The Birth of a Story

A few years ago, as I sat in the car outside of a convenience store, an old payphone on the side of the building started to ring.  I’d been to this store a million times and hadn’t even realized a payphone was still there.

No one was around eagerly waiting for a call, and everyone walked by it, not even giving it a second glance.  No one answered it.  As it rang on, I wondered who would be calling a payphone in this day and age when everyone has a cell phone?  How would they have the number? Should I answer it?  If so, what would they say?

 Too late…the ringing stopped, unable to deliver the message it intended to deliver.  

As I mulled over this, my character introduced her story by saying, “It was about a month ago I stopped being a redhead.”

Thus, birthed my story, DESTINY CALLING. 

My story process

           

            I’m always curious where stories begin.  Wondering how the mind works, as I’ve noticed that often the writers mind appears to be wired just a little different.  Such as my immediate assumption, as I struggled to open the sticking door to our garage was that… this was how I was going to die. A murderer would break into the house and as I fumbled with my weak grip to flee from death…and failed. 

When I told my husband this he said, “It’s probably from the change in temperature.”

            True, but still a possibility that I may perish as this opportunity awaits the mass murderers that are lurking in my imagination. 

            Or when the neighbors were building the house next door and I was pretty darn sure there was a body buried in that pile of dirt and putting the house up was merely a guise to hide the corpse…

I’d like to share the 80,000-word story that was birthed from a ringing payphone.  Here’s a taste of what grew into DESTINY CALLING.

Vengeance lures 21-year-old Hope Hallows back to the outskirts of Pittsburgh, not just to the family who abandoned her, but also to the breeding ground for malevolent beings, which feed off despair. Gifted with the ability to infuse euphoria or utter desperation with her touch, Hope must face both her inner demons and the ones walking the earth. Struggling with forgiving her family, and resisting the man enticing her with the power of the Underworld, she discovers she's a pawn in a bigger game played by a merciless ruler who doesn't lose.

I don’t have a beautiful cover to post with it, yet.  It only exists in my mind right now, and you don’t want to go there.  It can be a dark, scary place. 

If you’re a reader, what interests you about the stories you read or the authors that create them?  If you’re a writer, how are your stories conceived?  Thanks for stopping by.