Inspiration: It’s the little things. The neighbors who don’t behave as you’d like them to. The scorching heat of a Nebraska summer. The sign affixed to the gate of a memory care home: No Dumping. Names etched on a concrete sidewalk. The endless possibilities inherent in magical realism.

Writing is the joy of words well used and the delight in characters who take over the page and simply won’t shut up. It is the opportunity to head in the completely wrong direction, realize it, and then change course. It is nothing like the real world. Welcome.