What Inspired Storming? 14 Things

You’d think as long as I’ve been at this writing thing, the twisty-turny process of inspiration would be old hat by now. But nope. I’m everlastingly fascinated by all the varied pieces that serendipitously combine to finally create a book.

I’m often asked, “Where do you come up with your ideas?” Honestly, it’s awesome question. Maybe it’s even arguably the only question about stories that really matters. But it’s also a really hard question to answer for the simple reason that the answer is incredibly complex.

I’ve shared before about the first kernels of inspiration that inspired my books. Today, I’m going to do one of my favorite kinds of posts and dig a little deeper into all the pitstops on the road my soon-to-be-released (December 4th!) dieselpunk-historical novel Storming took on its way to completion.

So what inspired Storming? Here are 14 things.

1. The Greatest Show on Earth

It all started one lazy Saturday afternoon when I was watching one of my favorite movies, Cecil B. DeMille’s epic circus tale The Greatest Show on Earth (which I first viewed as a nine-year-old and which set me up for lifelong disappointment in real circuses). After the train wreck at the end when the local kids start pouring in for the “open air” circus, a random thought hit me: What if one of those kids struck up a relationship with one of the circus performers? And just to make things interesting and anti-stereotypical: What if that performer was a woman?

2. Jacket

That all happened on a day in early spring. After the movie ended, I walked down the road to get the mail, and since it was cool out, I needed a jacket. Don’t ask why, but jacket immediately made me think: Fighter pilot! Poof. Two ideas collided. What if the performer wasn’t from a circus but an airshow?

3. Flyboys

Not long after, I watched the World War I aviation movie Flyboys. Naturally, my brain started spinning back to my avation story. What if the plane were a World War I-era biplane? Poof. Barnstorming! It’s a barnstorming air circus!

4. Fighter Boys

To be fair, we have to give as much credit to one of my favorite books, Peter Bishop’s Battle of Britain ode Fighter Boys, as we do the highly forgettable Flyboys. This is the book that originally ignited my interest in aviation and my love affair with old planes (especially Spitfires).

5. Kansas

Right from the first conception of the friendship between the boy and the performer, I had a vision of the setting as very rural. Storms Over Kansas was my initial working title  (I think there was some Wizard of Oz referencing going on in the back of my brain). But then I got to thinking, Kansas? Why Kansas? I *live* in Nebraska. Why not Nebraska? I think I thought Kansas first simply because I never set stories in places I’m intimately familiar with.

Photo credit: Brian Nunnery

6. Nebraska Augusts

But I immediately latched onto the idea. And I’m so glad I did. It was ridiculously fun to be able to write about my hometown–particularly from a historical perspective, since the barnstorming angle needed the story to be set in the 1920s. Next question? What time of the year to set the story? Naturally, if we’re in one of my favorite places, it should take place in my favorite month as well. Doesn’t get better than hot, lazy August afternoons.

7. The Valley of Light

So about that little boy character. I started fishing around for ideas, and immediately thought of my then (and still) favorite child actor Zach Mills. That made me think of the first movie I’d ever seen him, the Hallmark movie Valley of Light, in which he played a mute little boy. My character immediately decided he wanted to be mute too, so I had to start thinking reasons for why that was. (And, yeah, I usually don’t admit to watching Hallmark movies. :p)

8. “Carry You Home”

Then there was the female performer who befriends the little boy. By this point I knew there was something strange about her. I just wasn’t quite sure what. James Blunt’s haunting song “Carry You Home” made me realize she was someone who was a long way from home. The pilot character who had come to life after Flyboys ended up being the “circus” performer, and the woman was … at this point, I really had no idea. I went through several notions, including, most enduringly, a dying time traveler. All I really knew was that she was strange, wise, and had an otherworldly quality about her. (By the way, you can click here to hear the entire “soundtrack” of my Storming playlist.)

9. Secondhand Lions

All through this period (spanning roughly seven years), whenever I watched another of my favorite movies Secondhand Lions, I knew that‘s the kind of story I wanted to tell. (It’s got a red biplane! And even, totally incidentally, a little boy named Walter!) I wanted it to be countrified, funny, full of heart, adventure, and fantasy.

10. War Brides

Somewhere in here, I also clipped an article about war brides who were necessarily left behind by their husbands. That got me thinking about the effects such a separation must have had on both ends of the relationship, and although there’s no war in my story, it made me realize this was really a story about my pilot protagonist coming back home and having to deal with his family-related demons.

11. Thor

You didn’t really think we’d get through this whole article without a Marvel reference, did you? One of my favorite things about this movie is the fish-out-of-water humor provided by Thor’s being totally oblivious of our cultural norms. I immediately decided I wanted to do something along those lines, which immediately made me think of my “otherworldly” heroine in Storming.

12. The Fifth Element

What kind of story would you get with a female in the Thor role? Why, Fifth Element with Milla Jovovich as LeeLoo, of course. (“Multipass!”) Immediately, I had this image of my female character looking up from drinking out of a stream, seeing the boy Walter, and grinning at him even though she couldn’t speak English. Just like that, she leapt into three dimensions for me–and the rest of the story fell into place around her.

13. Pylon and the Snopes Trilogy

I have a love/hate relationship with William Faulkner. Mostly, what I love is that I’ve finished reading all his books and never have to read them again. But he has created a vivid legacy in my memory and imagination. His treatment of country life, particularly in the Snopes trilogy, decidedly influenced Storming. (Be on the watch for how Flem Snopes’s big house plays an important role.) His barnstorming story Pylon provided general inspiration and also specific inspiration for several of the members of the protagonist’s flying crew.

14. John Carter

And, finally, we have the very fun Disney adaptation of John Carter, which has absolutely nothing to do with Storming (nope, zero aliens and zero wormholes — sorry), except that after grinning my way through the whole thing, my immediate reaction was: That’s the kind of story I want Storming to be! Summer blockbuster fun up to the hilt.

That’s been my journey from start to finish with Storming, and, as you can see, it’s been an incredibly fun trip every step of the way!

(BTW, I’ve done these “degrees of inspiration” articles before, and they’re always the most fun when they’re interactive. Feel totally free to steal the idea and post about your own stories. And share the link in the comments!)

In other news: Don’t forget there’s still one more day to enter to win the nine original illustrations featured in Storming.

Let’s chat! What’s inspired you lately? Tell me in the comments!