Let’s gab a few times a month about generating story ideas. Also, if you’re stuck on a current story, share it with me. I love nothing more than to bounce ideas around with other writers.

Many times I am asked by my readers where my story ideas come from, They are curious about how a writer gets the creative juices flowing, and what moves them to write a particular story. My YA Thriller, Haunted Destiny was written to encourage my teenage daughter to read. When I asked her, “If I could write something you would enjoy reading, what would it be?” She thought about it for a second and replied, “A teen ghost story.”

So I set to work thinking about a story that would involve a group of troublesome teens and how they might interact with an evil entity or some type of haunting. According to my daughter, there were certain elements that must be present: a fight over a hot guy, a “special” teen who didn’t quite fit in, and a really scary ghost. Consequently, Haunted Destiny was born.

Destiny Dove is the only survivor of a tragic car crash that killed her parents and baby brother. A teen uprooted from her home, she is forced to live with her New Age Grandmother whom she’s been taught her entire life to fear. If that’s not enough, Destiny soon discovers she has developed the family gift of being able to see and talk to ghosts, The Shade Sight, her grandmother calls it. Grams Rose will be the one person who can help her understand her haunted destiny.

When Destiny meets hot hunk Jake Turner along with his jealous girlfriend Amy, sparks immediately fly. Jake sees Destiny as a new kindred spirit, while Amy sees her as a threat, and is determined to ruin Destiny’s life at Blake High. But when Amy’s mother, an antiques dealer, buys Amy some old furniture, it comes with a lot more than anyone bargained for. Only Destiny stands between Amy and an ancient ghostly evil so strong it might just take the entire town of Arcadia down with it. When called upon can Destiny forgive and draw upon her new gift to save Amy and a group of local teens from certain destruction?

Did my daughter ever read it? You’ll have to ask her… 🙂