I get asked quite often “How do you come up with ideas?” when it comes to my articles. That’s a great question. “How do you know if those who read your column are going to like it?” That’s another great question. I’ve even been asked if I would ever think about writing a book.

Well, let’s go through these real quick for you. Ideas for my writing vary. For example last week’s article on the pink car, came through a Facebook post. I thought “this is kind of cool!” I think the readers of The Extra would get a kick out of this story and the fingers started flying across the keyboard.

Everyone loves the movies, and from time to time you’ll be reading a movie review of a recent flick I attended at one of the area’s local theaters. There’s no better way to put your troubles aside than to sit down in a dark movie theater for a couple of hours and watch all the action unfold on the silver screen. Has there ever been a children’s movie you wanted to see but didn’t go to because you were embarrassed to enter without a kid? Come on! Raise your hand! We’ve all done it! See, I just thought of a future article. Keep your eyes peeled for my experience with kids at the movies.

I love animals, especially dogs! I recently puppy and kitty sat my sisters two dogs and cat. They were great fun until I felt 30 lbs. of fur land on my chest at 6 am giving me a hint that she would like to go outside and seek relief. Now, I could expand on that for another article. There’s two!!!

I love stories that people can relate too and so far I’ve only received one (not that I’m looking for more) negative comment from one of my columns. I, on some occasions, don’t have my commas properly placed or have an apostrophe when there shouldn’t be one. But if that’s the worst, I can deal with it.

Feedback is always great though! I don’t care if anybody tells you different, authors of any kind, newspapers, magazines, books, writers for television and radio all love to hear what you have to say in response to a piece they may have written. Some may growl and tell you where to go under their breath, but most take it in with interest and I know for one I’m always looking to improve my writing skills.

Did I ever think about a book? I don’t know if I’d have the patience to put a manuscript together. What would we be talking about here….maybe 85,000 to 100,000 words? Then comes the re-writes! Some authors I’ve interviewed rewrite 3 to 4 times. New York Times Best Selling author Lisa Gardner once told me she knows she’s done rewriting when she questions whether the word “is” belongs in a sentence. (Sounds like something Bill Clinton would say!..It’s a joke!!!) I did have another author tell me that if I’d like to put an outline together she’d help me write the thing. I have a shoebox with little scraps of paper that I’ve written things down on that might make a good bit to put in a book. But it just sits there. Maybe someday.

I was once told by another great author by the name of Janet Evanovich that everyone has a book in them. But looking at her work it’s safe to say that it all starts with one and then you could be on your way.

Writing is fun for me. To just stare at the screen and see the words building on the page and then realize that next Thursday when this article goes to print, there are going to be a bunch of you reading this, either with paper in hand or on The Extra’s website. It’s exciting and I always am hoping that the readers of The Extra enjoy some of the little tidbits of my look at the world.