A famous sci-fi author visited my college writing class and revealed something I never forgot: He got an idea for a book series by reading the back of a can of household cleanser.
Since then I've looked for inspirations in small places rather than large. Here are a few things that have played a part in inspiring the "Wilfair" series.
-- That moment in the 2005 "Pride & Prejudice" when Bingley furtively touches the back of Jane's dress. I'd look up the exact time but I think it comes about ten minutes into the film, at a party. It lasts for all of a second. It fills my head with glitter.
-- The middle part of Pete Yorn's "Life on a Chain." The chorus goes "I was waiting over here for life to begin. I was looking for the new thing and you were the sunshine in my frontline. I was alone and you were just around the corner from me."
-- The smell of tar and methane around the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax in Los Angeles.
-- "Something" by the Beatles. George Harrison, my favorite Beatle, makes me think of Gomery. Gomery looks quite different, in my mind, but when I see photos of George Harrison from the late '60s I sometimes think of a fictional motel employee. Maybe it is in how the musician stands or his love of corduroy. George Harrison's hands, too, playing guitar. Please. :)
-- The way an orange hangs heavily on a branch.
-- This kiss from "The General." I'm a huge silent film fan and the moment Buster Keaton plants one on his ladyfriend, while they're trying to stop a runaway train, made me think a lot about runaway trains, couples, and how sometimes you need to stop, despite the imminent danger, and plant one, hard.
This kiss is pretty hot for 1926.
Well, film kiss, I should say. People in 1926 kissed just like we do today.
