Ideas Falling from the Sky

I promised myself I wouldn't start any new stories until I'd finished some.  Well I finished one.  It's waiting for my freelance editor to have time to review it.   But I have my fantasy with romantic elements draft to finish, my fae novella to rewrite, my contemporary paranormal novella to rewrite after edits have come back and I need to replot my sequel to Healer's Fate. 

That doesn't take into account story ideas I've put aside because they weren't working or bright-shiny-idea-syndrome took over.  Those stories are good but the ones I've picked to work on were too bright and shiny to hold back.

So one would think that my muse would leave me alone for awhile and go visit another author desperately seeking an idea.  But no.  She dropped two bright-shiny-ideas on my head this weekend to go with 2 publisher call for submissions.  Not one new idea but two.  As if I didn't have enough going on in my head. 

One is my werepenguin idea which developed from a joke the Black line authors at The Wild Rose Press passed around several years ago.  I'd never fully written it but the Tidal Whispers anthology call screamed for this story to be written.

The other comes from my Healer's Fate publisher Whispers Publishing.  They are looking for horror Friday the 13th short stories.  Instantly a story idea of a an ancient shipwrecked vampire seeking a child in the Florida Keys popped into my head.  I don't usually write vampires...in fact I've had 0 vampire ideas before. And I've never been to the Florida Keys so where this tale came from is anyone's guess.  

But this is how authors get ideas.  I can look at a picture or hear someone say they want this and suddenly there the story is. Despite the Thanksgiving holiday, I have words ready to pour out of my fingers.  Let's just hope I can keep up and host a turkey dinner.