WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?
I have lived in many places since I moved west. The desert is one of the most common, so I’m quite comfortable there. It was morning, and I was out making coffee. The sun was just barely coming up over the mountain range, the air felt stark as it often does in a hot environment. I think it was almost 80 out at 7am and I was surprised.
Three coyotes were wandering around the edge of my camp when I noticed them. Their eyes were alert and keen, and their movements were beautiful and flowing. They had a carefree assurance about them, even though they were wild animals, as if they owned the territory was there. In a way I suppose it was.
Coyotes are nothing new. My brother and I usually get greeted by a pack of about 12 of them in the first week we are in a new area of the desert. I’ll will usually be relaxing, watching a show, and That howl will start up. You can hear them practically right outside the tent. They howl like a choir of puppies and I’ve never been afraid of them. In fact, if I had stepped outside at that moment they’d have vanished in a panic. After 5 minutes of so they just vanished anyway, with quiet dignity.
At any rate, these coyotes looked like they were on some sort of patrol, looking for something to eat. I had seen, and have every year, postings on bulletin boards in the town talking about missing animals. It’s one of the hallmarks of the desert.
I’m a fan of movies and for some reason, I suddenly saw these coyotes walking down the streets of NY, in my head. West side story! I saw the coyotes standing side by side, wearing black vests, snapping their fingers and singing. “When you’re a coyote, you’re a coyote all the way from your first strangled cat to the last kill of day!”
It’s fascinating how the most peculiar ideas can serve as the foundation for a story. This whimsical vision of singing coyotes didn’t directly inspire my character, Ember, the coywolf protagonist of my book, but it did set the wheels of creativity in motion, leading me down a path of exploration into the lives of coyotes, coywolves, and their struggle for survival.
I was thinking about all the stories that nature has to tell as I watched the coyotes vanish into the desert. Every sound, animal trail, and shadow has a tale to tell of life and survival. These brief incidents have the power to grab your interest and inspire the creation of new personas and tales.