Copyright 2012 by Paula S. Jordan
The answer to that popular question is that it’s easy … and, well, hard.
The easy part is, they come from anything and everything … the same sorts of things that life throws at everyone.
The hard part is paying attention, training and maintaining a small specialized mental nerve to be constantly alert for the story potential in those everyday events.
Take, for instance, yesterday.
Putting together a Gumbo with not quite the right ingredients at hand.
My gifted, longsuffering husband going out to argue with the dead AC and returning with six stings and two angry yellow jackets still riding on his clothes.
Water aerobics, and a fellow splasher’s story of a baby raccoon her family fostered for a while in New England.
What does that little story nerve do with those?
The Gumbo? Turned out pretty well, I’m happy to say, but nothing extraordinary.
The yellow jackets? Could go for drama with that one, or humor, or both. But nothing really tweaked that little nerve. Still, I’ll file it away. (He’s all right, thank goodness. And thanks, in advance, for asking. The AC is still DOA.)
The raccoon? That one was cute, but nothing special until she told me one key 
detail about the way that smart little beastie became a part of their family–riding on their shoulders, demanding her bottle till long after she needed it, etc, etc–and: In the winter, riding with them on the sled, that little critter insisted on sitting up front holding on to the control bar!
My little SF/F nerve really jangled at that one. When she appears, she may not be a raccoon, and what she seizes will control something other than a sled, but I have every expectation that she will appear in some form, and likely soon. (And yes, those little front paws can really function very much like hands.)
As for today’s events … dental appointment this afternoon for a crown (and not the royal kind). I’m hoping for NOTHING too interesting about that!
