Ideas come from the strangest places: sometimes, just a word or phrase can spark an idea, and, suddenly, you’re off, clicking away on the keyboard until it becomes a living, breathing, full-fledged story.   I can only imagine what it looks like to other people: you stare off into nothing whilst following an invisible trail of words that leads to other worlds of mystique and wonder.   Every one of my stories-turned-novels came from such moments.
          Two weeks ago, I was standing in line for RedBox.   While waiting, I looked around at the Maverick gas station and at the people going in and out.   It was in North Salt Lake, Utah.   The place was only slightly busy, but quiet.   From where I stood, I could see some kind of plant in the distance behind the gas pumps.   Further behind that, were the iron-rich mountains changing color against the fading sunlight.   The scene gave me an idea for a new story that begins in the mountains, in some alternate reality America.
          There is a cafe in Amherst, New Hampshire called The Black Forest Cafe and Bakery.   I’ve driven by it many times.   It looks nothing like the name suggests.   It’s on a very busy road, surrounded by broken asphalt and crabgrass.   It’s near a forest, but not in it, the trees most likely cut down to lay the parking lot.   Every time I drove by, it looked deserted.   You probably know where I’m going with this: transport this little known place to an actual, dark forest, and you have yourself a story.   You then begin to ask yourself some obvious questions: how did it get there?; does it get any customers at all?; what could they possibly serve?
          Driving down 101 in New Hampshire, going to the store, or something, and had a thought about people disappearing and reappearing a few months later in the exact spot that they were driving: the entire country thinking they were missing for weeks and months.   I’ve since created a story about a man whom lost his family and tries to get them back by traveling back through one of these windows.
          A few months ago, in a small town in Nebraska, I took my daughter outside to chase a field full of fireflies.   She was laughing and running back and forth, waving at them all.   That little scene sparked the idea I wrote a few pages for the NaNoWriMoCamp back in April.   All I had was the opening line of a boy waking up from a dream in the middle of the night with the message, “Follow the fireflies.”
          My desktop is full of text files and folders of ideas like the ones above.   Of course, some are larger than others.   There’s hardly enough room on the desktop for anything else.   Unfortunately, I’ve yet to actually finish any of these ideas.   I will, though.   Keep reading.   You’ll see.