Sparks Featuring Bonnie McCune

I kicked off “Sparks” last week, a weekly series where I’ve asked some of my favorite authors to share the sparks which have fueled their stories. The responses vary wildly, but are equally entertaining and insightful. I hope you enjoyed the inaugural post with Gay N. Lewis and the inside scoop on Sarah: Laney’s Angel.  This week Bonnie McCune shares the fodder for several of the scenes in her upcoming novel. I hope they ignite your creative juices. 

Bonnie McCune: I don't have many adventures like Kim does.  I'm more of an observer.  But my activities and those of my friends and family certainly feed some of the scenes.  In my upcoming book, Burn--Playing with Fire, I have a mountain bike riding sequence.  I've ridden in the mountains of Colorado, and my son competes in cyclocross races (in which you have to carry your bike over creeks and climb rocky slopes with your bike).  The forest fire sequence in which the heroine, Elaine, gets caught originated in a true incident during which a friend of mine had to evacuate a camping area to escape a blaze.

Bonnie McCune published her first novel, A Saint Comes Stumbling In, with Prism Book Group last year and followed up with a novella, Heart-Strong, earlier this year.  However, she considers her initiation into writing came at age 10 with a poem sent to and immediately rejected by the "Saturday Evening Post."  She's written nonfiction for decades as well as short stories.  You can sample her work at her website www.BonnieMcCune.com.