Readers often wonder–how do writers think of their stories? Do we stare at a computer screen or type like one of the proverbial Shakespeare monkeys until an idea takes root?

For me, inspiration is often serendipitous. When I don’t have an idea that grabs me, I am in a funk. Walking and/or talking with strangers often stimulates ideas. And stumbling across something new, even in my same old familiar world lights me up like a roman candle.

Today–a lovely, sunny day–I was determined to get out of my neighborhood and walk down to and around Georgetown. After a while the heat got to me and, bedraggled, I was ready to hop on a bus towards home. But as I passed Georgetown Tobacco, I saw these wonderful Venetian carnival masks in a glass case just inside the door.

I love carnivals and circuses–the theatricality of them, and those masks, so unexpectedly turning up inside a tobbacco store–lit up my imagination, and suddenly I was filled with energy– both physical and mental.

There’s something about those masks–their expressions, but also those black, empty eyes with no face behind them that makes me grin but also sends chills down my spine.

And then there’ are these:

These creatures are going to end up in a story–and soon!