by Heidi E. Y. Stemple

I, like every author on the face of the earth, am always asked where I get my ideas. We all, pretty much, have the same answer. Ideas come from everywhere. It sounds too pat and too vague. But, frankly, it’s the truth. Ideas do come from everywhere.

I’m always surprised when writers say they are worried they’ll never have another idea. How is that possible when they are under every rock, behind every door, in every café… And, the ideas I find are not floating around only in my orbit, they are in yours, too. What’s magical about ideas is that when two people see the same thing, they can spin that same experience into two (or three, or seven) wildly different stories. My idea may be a linear narrative nonfiction picture book and yours may be a fantastical YA romp in fairyland—both sparked from…