trin asked Tara Ellis:

i love your Samantha wolf series! how do you come up with all the mysteries?

Tara Ellis Hello! I'm sorry that I didn't see this question before. This is a hard question to answer. It's a combination of things. Some of the settings I chose because I have some personal experience that prompts it. The Secret of Camp Whispering Pines was inspired by a girl scout summer camp my best friend and I attended several times (minus the mystery!), I've been to Orcas Island several times and used a real resort and real local legend (with the permission of the general manager), and I've spent many summer breaks at Flathead Lake in Montana. The mysteries themselves are random thoughts and ideas that I work on plotting for sometimes weeks before I write it. I daydream for hours (usually while hiking), thinking up different scenes and scenarios. By the time I write the story, I have pages of outline written. It's a fun process that I'm pretty much addicted to, now!

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