Story Idea By Judythe Morgan

We're chatting with Judythe Morgan, an antiques dealer, a former public school teacher, a one-time Department of Army Civilian (DAC), and a writer who has won numerous awards.

In the winter, you'll find Judythe on the Texas Gulf coast, writing away. Summers, she shifts her base to the Rio Grande National Forest with her husband and their two dogs, an Old English sheepdog, Toby Bear, and a Maltese named Buster.

Judythe blogs at Judythe Writer, and she's also on Twitter and FB. Her first novel is The Pendant's Promise, which is also available at other ebook sellers of course.

Now, Judythe, talk to us.

Where’d You Get Your Story Idea?
by Judythe Morgan

As a writer, that’s a frequent question. My answer: I’ve been blessed with an active muse and a vivid imagination. Everyone understands about vivid imaginations. An active muse usually needs more explanation.

Greek mythology claims nine muses are responsible for all creative endeavors. Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania supposedly held the power both to inspire and/or remove the ability for creative thought. The commonly used term “muse” finds its roots in these sisters. But muse is more than a Greek god pulling strings.

Writers use their senses to absorb information, both passively and actively, to take in what’s happening around them. Our heightened senses of touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing, and emotion (not quite the sixth sense but a valid source of inspiration) feed our creativity.

Awareness

I believe that muse is that part of a writer’s environmental awareness beyond the level of most, which in turn means anything can be a source of story ideas. A fragment of a conversation, the way the light falls on a tree's leaves, how a wine tastes or the caress of a fabric on your fingertips.

My muse will catch occasional words from a loud gentleman behind me when I’m seated in a restaurant or, waiting in line, I’ll hear snippets of other conversations. The phrase "in one ear and out the other" does not really apply. Instead, it’s more like "in one ear and disappear into the black hole of my mind until needed.”

All this information may not be used immediately, or even ever, but it rests hidden beneath a writer's thoughts as a pool of images, ideas and fragments that surface when needed to form the stories that delight readers. Strange connections act as sources when ideas or experiences bubble up out of that black hole of knowledge we writers have deep inside.

That’s what happened with The Pendant’s Promise. The seed of an idea literally germinated in my head for years before a solid love story plot formed.

Backstory

When the US Army sent my husband to South Korea during the Vietnam War, I followed, knowing I would be an unauthorized dependent. I didn’t think about negative possibilities. I only knew I didn’t want to be away from my husband for thirteen months.

I sold our car and bought airline tickets for myself and toddler daughter. Once there, I discovered many other unauthorized wives and a fascinating culture. I also ended up working as a Department of Army civilian at Headquarters Eighth Army, which filled my writer’s black hole with details and feelings that ultimately surfaced in Lily and Alex’s story.

Most of my story ideas find their origins in my life experiences. Life, fate, karma, has blessed me with some fabulous (and some not so fabulous) events to feed my writer’s muse. However, ideas are a dime a dozen and cannot, in themselves, move you forward as a writer. You have to write the stories. And, that is what I love to do. Write stories to touch the reader’s heart.

The Pendant’s Promise tells the story of a teenage girl who fabricates a marriage and widowhood because her baby's soldier father is MIA in North Vietnam. Her life is comfortable, full and complete until her daughter’s engagement party when she meets the groom’s godfather — her Alex, alive and well and eager to participate in wedding plans. Lily’s world goes topsy-turvy as she faces the past, her lies, and a living, breathing Alex.

Takeaway Truth

Thanks, Judythe, for chatting with us today. It's always interesting to hear how an author came up with an idea and then breathed life into it.