Matt Musselman asked Doug Goodman:

Where do you get ideas for the stories that eventually become your novels?

Doug Goodman Thanks for asking, Matt! I get a lot of my ideas from what's going on in my life. I think you should write what you know best, so I try to keep it always something close to me. Whether it is a giant monster or a zombie or whatever I'm writing about, I find that if I can tether the characters, the emotions, and sometimes even the actions, then I can write a book that feels more real.
I will give you a couple of examples. Cadaver Dog is about a search and rescue worker who trains her dogs to track zombies. The book is a quasi-memoir. I used to train search and rescue dogs, particularly Human Remains or "Cadaver" Dogs, and I was very active at the time I wrote Cadaver Dogs. Some of the scenarios and characters are loosely based on events and people I've encountered in the search and rescue community. So even though it's this odd "Where the Red Fern Grows" meets "The Walking Dead," I feel that if dogs were used to track zombies, this is how it would happen and how local governments would react to the situation.
Another example is Kaijunaut, which is about astronauts encountering kaiju monsters on a strange new planet. As outlandish as the premise can be, I've worked at Johnson Space Center for the past decade and a half, so I had a basis for grounding the story in people and ideals that I'd aggregated. As one of my review cycles, I handed the book over to several trusted friends who were also engineered, and they helped me keep the physics and processes cemented in realistic terms (so no FTL travel :) ).
My upcoming book, Wendigo Road, is based on a lot of time I spent in Montana and North Dakota working on reservations. It may be giant monster madness, but it will have that tangible, grounded quality to it.
Thanks again for asking!

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