How to Find Ideas to Write About by Elizabeth Alsobrooks

Sometimes you go somewhere and a story idea presents itself to you. Maybe you imagine a person you see as a character in a story and imagine what they might be like and what they might have done, or what they are doing in the place where you happen to see them. Perhaps you wonder about where they might be going and who they might be meeting, and why. 

Other times, you might just happen upon a setting for a story you've already written and imagined, but never visited in person. It can give you ideas for future stories too.  This happened to me recently when I visited a park not far from my home, in Tucson, Arizona.  Now the story it reminded me of actually took place in a desert much closer to Cairo than Tucson, but it's just as I imagined. A true desert oasis doesn't just fall into your lap every day, but I saw one in real life and instantly said, "this is the oasis from my romance story, Stolen Secrets."

As an artist, I try to visit some beautiful locations to take photos for paintings, but I just never imagined I was going to walk into a park that could have been a setting for a scene from The Arabian Knights. I'll post some photographs and you tell me what you think.

Although my oasis was smaller, in my head/story, this one took my breath away and started my imagination spinning.  If you'd like to read about my oasis and the hero who gets wet in it, take a look at Stolen Secrets:

Offered an enormous sum by an anonymous benefactor for the acquisition of an ancient ceremonial relic, a sum that would keep the antiquities shop in Cairo her father left her afloat while she continued her own archaeological pursuits, Lady Isabella Valentine was distracted rather than tempted, then suspicious, when the dashing young Bedouin slipped in just before closing and promised her a deal she couldn’t refuse--for the very same relic. Despite his sensual appeal, she did refuse him, sending him away.

 

Prince Mukhtar, son of Sheikh Abdul Kummel al-Rahman, leader of the Hassana, is on a sacred Illuminati mission for Isis to retrieve something stolen from one of her temples over a thousand years ago. This mortal disbeliever though an enchanting English rose, however beautiful she might be, is clearly in the power of the Usurper and must be persuaded to help him, one way or another.