Interestingly, there’s another scene in SOLDIER CAGED that’s set in a location near home that I visit often and had been dying to use in a book. And this time, it fit in. It’s Brighton Dam, a huge wooded tract of land that’s filled with azaleas. I tell people that if they live around here and don’t go there when the azaleas are in bloom, they’re crazy.

In SC, I have the h/h hiding among the bushes at night and the bad guys flying above them in a helicopter–looking for them with a search light and illuminating the blossoms. And as the helicopter swoops low, azalea flowers fly in all directions. I had a lot of fun with that scene!

Places I visit often give me ideas for scenes and also add authentic details that I’d never get just from reading a book.

Rebecca

I’ve never had a location give me an entire book idea, but I’ve definitely had one prompt a scene. For example, in “Hot in Here,” my heroine asks her firefighter boyfriend to enact one of her fantasies. A “rescue me” fantasy where the heroic, studly firefighter rescues the damsel in distress from a burning building. (And no, she’s not a wimpy, old-fashioned heroine, she just had this particular scenario in her mind [g].) Now, I don’t plot ahead so at this point I had no idea how my poor hero was going to comply with her request.

Then I remembered touring a firefighter training centre in Reno. They simulate real-life fire situations (smoke, flames, dark rooms, etc.) for training purposes. So, I decided that my hero, being a guy and pretty literal in his interpretation of the heroine’s request, would sneak her into the training centre after hours and set a faux fire. Complete with smoke and grime. Isn’t that just what a typical guy would do? To me, it seemed totally in character for my hero, who was trying so hard to please his girlfriend and of course got it completely wrong.

So then I had the two of them up on the roof (after he’d “rescued” her), with her all grimy and coughing her lungs out. At which point, she decided she could either whack him in, uh, a sensitive place, or give him points for trying – and take advantage of the fact that they were on the roof of a building on a moonlit night, with not a soul around . . .

I loved that scene, but it never would have come about if I hadn’t toured the firefighter training centre. So I figure, you take advantage of all ideas and opportunities, and tuck them away in your memory bank (or, if you’re like me and have a rotten memory, make notes), because you never know when they’re going to come in handy!

Susan
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