Vegas Girl

Ever get a lightbulb moment at an inopportune time? Whenever the temperature is above freezing and nothing is coming down from the sky, I get my butt to the park to walk 3 miles. To make this pleasant, I listen to music. I do this for my health and because I like to bounce to pop music for an hour, but occasionally, it also helps generate ideas. That's what happened today.

I had just loaded a new song onto my iPod, so I put it on first. I've heard this song before several times. In fact, I picked it because it's called Vegas Girl, and my book series is set in Las Vegas. It's upbeat and fun. For some reason, when I heard it today, everything clicked in my brain. It's the perfect song to be playing when my fictional "dance team" puts on a show between hockey periods.

In On the Fly, the first book in the series, I had a pretty good time poking fun and rolling my eyes at the idea of cheerleaders in hockey. I made them kind of a joke. Well, listening to Vegas Girl and being able to see the routine in my head, I wanted to bust some moves right there in the park. I refrained, but the giant, Ah-ha! smile on my face probably confused some people.

Being able to see the routine fired off a what-if domino trail in my mind. How could I incorporate that into my current book, Full Strength? My heroine is the team's sports psychologist. What if a dancer stopped by her office and asked if she could have a session? What if when the dancer walked in, my heroine, Allie, happened to be dancing around her office because she wasn't expecting anyone? What if, after a helpful talk, the dancer asked Allie to join the team for practice one night? What if Allie went, had a blast, and my hero happened to see?

All this flew by in my head in less than a minute. I was so excited about it, I wrote myself a text message and saved the draft so I wouldn't forget by the end of my walk. So through my second heroine, Allie, I've decided to embrace the cheerleaders--er...dance team--my Lady Sinners. And all because of this song :)