I am so excited because today I am doing a Q and A over at Author Interviews, which is in the UK. This is one the the best things about this tour; getting to meet people from all over the globe! It's just so cool!

Paula asked me a great and difficult question: What inspires me?

To which I replied:

That's a great and difficult question!

And then I added (rather longwindedly):

When I was 8 years old, our teacher gave us a writing assignment. We had to write a story. I was so ripped off! A story! A whole, long, pages and pages of stupid writing boring story! But there was no way out of it so I pulled out my HP pencil and started. First came the characters (Porky and Beefy), then some of their situations (they raid a garden), then…hmmmm…maybe I could add in a few funny incidents here and there (farting, of course!) and then…hey! I could do some pictures, too! And, wouldn’t it be cool if they were somehow captured by the fat lady! And then they could…

Before I knew it, I was taking my story home and completely ignoring my friends. I was yanked away from it for supper. I was even rejecting a bike ride with Terry M, my very first love! Something had happened. I had gotten myself tangled up in this story. I was happily, perkily swerving around from idea to idea with a passion that I’d never felt before! Somehow, I had become a writer.

So, that was my first inspiration: Porky and Beefy, a forced assignment in grade school. Since then I have and continue to be inspired day in and day out. By anything. I drive my friends and family crazy as I’m constantly phoning myself with ideas. Yesterday, my cell phone died mid-idea and I had to use my mum’s just to say “Skinny Pig!”. She looked at me and rolled her eyes. But I knew. I knew exactly what that Skinny Pig meant. And I was so excited!

So, dear readers and writers: Today, let the dishes inspire you. And/or the funky smell of your armpits. Fall in love with a Skinny Pig or let the intense hatred for a stupid, boring pages and pages dumb story take you away! All of it, a writer's playground!
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