Buccaneer Blogfest - Lightbulb Moment

So today for the Buccaneer Blogfest we're supposed to talk about the inspiration behind our WIPs. For me, I really love the inspiration part of the writing process, because I never know when it's going to hit and I love seeing what my imagination comes up with. What's interesting to me is that I always have a list of book ideas that I keep on the back burner, and I always think my next book will come from that list, but it almost never does. I could be totally excited about an existing idea, then a new idea will pop in and that will be what I end up writing instead.

Affairs of the Dead was one of those new ideas that randomly came to me. I remember what initially came to mind was thoughts about a world where people died but their ghosts stuck around because they had unfinished business that they needed help with. Now I promise you I had never even thought about the T.V. show "Ghost Whisperer" (which I have never watched), until I was in the early stages of planning the book, was all giddy and excited about it, and was telling my cousin about it and she said "Oh like Ghost Whisperer!" Then the brakes squealed and I thought, crap, am I just ripping off that show? So I looked it up and even though the premise is similar -- female MC helping ghosts with unfinished business, ultimately what Affairs grew into was something I feel is unique enough to stand on its own and I regained my excitement about it. After that, my first scene came to mind, and I started writing pretty quickly. It was one of my ten day novels, the first draft flowed out quickly, and now it's in the editing stage.

So, that's basically my lightbulb moment for Affairs of the Dead.