Do you think that young people really know what they're getting into when they try drugs?  How many of them just sort of drift into it because "their friends say it's not harmful"?  With all of the articles written and the infomercials dedicated to warnings, do they ever consider what can happen to them before it's too late?

I watched (and taped) a program on our local television station which gave accounts of young people who got caught up in meth use.  None of them ever thought they would get "hooked".  The consensus was that they deeply regretted all that they had lost (family, friends,  self-respect, etc.).

 Help get my novel, FOR LOVE OF TEDDY, out to the public because I will be going out there with the novel, giving talks at schools, doing readings, doing newspaper, radio and (hopefully) television interviews, and generally offering my novel to every venue where it might help young people and their parents see what they can do. 

I have often been asked where I get the ideas for the novels I write.  I have to admit that I have a big file folder crammed with ideas I've noted down while travelling, watching TV, or doing any of the miriad things that fill my day. 

I also get a lot of ideas from newspaper articles I read.  Sometimes there is a news story about a person that strikes me as an interesting character for a future book.  Sometimes the news story is about a subject that seems to be a possible plot (or beginning of a plot) for a novel.

Several years ago I read a news story about a mother in Detroit who turned her son in for drug use.  That struck me as a good beginning idea for a story.  And through metamorphosis, that newspaper article became what is now my novel, FOR LOVE OF TEDDY.  Although the newspaper story became only a mention in my novel, that is what started my thinking and plotting.

Story ideas can come from anywhere.  I have the beginning of a novel taken from a country song title which is evolving into a story about infidelity and retribution.  That story, however, is filed away for now because I am concentrating on another novel dealing with disadvantaged and at risk young people.

So whenever something in the real world pulls at your heartstrings, or makes you think "what if . . ."  you just might have an idea that you can build on and develop into a novel.

I've run across some very interesting and helpful websites and I thought I'd pass some along from time to time.

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