We are honored and excited to be a part of Maria V. Snyder’s blog tour coinciding with the release of her newest book, Touch of Power. In this post she talks about how so much in her life has inspired her writing.
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The question I’m asked the most is, “How do you get your ideas?” And my standard reply is from everything—TV, movies, books, magazines, newspapers, people I meet, classes I take…basically life. And that’s not just for the big idea, but for all the little details that find their way into my novels.
I’ll use TOUCH OF POWER as an example. The big idea of Avry being a healer came from a variety of sources. I dabbled with healing powers in my Study series and I wanted to explore it further. The ability to heal with magic is very appealing to me. As a mother, I hate to see my children sick or injured and always wish I could make it all go away. I also have to give credit to an old Star Trek episode titled The Empath about a race of healers/empaths who would can take on the injury or illness of another. She gives her life to heal Dr. McCoy. I watched all the Star Trek episodes, but this one always stayed with me. 
Now for the little details. There is a character named Flea in TOUCH OF POWER. He’s a young man—16 years old, which is the same age as my son. The name comes from a boy who played on my son’s soccer team. The other boys on the team gave Ben the nickname Flea because he was shorter than them, and younger by two years, but he was also fast and determined. In the book, Flea is interested in learning how to juggle. I taught both my kids how to juggle and the summer that I was writing the book, my son practiced a lot so he could impress his friends at camp. Those two “things” came together when I was working on the book.
Another example is the forest magic. While hiking with my family through a dense forest, I let my imagination run wild and it felt as if there was a presence in the forest. As if the living green had a collective consciousness and it viewed me as an intruder.
And I can’t forget to mention the whole swine flu panic. While I couldn’t use how the media blew it all out of proportion, I could use that panic. Plus it gave me an interest in plagues and led me to some fascinating research about the Black Death and what happened after it was over.
Another character, Belen is a familiar type of character—the gentle giant. A big, muscular, powerful man who is the sweetest soul. I’ll admit, that’s Cogon from my Insider books, and Ari from the Study books, and Nix from the Glass books. I can’t help it. I never had an older brother, and when the kids at school would tease and pick on me, I’d imagined my older brother would tell them to get lost. And they’d run away because they were all afraid of him because he was six feet tall and powerful. But to me, he was all sweet and protective. I’d hope my son would be like that, but he’d rather bug/annoy his younger sister than protect her. And that played into the whole Yelena/Leif dynamic in the Study books.
So you see? Life is fodder!
Does anyone else find inspiration in unusual places?
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Thanks Maria! Want to learn more about this amazing author? You can visit her website at www.mariavsnyder.com or “like” her on facebook at mvsfans.
We will also be giving away a copy of Touch of Power to one lucky winner in the next day or two. Stay tuned for more info!