Goodreads asked Eileen Rivers:

How do you get inspired to write?

Eileen Rivers I guess I'm what people call today a "creative" (though I actually tend to shy away from that term). I used to be a professional dancer (in addition to loving languages, I started studying dance -- ballet, tap, jazz and eventually modern -- when I was 7), danced in Baltimore and South Carolina and had my own dance company. I find inspiration in everything, it's just a matter of which medium (movement or writing) is the best to express it. Now, it's writing. Years ago, it was dance more than anything. I could be listening to an NPR story and come up with an idea for a book. I used to walk down the street and hear a rhythm and come up with an entire section of a ballet. Exposure to as much as possible, I find, breeds inspiration. It never happens in a vacuum. Interact with the world and you'll glean inspiration from what you see. Something will move you or spark an idea. After that, it's research, research, research. Distilling, distilling, distilling. Refining, refining, refining. Until the idea becomes more concrete.

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