I was at the explosives lab where I worked with a dozen chemists, scientists, and other “nitro” heads as I called them back then. One day after completing my tasks, I wandered into the library and picked up a copy of Aurum magazine because of the interesting gold relic on the cover.  Inside, a recent find of jewelry created in the time of Emperor Constantine was described.  I remember touching the page with my fingertips and then… 

…in a full color, three dimensional, infinitesmally detailed flash, I saw the hands of a woman creating the piece–a woman, I learned later as I began my research–who would not be allowed to work in the gold workers guild of the time.  She would be a slave of a master who needed her hands to replace his own arthritic claws, a master who would keep her hidden and pass her work to the Emperor as his own.  She would long to be free and sneak out at night to watch the moon ride clouds to faraway places.  In self defense she would kill the master, and disguised as a man, set out to deliver her masterpieces to the Emperor herself…

A micro second of insight–a picture–was worth a hundred thousand words and generated the spark for my novel, The Cloissone Brooch. A moment of insight that expanded into an ancient world, a firery romance, and to the very core of human longing. 

People ask me, How do you get your ideas? 

I think, How do you not get them? 

Sur-Realicity.  It’s what I do.