ideas run amuck (in the desert)

Okay, the churning brew of eternal ideas and spinning streams of possibility is at work again:

So...I've been reading paranormal romances, urban fantasies, and the like. This is an enormously popular genre that has been around for ages. I read these books when I was a dreamy teenager, wishing for a more interesting world than the one I lived in! Recently, I decided to rediscover it, much to my delight. The urban fantasy world is extremely accessible to all, and actually more commonly read about and dreamed of than most of us would perhaps realize. (Think of a world in which our government was kind, compassionate, honest, open, and had never heard of W. You've just imagined an urban fantasy!) Neil Gaiman is an urban fantasy author whose name is quite familiar to many. Laurell K. Hamilton is another. You get my point.

Anyway. So thoughts of shapeshifters, ancient legends from the high desert country, and boundaries between our world and others have been taking shape in my head, and I'm loving every second of it. Last night, a friend and I got together for a reading and book-signing by Bill Plotkin, founder of Animas Valley Institute, author, and landlord of the friend I was with. During his talk, my friend turned to me and said, "You need to incorporate that idea into your books--the connection between people and the earth."

Of course, she's right. (Thanks, Michelle!) That's one of my driving passions--to explore, offer up, and revel in that connection. It's something we have lost sight of in this modern, nerve-jangling world of ours; our connection to place, to earth, to soul, to self, to source, to center. If I can bring that message across in a fun (and profitable, natch!) way such as through a series of urban fantasy (well, mine of course will be more of a "wildland fantasy") books, sign me up!

Actually, I've already signed myself up. The characters and the ideas are flooding my head and exciting my writing muscles. Let the good writing times roll.

And if anyone out there has any ideas of funky characters or plots revolving around a quasi-real world set in the high red rock country, let me know....

ideas run amuck (in the desert)