I've had several people ask me where I got the concept for the book Life over Death. Well, it grew from a seed planted in my head by the lyrics of the wonderfully talented Holly Williams. As a singer/songwriter, she comes with an amazing pedigree being the daughter of Hank Williams Jr and the granddaughter of Hank Williams Sr. Her song "Without Jesus Here With Me" is a powerful ballad about a tragic event in her (or someone's) life.

I was on my routine, weekly flight from Nashville to Dulles (DC) listening to music while dozing in and out of 'sleep'. The chorus from this song settled into my semiconscious mind and the concept began to sprout. The chorus goes a little like this...

"I gladly would have died that day to save the child that went away, but you can't trade a life like that. I guess it's part of the master plan."

My mind started playing with the "trading a life" part of the lyric and I came up with an idea about the power of giving 10 miracles in exchange for 10 deaths (life over death...like a fraction). Giving that power to an 'ordinary' human led me to think through the struggles associated with making those type of choices. From there, the story blossomed into a painful, yet hopeful journey for Tom Roddin and those affected by his choices.

The song itself has nothing to do with the choices in the book or what I call the 'gift of Hope'. But the lyrics certainly were the seed and water to nourish the concept. It's funny how a single line or two from a well written song can stir an emotion that leads to a thought, then grows into a concept, and eventually tells a complete story. Good songwriting can be an inspiration on many different levels...for me, it helps grow stories.

The disparity in my writing life is quite comical with a slight touch of irony. In my real life, I write literally hundreds of pages of text in response to Government Requests for Proposals (RFP's) that include highly technical documents and IT solutions for military and other US Government agencies. This is Proposal writing at its best and worst! Not Grant writing (sorry for the name pun), but rather responses to government requests for contractors to provide all kinds of services - IT services and support, satellite support contracts, environmental impact assessments, and other assortments of boring technical things that keep our Government up and running.

In my 'spare' time, I write fiction. Mostly about people who struggle to do the right things in a world so full of greed and the desperate drive to make a name for themselves. I like the concept of good verses evil where the good guys shine through the darkness that so often engulfs our daily lives. I like the triumphs of unassuming people who push to make a difference in other people's lives through unselfish actions. Finding an interesting, fresh way to present these stories is where my creativity finds a home. It's what makes me tick!

The disparity between my two lives should be obvious by now - one is very real life, presenting boring, matter-of-fact solutions on how to manage a program in a cost efficient manner; the other is quite the opposite and includes making up facts, characters, lifestyles, scenarios, and lessons to apply in whatever manner befits the reader. So, the two opposites collide in my mind and are continually fighting for dominance (yes i am a bit crazy but not certifiably insane...yet!). The irony comes into play in the form of the solutions I provide, as a consultant, to my clients. Often times I'll ask them, "Ok, how do you want to run this program? What is your organizational structure, what tools do you use to manage your people, what process are in place to develop a business rhythm that keeps a program operational yet still presentable to the customer?" Sometimes the blank stares are frightening!

So, I'll write a management scheme or solution, as we like to call it, and say "You have this great tool that tracks all of our folks hours, what they did, and what the daily or weekly accomplishments were. And you use a process called 'SuperDuper Process' (yep...maybe we'll patent that phrase!) that shows the daily activities of the entire program against a full lifecycle schedule with progress towards upcoming milestones and larger goals. AND, this process and the personnel tool is fully integrated with your Financial Analytic & Assessment System called...F-ASS, so you can show your customer your burn rate at any given moment in the program."

Again, blank stare. I say, "These tools sound really good. Shows that you know what your doing right? R-i-g-h-t?"

"Oh, yes that's what we'll do...I mean that's what we do everyday!" 

There...right at that point is the irony! I make scenarios up all the time about what a company should say in a proposal and encourage them to develop the tools and process before (read 'if' here) they are awarded the contract. Sometimes they convert it from fiction into fact when they execute the contract by implementing these 'new' techniques. Sometimes it remains fiction forever and they execute with the same archaic tools they started with.

When I let the cat out of the bag with some of my clients that i was writing a book of fiction, some giggled and said, "Well you've been doing that for years, so it shouldn't be a stretch." So, here is where I stand in my confused mind between real life and fiction.