Page Turning Books

Where Writers Find Inspiration

One question I’m often asked is where I get my story ideas.
 Here’s the answer: Everywhere!

I’ve yet to go on a trip with my husband, Captain Cavedweller, and not come home with a list of story ideas. They’ve sprung to life while sitting in traffic, working in the yard, and grocery shopping. I also find inspiration in experiences. If I hear a hilarious story from a friend, I will probably jot down some notes. You never know when it might end up in a story. Likewise, don’t behave badly around me because you could end up as some despicable jerk in a future story.

The idea for my latest contemporary romance, The Christmas Cowboy, invaded my thoughts last year while CC and I sat in the Las Vegas airport after the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, waiting for our flight home. Indulging in some serious people watching, I couldn’t help but notice the sea of cowboy hats and friendly smiles. “What if,” started playing loudly in my head. What if there was a cowboy, a rodeo cowboy? What if he met a girl at an airport? What if they fell in love? What if she was a driven career woman? What if she despised cowboys? What if…

Fortunately, I had my laptop with me and began madly typing my ideas for the two main characters. By the time we landed, I had a basic storyline and most of the characters in the story planned out.
Here’s a little blurb about The Christmas Cowboy:

Tate Morgan is a good-looking, dimple-cheeked saddle bronc rider chasing his dream of earning a World Champion title. Frequenting the small airport near his ranch in southeast Washington on his way to rodeos, he keeps seeing the same beautiful brunette. He finally works up the courage to sit down next to her one morning and strikes up a conversation as they wait for a flight to Denver. Kenzie Beckett is a trainer for a direct sales company, traveling coast-to-coast as she works with consultants and the corporate team. Gone more than she’s home, she doesn’t have time to invest in relationships, particularly with a cowboy. Burned twice by sweet- talking men wearing Wranglers and boots, the last thing Kenzie plans to do is give a third one the chance to break her heart.
Keep something handy to jot down notes at all times. You never know when or where inspiration might strike. I’ve keep notebooks in my purse, in the car and, if all else fails, I can also capture a few notes on my phone. Don’t go looking for inspiration because the very best moments are the ones that catch you by surprise.

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For more details about The Christmas Cowboy, visit The Christmas Cowboy page on Shanna’s website. From December 1-24, Shanna will donate 10% of her net proceeds from all her book sales to the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund.

Author Bio: Shanna Hatfield is a hopeless romantic with a bit of sarcasm thrown in for good measure. In addition to blogging, eating too much chocolate, and being smitten with Captain Cavedweller, she writes clean romantic fiction with a healthy dose of humor. She is a member of Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West, and Romance Writers of America.

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Eight Tips to Make Your Next Writers Conference Awesome!

I love going to writers conferences, and it’s really awesome when I’m speaking there as well. But as wonderful as the networking is, if you don’t show up with a plan or a set of action items for the conference, you can get sucked up into the vibe of the event without being very productive. Here are some tips to help you maximize your event!

Goals: Before you go to a writers conference, be clear on your goals. If it’s just networking that’s great, but if you want to get more than networking out of the event, make sure you establish your specific objectives in advance.

Start networking before the event starts: Now that you’ve gone through the conference website, it’s time to identify the folks you’d like to get to know better and start your networking early. Send them an email and tell them you are looking forward to seeing them at the event, or hearing them speak. Follow them on Twitter and begin to network with them there. Early networking is a great way to get in front of agents and publishers you might not otherwise have access to.

Make appointments early: The conference website should be your new best friend. Comb through it to find names of publishers and agents who are going to be there. Most conferences will offer you publisher or agent appointments so you can present your work, but if you want to coordinate a meeting with someone for any other reason check the website to find out who will be there and see if you can get on their calendar. I have showed up at conferences hoping to make appointments there and found that they’re not only difficult to schedule, but often confusing as well. Once you hit the conference floor the momentum of the event takes over, and any appointments that haven’t been confirmed prior to the event generally won’t happen.

Take business cards: Make sure you bring a lot of business cards, running out at an event is never good.

Stay organized: I will generally bring some letter-sized envelopes with me to the event and then file cards by session or event so I can keep track of where I collected them. For example, let’s say I went to a big awards dinner and did some networking. If I file all of these in the “Awards dinner” envelope, I can add a personal element to the follow-up email like, “It was nice to meet you at the awards dinner, wasn’t Marci’s acceptance speech great?”

Easy follow-up: Ok, so you’ve had a great meeting with a publisher and they want to see a chapter of your book. Great! Now what? Take their card, flip it over and jot down a few important notes on the back such as: follow-up steps, short meeting details (“met for lunch”), and anything else you can fit onto the card such as any personal details they shared – like having a daughter who went to the same school as your kids or something like that.

Never eat alone: There’s a great networking book by the same name (Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, Crown Books) and the statement is true. At a writers conference be sure to grab a table packed with people and even better, don’t sit with the same folks over and over again. Mix it up and meet new people!

Action items: At the end of each conference day, I find it helpful to gather my notes and go through and highlight the important items from the day. I have often waited until I’m on the plane back home, or worse, the Monday following the conference and I generally can’t make heads or tails out of who I am supposed to follow up with at that point. Lesson: do it early while the information is still fresh.
And finally, our bonus tip:

Plan B: If you can’t afford to attend the writers conference that’s in your town here’s an idea for you. When a big conference rolls into town, an author friend of mine will sometimes hang out in the downstairs coffee shop or restaurant at the hotel where the event is being held and network with people there. You never know who you might meet…

Conference follow-up: This is a biggie. Make sure you always follow up with everyone you connected with, especially if you committed to them that you would send them more information, sample chapters, whatever.

Keep the networking going: Relationships take time. Don’t expect miracles when you land at a writers conference. Sometimes great stuff will happen right away, and other times it’s a process. Don’t let the networking end when the function is over. You’re now networking with them online via Twitter and Facebook, and perhaps you have some follow-up to do. Keep on their radar screen and then be on the lookout for future events you can attend!

Writers conferences are a great way to get out there and network, meet your peers and meet agents, publishers, and marketing professionals who can help you publish or market your book.

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I tried to keep an interested look on my face as I turned off. Their animation and cloying sweetness were so contrived—so predictable—like sorority girls in a bobby sox movie. They were a throwback to when married women, clueless to the ideas of the Women’s Movement, were silly, pretentious, baking chocolate-chip-cookie housewives. Surely, they were educated. Surely, there was more to them than children stories and blather. Surely, they were forces with which to be reckoned. Quite a dance—was it orchestrated on my behalf? How soon before the veil was lifted and I saw their true selves?

As I feigned listening with a pasted smile, a sudden terrifying thought pushed into my consciousness. Maybe this was really a scene from a production of a Chekhov play? Had I somehow been cast in a modern version of Uncle Vanya or The Three Sisters? I couldn’t remember anything about auditioning. When? When? My mind was blank. But here I was in this strangely adapted production.

Who was I supposed to play? My stomach fluttered in that quick recognition of panic. My palms began to sweat. The bright stage lights obscured my view of the audience. I sat frozen, watching the others. Their timing was perfect—all head nodding and drink pouring—giggles and chatter. I prayed I wouldn’t have to speak soon because…I couldn’t remember my lines! I looked around me. I absorbed the set of heavy sofas made of leather. I looked down and saw the drink in my hand. My fourth (or was it fifth?) margarita empty but for two small sips.

Ah, yes. Of course this wasn’t a Chekhov play, no Russian aristocracy here. This was just Jake’s family. A Jewish Texan family, kind of ludicrous to me. A Jewish, Texan family where Yiddish and Hebrew were spoken with a Southern drawl. Charming but strange. I sat back on the sofa and breathed a sigh of relief—this wasn’t a play. And then it struck me. It was much worse than that. This was real life…my life. A life I had chosen with my eyes opened blindly. I must learn important lessons from this first meeting. I must observe the pull and tug among them all, the ease and rapport coupled with the domination and rigidity and Jake just sitting there seeming to be aloof and smirking at everything. I was a fish out of water—a pushy New Yorker overwhelmed by a Southern grace that was steel-like and impenetrable, like Styrofoam packaging cushioning objects made of stone. Yes, like Shirley MacLaine’s character Ouiser Boudreaux in Steel Magnolias. My own family seemed colorless and dry, sensible and ordinary in their openness and honesty. I laughed to myself at the absurdity of that—but it was true. There was borderline dysfunction happening here and I would be a part of it from now on.

As the sisters talked and talked and laughed and laughed at inside jokes, memorable events, and their children’s escapades—I drank. Their husbands drank. Jake smirked. The gasoline taste was not quite as strong after awhile.

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5 Things You Should Know About "Dance For A Dead Princess"

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