For those of you who follow my Scribbles, you know that one of the most common questions I get asked about my stories is where did I get the idea for it.  People seem to be endlessly fascinated by the creative process, particularly for speculative fiction.

“Hoodoo” had it’s genesis in a brainstorming session with my writing group, Hopefull Monsters.  About two years ago, Colum Paget, a big idea man and excellent writer, suggested we all submit a story to Dagan Books’ acheologically-themed anthology, IN SITU.  The idea for the central artifact in “Hoodoo” came to me during our group brainstorming exercise and evolved out of an initial idea that the artifact was a message in a bottle.  I won’t say more because I don’t want to give away too much.  The setting and title were inspired from a trip I took to Goblin Valley in the southwest United States (oh so long ago).  Ever since that trip, I’ve wanted to set a story in a place like Goblin Valley, and I finally found the right tale.

“Hoodoo” can found in the debut issue of Specutopia, which is available for purchase in Kindle, Nook, and other formats.