Sally Baldwin asked Louella Bryant:

I have read four of your books and they are very different from one another in terms of place, time, the characters' racial and socio-economic backgrounds. You obviously have many ideas for stories so my question is how do you determine which story ideas will "click" compelling you to actually sit down and write a whole book? Have you ever started a book and then half way into it decided you didn't want to finish it?

Louella Bryant First, thanks for reading four of my books, Sally. And, yes, they're all somewhat different. What "clicks" for me is a story that won't leave me alone. For example, my first book, The Black Bonnet, was inspired by a visit to the cellar of an Underground Railroad site in Burlington VT. I started hearing a young voice saying, "Write my story." I put her off for months until she was whispering to me every day. I was teaching then and waited until summer to sit down with pen and paper. Then the words flew out of me. I spent the following year revising and sending queries, and Bonnet became a best-seller for New England Press. A story must insist on being told before I commit to it. I frequently put a manuscript on the shelf to "rest," but if it calls to me, I always come back to it. Cowboy Code took 20 years to get to print. I've been working on my current project, Sheltering Angel, A Titanic Story, for five years. I don't usually start a project unless I feel compelled to see it through. Writing requires commitment, endurance, patience, and faith. I wish those qualities for you in your own writing.

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