Friday, February 9, 2007  Ideas and Inspirations...Volcanoes,
Starfish and Fish-Scented Ice Cream  Children and adults ask me,
"Where do you get your story ideas?" I simply respond with,
"From life." Yes, it's a vague answer, especially if someone is
expecting a lofty, revolutionary, lights-beaming-down-from-the-
heavens kind of answer; but that doesn't happen to me.
Sometimes I experience something in life that I feel I must
write about or I'll die if I don't, like when my family hiked
six miles across the lava beds in Hawaii to see Kilauea
erupting. Sometimes I see something that I've seen a million
times before differently, like one morning when I noticed that
my ceiling fan resembled a starfish. And sometimes I overhear
(okay, eavesdrop) on conversations that give me food for
thought, like the time an elderly couple walked past me on the
street. They were licking ice cream cones when the man said,
"Well Honey, this sure smells like fish but it tastes like
chocolate!" Okay, I'll come clean. This is my litt