Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Visiting Roland Yeomans & Sharing Ideas

Halo, fine friends!!!

I am over at Roland Yeoman's blog today talking about my ancestral muses--the women in my family tree who made me feel I could conquer the world. Wouldn't THEY be shocked to realize they were responsible for Naked World Domination!?  On second thought... maybe not so much... So come see me over there and learn a little about my grandmamas!


And then just a quick thought about SHARING ideas.

It's funny how we can sometimes be very protective of our book ideas... and understandable. And I have ideas I definitely pause before letting out. But the reality is the SAME idea in different hands can lead to VERY different results.  Take my buddy Liz Crowe and I... and the idea of microbrew mysteries... and look at HER microbrew erotica and MY cozy mystery and just TRY to convince me there isn't room for both of us.  If her erotica has a mystery, that's fine--it will NOT taste the same as mine. If my mystery has some romance that's FINE, it will not taste the same as hers.


Yesterday a new reader, Candilynn Fite, who had seen me on Alex's blog on Monday sent me an idea of HERS that fit my Gardening Cozy theme. And it's BRILLIANT!  I've written the first three in my series, but if they contract me for more, I totally want to figure out how to use her thoughts!  And it was wonderful and generous of her to send it. But she was thinking--hey, it's a great idea, and I'm not going to use it.

A while back, I did the SAME THING. I had a dream about a restaurant critic (who was sorely asking to be murdered) and sent the idea to Elizabeth Spann Craig (who used it in Finger Lickin Dead).

I feel like the love just flows if we spread it around, eh?  So THANK YOU, Candilynn!

Any of the rest of you share a plot you weren't using?  How did it work out?

8 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Your ancestors would not be shocked.
I'm all for sharing ideas. As soon as I have one, I'll pass it along.

T. Powell Coltrin said...

I had heard that about sharing your idea with Elizabeth.

T

Roland D. Yeomans said...

That was generous, sharing your idea with Elizabeth. We are stronger, better when having the others' back.

We got FRANKENSTEIN when the Shelleys, Lord Byron and entourage gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva to tell the ghost stories!

And thank you for being gracious eneough to be my guest today. You were fantastic, Roland

Hart Johnson said...

Ha! Alex, I'm sure you have tons of ideas! But the idea being present at the same time as the recipient... that's another matter...

Teresa-she was great enough to thank me for it in her intro, so that ones not a secret.

Roland-thank YOU for having me!

LTM said...

That is so cool about Candilynn! I love that story. I haven't really had that issue before, but I could imagine doing it. And I just love that title. Finger Lickin Dead. :D

Saw you at Roland's. Very very sweet~ <3

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

And I really needed an idea, too! I was kicking around the victim for days before you told me about your dream. :) Thank you!

There are only so many ideas...and we all bring something new to the table when we write. Plenty of room for 2 microbrew books!!

Sarah Ahiers said...

I have not shared. But then, i haven't come up with an idea that i didn't think i would use yet. So i definitely would! It just hasn't come up yet

Old Kitty said...

Yay for your guest post over at Roland's!!

And Canilynn is totally NAKED in the most Nakedest sense!!!

Take care
x