How do people get ideas for books?

How do authors get ideas?

Oh my God, how do I shut them up?

For example, I went on motel retreat this weekend with a group of romance writers. Around midnight, the smoke alarm in the room next door went off for over twenty minutes, and then, blessed silence for twenty. Again it screeched for almost an hour, at which point people in the hotel began climbing down outside stairs.

At one point a young man, dressed only in hastily clad jeans, no shirt, ran down the stairs, and pounded one of the doors, “I just need to check on my parents.” He was rather geeky, and not overly attractive.

But in my author’s eyes, it was yet another what-if.

What if he had firmly cut abs, with a tattoo just below the belly button. What if the jeans hugged a firm butt? What if there were no parents and the girl of his dreams was outside, hugging her chest, dressed in just her thin silk pajamas. What then? Had they met before or was this a first encounter? Would he approach her or would their eyes just meet and stare appreciatively? Would they have one more chance encounter at breakfast, or jogging along the beach as the sun crept above the ocean’s horizon?

Maybe he was on leave, or just retired from the navy. Maybe she, a divorcee whose heart is hardened from men in general. Would they agree to have breakfast? Perhaps find some common ground? Why did they stop in this hotel, off season? Ah… maybe it’s because they both are going to stay the summer for temporary work.

A long, hot, hot summer.