Goodreads asked Jeff Wade:

How do you get inspired to write?

Jeff Wade I suffer from a disease called "OAI." That is, "Over Active Imagination." One of my favorite pastimes is spinning yarns for my kids at bedtime. In my martial arts school emails, I make up characters and scenarios to illustrate points about regular attendance, home practice, discipline, benevolence and other dojo virtues. When a student tells me an anecdote about a school bully, I think "There's a story!" When I read news copy about a home invasion, I think "That would make a great novel!" When I hear my kids playing, immersed in the little make believe worlds of their minds, I think "What a great kids' book idea!" For better or worse, my dream world every night is vivid and exciting...and sometimes terrifying. When I wake up in the middle of an unresolved conflict, I can never sleep again until I come up with a solution.

So I use all that. I love "serving," or helping others. This passion has manifested itself over the last three decades in the form of teaching martial arts. Lately, it's morphed into a desire to entertain people—by offering them a chance to engage their own imaginations and thus escape through laughter, tears, wonder and adrenaline.

I have more story ideas written down than I'll ever be able to pursue in black and white. They populate my computer and cell phone notes. They can also be found on restaurant napkins littering my van, scraps of paper in my office—and lots of times on the back of my hand! The voices in my head just refuse to stop.

THANK YOU, VOICES!

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