Where do ideas come from?

Another question about writing I am asked is "How do you get ideas?" The simple answer is several ways.
1) Sometimes the story plays like a film. I need to write as fast as the film plays on those days. Those are the days that I buy legal pads at Office Max or spend hours at the computer writing down the story. These days are fun and fascinating. In fact, the characters take over, the dialogue is surprising, and the story goes in a different direction than I ever imagined.
2) Other days, the ideas are all mine. I wake up with an idea and flesh it out to see where it goes! Those days writing is fun but more like work.
3) Then there are the days when the ideas are half-baked, rare, and hard to find. Those days I may find an idea in the newspaper, on the Internet, or a magazine. I enjoy people watching and am cursed with teacher-hearing (hearing every conversation in the room!). My daily Bible study may also generate writing ideas for Bible studies.
Regardless of where an idea originates, writing is a guilty pleasure and yet still resembles work. My biggest challenge is to make me sit down and write.

Waiting to Publish Gold Earrings

So I'm in the waiting time. I signed a contract to publish Gold Earrings with Tate Publishing. The book is scheduled to enter production in November (a little over a week away!).

Friends have asked me a zillion well-intentioned questions. Unfortunately many of my answers have been "I don't know".

1. When will your book be out? (In the next 6 months, I think.)
2. Can I get it on ebook? (Yes, I think so.)
3. How can you remember all that stuff to write a novel? (Sometimes I have to re-read it to remember key plot or character elements)
4. Where did you get your ideas for a book? (Gold Earrings was a short story that I wrote for a high school composition class that I expanded one summer in the middle of grad school.)
5. How do you know what to write? (Well, I write what the characters say and do in my head. It's somewhat like writing down the elements of a movie as you watch it.)
6. How can you write that much? (Good question!)

So anyway, I find myself in "publishing purgatory" waiting for the next big step! Keep praying and watching for my Christian historical romance novel, Gold Earrings, to arrive at http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ .

In the meantime I am marketing my second novel, A Time to Choose, a Civil War Christian historical romance to the mainline publishers. I'm still writing for www.AssociatedContent.com and www.Suite101.com .

Fall-Apples, Craft Fairs, Making Christmas Gifts!

This weekend is the Bell Buckle Craft Fair. Check out my article at www.AssociatedContent.com.

Gold Earrings starts publication production in November at Tate Publishing. I'm also presenting "PaperFolding 101" session at the National Middle School Association Conference the first week in November. Sounds like a wild November!

I have 15 articles on www.suite101.com and 10 on www.associatedcontent.com . Check them out!

May Day

It's thundering and lightning here. One set was too close! We got lots of rain for a short time; more to come according to the weather people and their computers.

April was interesting. I signed up with Associated Content and have 5 articles posted! Check it out at http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/774570/diane_e_tatum.html . I also signed on with FaithWriters and Suite 101 yesterday. I'm hoping this will inspire some writing while I'm waiting for Gold Earrings, A Time to Choose, and Paperfolding 101 to sell.

Sounds like the storm is back, so it's time to log off!

Spring has sprung and so have I!

So, I have finished 2 of my Christian historical fiction novels: Gold Earrings and A Time to Choose. No publisher interest yet.

I'm also writing a teacher/education professional book Paperfolding 101: Creating Graphic Organizers from Regular Paper. I'm just starting to market it to the teacher-made publishers.

Today I signed up on Associated Content in hopes of writing something that actually makes money.

See me on Ravelry as dktatum! Knitting has become my favorite hobby. Beading, reading, and cross-stitch are in the back seat.

Fibromyalgia - My daily unknown. Will I feel well or achey? Will I drag around tired and/or depressed? This is a big reason I "retired" from teaching. It's hard to be consistent and available when you don't know what each day will bring. Cymbalta has helped a lot. I'm back on Celebrex, too. Still use Amitriptylin and Gabapentin at night to get a deeper sleep. Still, each day is a question mark. I can plan to do things; I just don't know how I will feel doing them.