Fishing for ideas... looking local

 HALLIE EPHRON: Writers get asked all the time where we get our ideas. And, of course, the answer is everywhere.

Sometimes I go fishing in my local police log. It's published weekly in my local paper. Here’s an entry that caught my imagination (and made me love my local police).

911   Caller reports male party about 5’5″-5″6″ with blue or black baseball cap, tattoos, and baggy sweat pants was going from door to door claiming to be door dash but had no car on the street or food. Officer reports he is a confirmed door dash driver that was lost and helped him find his way.

Already I’m envisioning a mystery with a directionally challenged Door Dash driver who inadvertently stumbles into danger. Or maybe the protagonist is the person (a woman?) who called the police and who had good reason to be frightened. Or maybe the protagonist is the investigating officer? Or the people who are (still) waiting for the food delivery that never arrived?

More likely a short story than a novel... but still. And I want to know what food was ordered. We all have our priorities.

Have you found inspiration in your local news and then turn it over in your head, imagining a story with different players as the main character?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I love this! And I lived for decades essentially inside the police blotter, right?

I remember when a viewer called me with a story that had happened to her–short version, an adoption agency had set her niece to meet her birth mother–but turned out it was not the right mother! And she said to me–"Can you believe it, Hank? They sent that woman the wrong girl!”

And that, of course, became my book THE WRONG GIRL.

Which wasn’t her story at all, but yikes, what a good beginning.

But the police blotter is always especially funny. Full of “what were they thinking?” would-be burglars who break into people’s homes and drink their beer and then fall asleep on the couch. And get caught.

And I think the Door Dash driver is a drug dealer. I mean, huh, who would know if it was french fries with a side of meth? Actually, this is a good idea. For a book, at least.

RHYS BOWEN: He wasn’t exactly dashing if he had no car and no food!

Clare and I use the NTT archives for every day we write about and have come up with many juicy stories, our favorite being the man who was being sued for luring away a man’s wife. He twirled his luxuriant mustaches and said “Can I help it if I’m so much more attractive than Mr X?” That would never make it to the Times today!

LUCY BURDETTE: This reminds me of old times! When I was writing the Advice Column mysteries, I followed the police blotter of the Shoreline Times religiously–so entertaining! I saved the very best of the listings and included them as a preface to each book.

Here are the ones that I inserted into the first book, Deadly Advice:

• A Turtles Point resident reported that she had the sense that someone had been in her home six weeks ago, and she cannot locate her jewelry.
•  A prowler was reported on the side of the building under a ramp. Police investigated and found a cat under the deck.
•  A dog left his property on Dunk Rock Road and was very aggressive. There were no specifics as to the goals of the animal.
•  A Canberra Court resident reported that someone wrote on her window, "I'm always watching."
•  Neighbor trouble was reported on Great Hill Road.

Don’t you love “no specifics as to the goals of the animal”??

Now I definitely read the Key West papers for ideas, but they aren’t as lyrical as these old ones used to be.

JENN McKINLAY: I love this, Hallie! When I was writing the hat shop series set in London, I followed the Twitter account of the Kensington police department. Hilarious stuff as only the Brits can write it.

My favorite was a series of tweets that warned that a man was seen with a ladder and had been reported for trying to climb into open windows on second floors on a posh street. On the third attempt, he fell into the bushes and was apprehended but the police were advising residents to keep their windows closed for the time being.

I mulled that one over for a few days.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Boo. We don't seem to have a local police blotter. But, like Jenn, I follow every Metropolitan Police account on Twitter. (Sorry, not calling it X. So stupid.) And the London Fire Brigade, and the Ambulance Service.

So far I haven't come across anything that is a brilliant inspiration for a story, but there is always hope! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My mother used to send me newspaper clippings of crime in the Syracuse area, of which, unfortunately, there was a lot. But the one that really stands out was the multi-day saga of the bear who beheaded a man (yes, really) and was the subject of a county-wide man bearhunt. I got a whole manila envelope full of this undeniably interesting story, with a note from mom: "There are plenty of bears in the Adirondacks!"

Which is right, of course, but not so useful for a murder mystery, unless the bear has been trained as an assassin by the real, behind the scenes bad guy. 

I dunno, maybe Paul Doiron can use that news item.

HALLIE: How's crime in your neighborhood? Because we're always in the market for a good idea.