Inspiring Things…

As an author, inspiration comes to me in the most unusual of ways. I never know when an idea will take flight. Maybe it comes from something I’ve seen on TV, or overheard in a conversation. It can even come in dreams. That’s the beauty of inspiration…it’s a surprise gift.

Once the idea comes, a story is born, but not all ideas pan out. Some fail miserably.  

When I first discovered the desire to write, it was after reading such romantic suspense greats as Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney. Those two women fueled my imagination and inspired me to try my hand at the romantic suspense genre.

As a romantic suspense author, I’m inspired to see danger everywhere.

Take for instance this photo of a grove of Aspen trees taken on our recent trip to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Well, let me give you a sneak peek into the mind of a suspense author. I see snow covered trees in the headlights of a vehicle sliding on the frozen road while ice and snow pummel it. A terrified woman searching for the impossible--a man who isn’t supposed to be alive. Behind her, a SUV follows. Is it friendly, or the people chasing her? 

Or this photo of a canyon near the house where we stayed. It’s picturesque with the river down below, right? I see a woman clinging to the side of the cliff, dangling high above a raging river. A man hunkered over her trying to pry her fingers loose.     

Inspiration can definitely come in the most unusual of places. This was the case when I sat down to write the first Scorpion Team book for Love Inspired Suspense entitled ROCKY MOUNTAIN PURSUIT.

The idea of a former CIA agent having to fake his own death in order to hide from a dangerous terrorist seeking to silence him popped into my head one day, (I truly love spy stories, so it wasn’t a huge stretch). From there, I imagined the heroine being chased by the same bad man because of something her deceased CIA agent husband possessed. From there Rocky Mountain Pursuit was born, and with it, the Scorpion Team book series took life in my head. The Scorpions are an elite team of CIA agents whose purpose is to bring down terrorists active around the world…and in the US.     

Each book in the series is back-dropped in a mountain setting. For me, there’s just something about the mountains that create their own intrigue. The unpredictable weather, the unforgiving terrain. The danger involved in every summit.

My current book, STANDOFF AT MIDNIGHT MOUNTAIN takes place on top of Midnight Mountain in Wyoming. A missing CIA agent and a frantic sister who believes her brother’s disappearance is the sign of something far more ominous. Add to it a hero who was once involved with the heroine, then put them in danger from the weather and some very bad men, and you have a suspense.   

 STANDOFF AT MIDNIGHT MOUNTAIN is the 4^th in the Scorpion Team Series. In October, GRAVE PERIL, the final book in the series, will release.

It’s always a little sad when a series comes to an end, but writing about the men and women of the SCORPION TEAM has been my pleasure, and I’m looking forward to what the future may hold.

As a writer, inspiration comes in the strangest of places at times, but on a personal level, I see God’s inspiration everywhere I look in my family, my granddaughters, and the breathtaking beauty He created just for us.

What about you? Where do you find inspiration?

Blessings,

Mary Alford