Rooftops, Roaming, and Finding Your Next Story

Three weeks. That's how long it's been since I last posted here, and honestly? It's been the best kind of busy.

Donna was in town, and naturally, we practiced what we preach. We ate, we roamed, we wrote.

Boy, did we eat. We made it our mission to hit every fabulous rooftop we could for sunset cocktails, watching the sky turn impossible colors while plotting our next creative moves. Between bites and sips, Donna was busy killing villains in her female version of the Bourne Identity, while I was making the hardest decision a writer faces: which of my characters would be the sacrificial lamb in my teen supernatural horror, Before We Were Afraid.

(Spoiler: I chose. It hurt.)

But here's the thing about roaming—it always sparks something. Ideas don't just appear at your desk; they find you in motion, in conversation, in the spaces between sunset and that second cocktail.

Turns out we've both been thinking about love anthologies. And for me, the first step is always location. I considered London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and San Miguel. While Dublin tempted me (because, come on, Dublin), the universe had other plans. ISA just announced that four of my scripts advanced to the quarterfinals of The Great Pitch Competition (co-sponsored by Script Pipeline)—and they're all set in San Miguel.

So... San Miguel it is!

And inspired by our recent Day of the Dead celebrations, that's going to be my "holiday" setting. I'm already seeing it: love stories threaded with marigolds, altars, and the beautiful collision of loss, memory, and hope.

I'm so excited to get started... and you can bet these sugar skulls are going to find a way into the script!

So tell me—what gets your fire going? What's sparking your next project?

Photo Credit: Lorraine Flett