We are happy to welcome author Jill Limber here at Book Lovers Inc. today. She writes romance stories with heart and her story Montana Morning is one of those. Today she is here to tell us how she comes up with the ideas for her stories. Be sure to leave a comment at the end of the post for your chance to win your copy of Montana Morning. 

I just had a friend ask me where I got my idea for Montana Morning. For me, it always starts with musing over a ‘What if?’ What if a woman needed a husband but didn’t really want to be married? Where would she get a guy she could marry, but would be practically guaranteed that he would leave, sooner rather than later?

This question about ideas seems to come up a lot, so I thought  it might be a good idea to address it here, where you have lots of readers.

When someone poses this particular question to me, I know right away the person asking is not a fiction writer.  Anyone who writes fiction will tell you that ideas just pop into your brain, even when you don’t want or need them.

They sneak up on you when you are trying to grocery shop or when your husband is telling you about his latest fishing trip. They worm their way into your brain like little parasites and try to take your attention away from the characters in your current work. Some are very persistent and refuse to leave you alone.

When that happens I will write the idea down on a piece of scratch paper and toss it into a basket on my desk–you know, the one that is filled with layers of ‘stuff you will get to later’. Then, every six months or so I go through the basket and find these cryptic one liners like: ‘a woman artist who moves to a small town when she begins to lose her eyesight’ or ‘a princess from a foreign country goes incognito’.

Sometimes they make no sense at all and I don’t even remember writing them down, but the process kills the brain worms. I cannot begin to explain the slip of paper that reads ‘Yodeling dog, man with six fingers and girl who is looking for a job in a mortuary’.

Writers have very strange brains.

It happened yesterday–and was a little like a bolt from the blue. I was getting ready to go to an outdoor concert and had NPR on the radio. Garrison Keeler had a guest musician on who was doing a lovely old song that sounded like it came from the Civil War era. A line in the song was about the widows and sweethearts left behind, and blam! Just like that I got an idea for not one book, but a series.

What happened to all those women who loved men who didn’t come home from war? What if they formed a social club that evolved into a sisterhood and what if some of them decided or were forced by circumstances to become mail order brides?

Ta da–four more books.

The ideas come easily. Now all I have to do is spend two years plotting, writing and rewriting the books to bring those women’s stories to life.

Getting the ideas is easy, writing the book is the hard part.

Author  Bio:

A multi-published author and former RWA President, Jill Limber’s latest books are Montana Morning, A Heart That Dares and The Right Track. As a child, some of Jill’s tales got her in trouble, but now she gets paid for them. Residing inSan Diego with her husband and a trio of dogs and one very ancient cat, Jill’s favorite pastime is to gather friends and family for good food, conversation and plenty of laughter.

You can visit her website at www.JillLimber.com.

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About Montana Morning

In theMontanaTerritorytown ofDennison, the law allows a woman to save a man from hanging if she agrees to marry him. Battered and nearly unconscious with a noose around his neck, Katherine Holman decides Wes Merrick is perfect husband material. Under the terms of her father’s will, due to a youthful indiscretion, she must be married to inherit. She expects her ‘husband’ to leave as soon as the deed is i n her name. She wasn’t prepared for the fact that the man she has chosen turns out to be an honorable sort who decides to stick around and hold up his end of the bargain.

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~*~*Giveaway*~*~

Jill has generously offered a pdf copy of Montana Morning to one lucky commenter!

All you have to do is leave a meaningful comment about the guestpost or tell us how you get your best ideas.
(You can read our full giveaway policy here)

Please be sure to include a valid email address in the comment form (need not be in the actual body of the comment).

This giveaway is open to all!

Giveaway ends on Saturday, March 31, 2012; we will announce the winner on Sunday.

Good luck!!!!

About Susi

Susi is a geeky vegetarian from Gemany. She just finished university and now works as a civil engineer in steel construction. Besides her reading addiction she also knits like a maniac while listening to audiobooks. Susi also blogs at the Secret HEA Society.

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