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Funny How a Book Might Arrive

As a writer, anything might strike your interest and inspire a book.I remember being in Key West many years ago and meeting an old time sailor man on the street. He was such a neat character that he later inspired the character named Dunny in my book The Dan Tattoo. At other times a place or a happening may start a book. Recently, I had an experience in a hotel that cries out for a spy novel.
I had talked to some people in an elevator. When I left the elevator one of the men tried to unobtrusively follow me and see which room I went into. I noticed it but I was not particularly alarmed. Sometime during the night a note was slid under my door. Intriguing? Yeah, I thought so too.
I have another example from this current road trip I'm on. I was in a rest area in Arkansas and a young man came into the rest room and began to wash his left hand. He lathered it up with soap and scrubbed it until it made funny noises. Then he rinsed it with cold water for like a full minute. That's not the odd thing. Later that day we stopped at another rest area in Arkansas and the same thing happened. The same guy, actually. Perhaps I'm just a paranoid old man or a writer with an overactive imagination, but I don't believe in coincidence, I don't trust people and I am a student of human nature. Life and folks, like the critters back home, are interesting.
From the road, CE Wills ...

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