Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

The most common question I get asked is 'Where Do YOu Get Your Ideas?' And the answer is not 'From a big lightbulb in the sky' - even though there is indeed one above me in this picture! No, ideas come from all over the place: *Books, movies, magazines, newspapers *Things I overhear on the train *Dreams and daydreams *Things that have happened to friends and family * Things that might never happen to anyone, but that I worry about! Dramatic things. *And often - real things that happened to me. In the 4th Amy Green book, a character gets very bad stage fright - no spoilers, I promise! This is based on something that happened to me when I was 12. I was Cinderella in the school play and I got terrible stage fright. The curtains opened and I just stood there - frozen - and when I started to sing my solo, my throat was all tight and I just squeaked. So I had to start again. This time it wasn't so bad. But being on stage is terrifying, and I was able to remember how it felt to be so scared and to use this in my book. At least something good came out of the experience - I could use it to make my book scene very realistic! Book 5 is set in Budapest and Dublin and features Claire Starr, Mills's sister who is in a ballet company over there. So recently I visited Budpest for research, and that also gave me ideas. See, I get ideas all over the place. Till next time, lovely Amy Greensters! Best, SarahX PS Look out for the next Amy Green newsletter later in April.