View from Pelican Beach, Cypress Island, San Juans, WA
I find it odd when readers ask me where I get my ideas. But maybe that’s just me. I have always said that I don’t expect life to be easy or consistently pleasant, but I darn well expect it to be interesting. And I do my best to make it that way.
I sometimes work as a private investigator, and although the jobs can be more mundane than the average person would like to believe, I do encounter a lot of situations and interesting characters there that may end up in an altered version in my books. (I would never write about a real case I’ve worked on–that’s a violation of the PI code). But I also get a lot of inspiration from my outdoor activities, and last weekend was a case in point. I kayaked with four friends to Cypress Island, one of the San Juan Islands in Washington State.
Paddling around Cypress
We saw quite a few eagles, kingfishers, herons, seals and porpoises, and at one point four river otters swam past our campsite, playing in the current. After dark we heard the otherworldly screeching of raccoons fighting in the woods, and awoke to screaming gulls chasing each other above our tents. At times fog shrouded the surrounding islands; at times we could see the volcanic cone of Mount Baker in the distance.
View from Eagle Cliff
We hiked to the a high point called Eagle Cliff, where humans are only allowed after the eagles have raised their young. From there it’s a 360-degree view of the San Juans and the Cascades Mountains of Washington State, and the Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island, and the Coastal Range of British Columbia. This is all definitely fodder for creating the setting for my outdoor mysteries.
Skeleton on Dead Man’s Island
The area is rich in history from two countries, and Cypress Island has its own fascinating history, too, with a former airport and mine now abandoned, a reform school for wayward boys that was erased years ago, and many other settlements that now exist only in history. I’m collecting all that information for a possible series of San Juan mysteries. I was particularly inspired when kayaking past Dead Man’s Island, which is actually only a big rock jutting from the water. But hanging from a branch of the madrona tree on top was a replica of a human skeleton. If that’s not inspiration for a mystery author, what is?
Yes, I get plenty of ideas for setting, history, and characters from my own life. Tomorrow I am off backpacking in the North Cascades. Who knows what inspiration awaits me there? An author who writes adventurous stories needs to have a few adventures of her own now and then.
How about you? What inspires you?
What inspires me? You do.
Pam:
When you were on Cyrpus Island, did you see the historical sign near Smuggler’s Cove? It provided an account of a woman who homesteaded on the island. She was diagnosed with cancer in the ’40’s, at which time she sold her boat and went back onto the island. They never found her body.
I have been trying to get her name–I unfortunately did not have writing materials when I was there, and did not record who she was. I have been searching the web and can find no online account of her life.
Like you, I am using Cyprus Island as the setting for a book I am writing, “I, Heretic,” My time on Cyprus is what inspired me to change the opening of the book.