How do authors get ideas for novels?

Where do authors get their ideas for a novel?
Well, often they are inspired by stories of their ancestors.

Lalita Tademy

Lalita Tademy was the vice-president of Sun Microsystems when she left the corporate world to immerse herself in tracing her family's history.  She was obsessed to find every root, every branch, stripping the bark and turning over every hidden leaf and stem of her family tree to accumulate the family stories.  With over 1000 documents, she wrote "Cane River", based on the lives of four generations of Creole slave women in Louisiana- her ancestors.

Oprah chose this book for her book club in 2001.
When I returned from a trip to Georgia in 2002, I wanted to read about the south. I became so engrossed in this novel!  It allowed me to get inside the skin of a slave. It was an amazing experience for me!  Loved it1

Pam Lewis

Pam Lewis  was inspired by her grandmother's stories to write  "A Young wife".  Her grandmother told of her life as a very young bride in a place called Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina.  She recalled handsome gauchos who rode into town on fabulous horses decked in turquoise and silver, and of their thunderous races down the dusty main street.

Pam had many questions but her grandmother rarely visited, and her mother refused to speak of her father, would not even give her his name.

Later in life, Pam learned the whole story of her grandmother's life and wrote about it in this book.

I loved this book and here is Pam talking about the book.