Sparks of Inspiration in the Air

People often ask me where I get my ideas. For What Happens in the Air, I actually crewed a hot air balloon during the Great Forest Park Balloon Race. My participation happened as a fluke. My friend and high school classmate Kim always holds a party in the park to watch the balloons launch and in 2019, I attended.

Kim had friends who were flying that day; well, they were supposed to fly (more on that later). Kim asked if any of her partygoers wanted to help crew, and I volunteered. I’d never been up close with a hot air balloon. I’d heard about them, because one of my co-worker’s husbands is a pilot who has won the event. As for me, I’m a tad afraid of heights.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating that day, which meant that many of the balloons could not fly high enough to clear some of the no-fly-zones that Mother Nature was going to push the balloons over. This meant that the balloon for which I crewed only “stood up” and burned off fuel as it remained grounded. Then we let the air out and packed everything away.

Kim and I went back to the party in the park, and later joined the pilots’ dinner, held at the World’s Fair Pavilion. At dinner, after drinking a few Amaretto and Sprite cocktails, the group told me I should write a romance about innkeepers who own a hot air balloon. Turns out, they’d recently purchased a B&B in a historic river town.

I said sure. Why not? And amazingly enough, that throwaway joke and banter tossed out at dinner turned into a germinating seed and years later, What’s in the Air is taking flight as the Book One for my debut with Special Edition. The lesson? Well, besides hang out with my friend Kim much more often, never pass up a chance to do something out of my comfort zone and try new things.