Making Someone’s Day #inspiration

Today I had one of those much lamented phone calls – my alumni organization trying to con me into donating.  To my surprise, I ended up talking with the woman (a student) for quite some time, talking about writing, telling her about my book, and ended up giving her some valuable advise that ended up making her day.  She got off the call energized and motivated, and even though she conned a $30 donation out of me, I still felt good about the call.

Usually, I’m very tempted to hang up immediately when UNC-CH runs a giving drive.  They often start off innocuously by asking if my alumni information is correct, then immediately start in on trying to get me to give hundreds of dollars to the school.  For the most part, my brain is thinking, “We already gave them thousands.  I think we’re good.”

Today, the student on the line asked me why I choose Biology as a major, and I joked, “Because writing wasn’t a viable option at the time.”  Somehow, I ended up talking about my book, which she was enthused by, though she said she couldn’t imagine writing Science Fiction, which is where the most important advice of the entire conversation came in.

When writing, write what fascinates you.

I told her about a time when I was watching Eureka (the first episode).  I didn’t know what a tachyon was, so I googled it, found out about a thought experiment by Albert Einstein in 1907 called the Tachyonic Antitelephone, and thus the TAT system for the Darkest Day Series was born, a means of instantaneous communication across interstellar distances.

Another time, my research led me to the idea of exploding dirt (I nearly danced out of my seat with excitement on that one).  She was a Political Science major, so then I went into all the fascinating ins and outs of the political situation in Mila’s Shift, about the concentration camps where identified shifters were kept, how the presence of people who could change their face at will destabilized systems like law enforcement, secure facilities, and more.

There are 7.6 billion people in the world.  That means that if something is fascinating to you, there’s probably a niche for it.

What type of advice have you given or received that inspired you?

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