Copied from the SEATTLE EXAMINER website (June 28, 2010).

Patricia Mason tells us to always look on the quirky side of life for story ideas

As authors, it helps to look outside the box. Many times we think we have to color inside the lines. Is this true? What if we want to make the tree orange and the sky green?

Patricia Mason broke out of her box and finished her novel:

"For many years—I’m embarrassed to say exactly how many—the completion of a novel seemed to elude me. I would work on something for a few weeks but then interest would wane and the first three chapters ended up under my bed or taking space in some storage tub full of memorabilia. They say to “write what you know.” For me that didn’t seem to work. I didn’t want to write about my real life. Real life is sometimes depressing and always boring to anyone but me. So what is an aspiring novelist to do?

Then inspiration struck. I coupled love of writing with my appreciation of all things—and people—who might be considered strange. Okay, I admit it. I am enamored with the bizarre. A lover of the weird. A connoisseur of the quirky. So basing my plot, characters, settings and dialogue on “the quirky” was perfect. I was writing what I know…just not the tedious bits.

The plot for my debut novel A GIRL, A GUY AND A GHOST, was inspired by the weird fact that the America Institute of Parapsychology voted my hometown of Savannah, Georgia as the most haunted city in America. The heroine is a parapsychology magazine reporter who was hired based on her claim to have psychic talents she doesn’t actually possess. She has three days to find a ghost or she’s fired. A quick trip to Savannah seems to be the answer. The ghosts should be as easy to find as the Spanish moss hanging off the trees. Unfortunately for her, it’s not quite that simple.

Characters can be born out of observations of the wacky aspects of the people we meet. For instance, one of my secondary characters is a discrimination-obsessed vampire. This character came from a run in with a New Orleans tour guide.

Settings can also spring form the unusual. For instance I became fascinated with the two life-size elephant sculptures (one pink and one grey) that stand in the parking lot of an area retail shop. Big Al and Lizzie just had to make an appearance on the page. My cat was rescued from Old Sheldon Church cemetery, located about mid-way between Charleston and Savannah. This scenic site is both beautiful and spooky. From it’s crumbling headstones to the ruin of the burnt out church, the perfect location for a paranormal battle.

Whole scenes may grow from snippets of bizarre dialogue that you overhear or even better things you hear yourself saying. One of the scenes I had the most fun writing in my novel—and which I think is one of the funniest in the book—came from banter I overheard at a Christmas party.

Looking on the “quirky” side of life not only keeps me sane in a world of depressing news about oil spills and war, but also helped me finish my first novel!"

For more info: Patricia Mason was an attorney for many years in Michigan before she escaped from the snowy Midwest winters of her youth by moving to a beautiful, historic city of Savannah, Georgia in 2001 to pursue her dream of being a novelist. Pat and her cat Ally (who writes with the help of his human staff under the name Confucius Cat) are active bloggers in support of peace and animal rights issues. Pat is the author the novel A GIRL, A GUY AND A GHOST, and the novella SACRIFICE IN STONE.