{"id":4652,"date":"2018-08-23T10:39:32","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T14:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/?p=4652"},"modified":"2019-01-19T18:54:39","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T23:54:39","slug":"breeding-ground-the-culling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/23\/breeding-ground-the-culling\/","title":{"rendered":"Breeding Ground: The Culling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common questions authors get is <strong>&#8220;How do you come up with story ideas?&#8221;<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a tough question to answer because they can come from <strong>many<\/strong>&#8230;or sometimes <strong>even one<\/strong> place. A snippet of conversation. A weird news story. Some obscure fact you read in a book years ago. We file them away and, like a sliver of wood under your skin, eventually make their way <strong>to the surface<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s how it happened with my latest story, <a href=\"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/book\/the-culling\/\">The Culling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABOUT THE CULLING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In my story, Gemma is the youngest of three brothers. The three have underestimated her their entire life. They left home as soon as possible and only come back when Mama is on her death bed. But Gemma knows her brothers. They aren&#8217;t necessarily there out of sentimentality. They are there to divide her things. To change everything that Gemma has known her entire life. And <strong>Gemma won&#8217;t allow them<\/strong> to do it.<\/p>\n<p>But, that&#8217;s not where the original seed of my story idea came from. It came from a <strong>strange video<\/strong> I saw online of a<strong> starling<\/strong>, one that fascinated me enough to explore the idea of <strong>the weight of one&#8217;s words<\/strong> and the effects they can have.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KId25_Jf7Fc\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KId25_Jf7Fc<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"4628\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/book\/the-culling\/bbv3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1125,1800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"bbv3\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-4628 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3.jpg 1125w, https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3-600x960.jpg 600w, https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/bbv3-200x320.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/>WANT TO READ MORE?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/20917057\">In my latest Breeding Ground post on Patreon<\/a>, I share the video I saw that inspired the story, and detail exactly how I got from that story seed to the final product of <a href=\"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/book\/the-culling\/\">The Culling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"3224\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/28\/breeding-ground-mummies-of-the-world\/breedingground_logo\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/breedingground_logo.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"350,179\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"breedingground_logo\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/breedingground_logo.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/breedingground_logo.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3224\" src=\"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/postphotos\/breedingground_logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>If you want to read the story, pick up a copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Black-Buttons-Vol-Family-Affair-ebook\/dp\/B07GC9VQ2F\/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1534341673&amp;sr=8-1\">Black Buttons Vol. 3: A Family Affair<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.magnificentcowlickmedia.com\/\">Magnificent Cowlick Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What started as a tale about <b>sibling rivalry<\/b> soon took a chilling turn. Wondering how a seemingly innocent video of a chattering starling inspired my story? Read this behind-the-scenes look at <b>The Culling<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Are you brave enough to read The Culling? Pick up a copy of <a href=\"http:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/book\/the-culling\/\" target=\"new\">Black Buttons Vol. 3: A Family Affair<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":4804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[452,4],"tags":[456,60,455,426],"class_list":["post-4652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inklings","category-on-writing","tag-breeding-ground","tag-published","tag-starlings","tag-the-culling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Breeding Ground: The Culling - MaryRajotte.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/maryrajotte.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/23\/breeding-ground-the-culling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breeding Ground: The Culling - MaryRajotte.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What started as a tale about sibling rivalry soon took a chilling turn. 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