Goodreads asked Kevin L. O'Brien:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Kevin L. O'Brien My latest story idea has Team Girl in the Dreamlands carrying a vaccine for a virulent plague over a mountain range, while Leng Men try to steal it, but God alone knows where it came from.

Most of my ideas just pop into my mind out of nowhere. I liken the process to composting or fermentation; essentially, everything I experience and think about settles into the back of my mind where it accumulates and festers until it reaches critical mass and something emerges. Very few stories are specifically planned, even those that will become sequels of existing stories. For example, I had decided that my sequel to "Gourmand Hag" would involve a sister of the first hag threatening Differel and Margaret, but the story did not fall into place until I was inspired by the idea of Girl Scout cookies.

I never know when a new idea will occur to me, but when it does I generally try to work through it far enough that I will remember enough of it to write it down when I have the opportunity. After that, it is only a matter of time before I start work on writing the story out.

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