Tuesday's Inspiration - What inspired you

Many years ago, I plunged into the writing game. Short stories and poetry were my intentions and I had some thoughts about writing a novel but I wasn't sure I could write long enough and so these thoughts were pushed aside. I'd like to say I was inspired to write novels because my short stories won awards or my poems were sought by publishers. Actually I managed to sell a few poems and all the short stories I had written. The problem was two fold. The market for short stories dried up. I sold two short stories and received nice money for two of the stories but in that case, two magazines shut shop before the stories were published. And sending poems out wasn't cost effective. Usually cost more to mail them out that I ever received in monetray gain. So what inspired me to write novels.

I wrote a short story that I really liked, one with a quirky heroine who had been a nurse and a church organist. I sent it off to an editor who had published a number of my stories. The response was this was a great story but seemed like the synopsis for a novel. I wasn't sure what she meant so I set out to discover. I took that story and put it aside. I began looking to see what kind of novels were selling and I had a sister-in-law who read what was popular at the time "sweet" nurse romance stories. She gave me a bag of them and I began to read. I don't remember any of the suthors' names or the titles of the stories but I readan entire shopping bag of them. Most of them had me wanting to toss the books against the wall. Wasn't worried about the happily ever after ending but I was about the little knowledge of nursing the writers had. That's when a novel writer was born. I decided I could write one that would have the medical facts correct and what nurses were able to do and not do. That's when that part of my career began and writing "sweet" nurse doctor romances was the beginning.

What about the short story. I was moving and during the packing found the manuscript and the letter from the editor. So I began to discover how to write mysteries. Again, I read volumes of mystery stories before I began to write the mystery series. Then because I love fantasies I began to read volumes there.

So what really inspired me to write. A letter of rejection, novels by people who had no idea what a nurse was and my love of mysteries and fantasy. It all comes back to a love of reading. Most writers are readers, too. What about you? What inspired you to write? Let me know, I would like to know.