Michael W. Davis
Author of: Tainted Hero (Champagne books, 1/08), Forgotten Children (Champagne books, 7/08), The Treasure (Golden Acorn Publishing, 12/07)
A friend once asked, “Where do you come up with these stories you write.” For me, there’s no one place. I can be driving down the road, walking in the woods, listening to the news, or even my dreams conjure up story lines. I’m talking about the main plot, not individual scenes or vignettes (that’s a different post). For example, I wrote a story called “The Treasure” that was part of a dream. Tainted Hero grew out of listening to two separate news reports dealing with human tragedy and global events. Forgotten Children was based on a research report I read, and Blind Consent related to a young girl I knew as a child, as well as my memories of growing up in the south under the caring influences of my aunts and female relatives. I’m working on a new story that derived from events that occurred as I was taking my morning walk, and a different story came to me when I fell and momentarily hurt myself. Because the ideals come from so many different sources, I try not to constraint the genre in which I write. There’s always a romantic core (I’m kind of a big sap for loven), but if it crosses genres, I let it happen (except for horror and gore, not my thing). That’s probably a bad career move (writing hybrid stories) because most publishers like to remain rigid to stories that restraint themselves to one genre. Problem is, that’s not the way the stories evolve for me. I would rather go with the flow and let the story do its thing, then force it into a rigid mold. I read one time (assuming its not urban legion) that the author who wrote Clan of the Cave Bear had a heck of a time finding a publisher because it crossed so many genres (romance, SF, etc). Fortunately, the publisher I’m associated with considers the value and interest of the story itself, versus trying to force stories into a narrow hole.
Till next time.
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