Goodreads asked Pat Daily:

How do you get inspired to write?

Pat Daily Dreams. I have very vivid dreams that linger. If there's anything interesting, I jot a few notes down and look at them when I'm writing. That will spur me to add an element from the dream to the story.

In SPARK, there's a subplot that deals with Will delivering a Hittite letter. The Hittites wrote on small clay tablets that they then encased in a larger clay "envelope" that they addressed to the intended recipient. Years after learning about this, I had a dream that involved a Hittite letter. The rest of the dream faded quickly, but the Hittite letter made it in to SPARK.

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