Story Ideas and How Writers Come Up With Them

I'm always asked where an idea came for a certain book and recently was asked that quesion about the first Hussies book which is titled, Danu, The Beginning. I thought this might be a good place to share since I found a few humorous parts of the legend.

Our character, Danu, the central figure in all of The Hussies books, was inspired by the myth/legend of Danu, the goddess of Ireland. Now the name is the only thing that resembles Irish Danu and her people who were called the Danu. Unlike history/myth, our Danu hails from Scotland, not Ireland. So I've plucked a few things from history to use in creating the character, Danu. Poetic license rules!

With this as the background, I decided to do a little more research into the legend and see if there were other tidbits that might spark more story ideas. And, I found the tale of how The Danu were invaded by a powerful people called the The Fir Bolg. So now I had the premise for my story - Scottish Danu would be fighting an invading force into her fictional world in ancient Scotland only the ones she must fight are Dragon People. Why Scotland? Two reasons, I didn't want people thinking I was writing about the Irish legend and I've spent years researching and studying Scotland and didn't want it all to go to waste. So we created a fictional Scottish Castle on a fictional Scottish Island.

One tidbit I won't be using, but thought you would get a chuckle out of as I did follows:

The first people to settle Ireland happened during the biblical GREAT FLOOD as in Noah. A woman named Cessair is portrayed as the granddaughter of Noah, and hey, who knows, maybe she was. Anyway, Noah gave her the scoop that rain was coming and a huge flood. She selected Ireland as the most likely place not to flood since no one had ever lived there and it was not filled with evil or sin. Virgin land.

So she arrived about 40 days before the big rain in a fleet of 3 ships only 1 ship managed to come ashore at Corca Dhuibhne So out of 3 ships, only 50 women and 3 men survived. It was said that Noah refused passage to the three men who had survived because he felt they were robbers. One of those men was his son, Bith, who was also Cessair's father.

Well, after they arrived in Ireland, they did the math and divided the women into 3 groups each taking 1 man. Now, these must have been some real warrior women because two of the men died in no time and the one guy left, Bith.

Seems Ole bith got a bit upset over the prospect of servicing 50 women. So what was his solution? He fled. This was the part that truly cracked me up. Like I said, they must have been some very demanding and daunting women to make a man run away. LOL.

But it gets better! There's another story about one of the 3 men who landed with the group. One that died and that's how he died.

This man was the pilot of the ship, Ard Ladrann, and is said to be the first man to die in Ireland before the flood. And how did he die?

He died of excess - Too much sex! Now wait... it gets better because there's another version of how he died.

It is said he died from a shaft of an oar penetrating his arse.

Was that because he was running away, too? Who knows what is true about any of this tale, but it was too funny not to share with ya'll.

Sally:)