at the exact time I was working on the manuscript revisions for her story. She quickly learned the household routine and would trot into my office and camp out in the knee hole of my desk while I worked. Here she is.

So when you read Sophie’s description, “She had pale blue-green eyes with an exotic tilt that kept her from looking too ‘girl next door-ish’ in spite of the ponytail, slightly pug nose and a few freckles”, well, here’s the inspiration. I know, it’s a horrible picture, but she sure doesn’t look girl next door-ish, does she?

What Easter Eggs have you discovered or learned about? Have you hidden some of your own? Or is this all new to you? Post a comment for a chance to win a copy of HIS LITTLE BLACK BOOK.

My first Blaze is on the stands! Whoo hoo! I was looking forward to its release because the number one question I’m asked is, “Where do you get your ideas?” and this time, I’ve got an easy answer. Naturally, no one has asked me that about this book. But the month is young.

UNDRESSED is four stories about couples who overhear conversations in the dressing rooms sharing a wall between a bridal salon and a tux rental shop. The idea for the book came from shopping for a wedding dress with my sister, who got married last year. You would not believe some of the conversations we overheard in the fitting rooms. At one point, I wondered what would happen if the grooms could hear their brides and future mothers-in-law talking . . . and a book was born.

I made up the conversations in the book. The real ones were too unbelievable. A lot of what happens in real life is too unbelievable to use in a book.

For example, at my sister’s wedding last May, I, as matron of honor, am standing next to her, listening as the minister preaches about marriage before the nitty gritty of exchanging vows and rings.

Now, what’s the classic cliché here? The missing ring, of course.

Yes. A horrible, awful, terrible feeling goes through me as I realize that I don’t have the ring. It’s on the table in the bride’s dressing room.

As I am thinking of how I can sneak off the dais and retrieve the ring without anyone noticing, I am also thinking that I could never use this in a book because it’s such a cliché. I turn to the other bridesmaid and mouth, “I don’t have the ring.”

She smiles and mouths back, “I have the ring.”

I go limp with relief. She discreetly hands it to me and I stick it on my thumb. Moments later, I hear, “May I have the rings?” And that’s when I go for cliché number two–the stuck wedding ring.

I’d been working with the flowers and my hands–and thumb–were sticky from florist’s tape. Since by now I was holding the bride’s bouquet as well as mine, I tried to slide the ring off my thumb with the fingers of the same hand. There was no sliding. The ceremony pauses as the minister waits for me to give him the ring. My sister thinks I’m joking. Finally, I pass off a bouquet and use my other hand to remove the ring because I’m afraid it’ll suddenly become unstuck and go shooting across the dais.

You’d never believe that in a book. I didn’t believe it as it was happening. But I can use the idea, if I make up something more convincing and less like real life.

It’s June! What are your wedding stories?