After being in the house all week, editing a book, I told my husband I wanted to do something fun. Fun for us is go to out for lunch, then hit a few flea markets, and finish up with a grocery run. So we headed to our favorite plate lunch restaurant about forty minutes from where we live. When we arrived, I headed for the bathroom. But it was occupied.
We ordered our food and I heard the occupant leave, so I took my turn, washed my hands, turned the deadbolt. Nothing happened. I turned it again. Nothing. I got a paper towel and tried. Nothing. My phone was in my purse at the table. The bathroom was down a little hall for privacy. So, with no other choice, I banged on the door. Nothing. I banged louder.
A minute or so later, a woman says, “Hello.” 
“I can’t get out.”
She tries the knob. “You’ve got the deadbolt locked.”
“It won’t turn.”
“Oh, okay. Just a minute.”
Seconds later, a man says, “I’m gonna try to open it with the key.”
“Okay.” I hear the key, but the lock doesn’t budge.
“See if you can turn it now.”
Nothing.
“Okay, I’ll get a screwdriver.”
A minute later, a screwdriver slides under the door. “I need you to take the screws out.”
“Okay.” The screw turns for a while, but then it feels kind of stripped. So I switch to the other one. The screws are LONG. I finally get one out and go back to the stripped one. “This one’s stripped.”
“Okay, I’ll pull on this side and you push as hard as you can while you unscrew it.”
The screw starts turning again, but it doesn’t seem to be coming out. The man encourages me though, says it’s working on his side. The whole time I’m wondering if my husband knows what’s going on or if he thinks I fell in. Finally, I feel it give.
“You got it.”
I can see through the hole and his fingers trying to move the lock. It finally clicks and the door opens.
“Oh thank you.” I hug the man I’ve never met.
He laughs and points to the woman beside him. “Thank her. She’s the one who came and got me.”
I hug her too. I’m laughing, they’re laughing. He’s apologizing for it happening. I say it’s the most exciting lunch I’ve ever had and go back to our table.
Our waitress is standing there, sees me and says, “Oh, here she is. They got her out.”
His response, “It’s probably her. When things like that happen, it’s always her.”
I’m laughing, Grant’s laughing, she’s laughing. She goes back to the kitchen. Our food is on the table, so we straighten up enough for Grant to pray over our meal. Then he tells me how he heard me banging and saw people scurrying. The waitress had just heard there was someone locked in the bathroom and realized it must be me since I’d been missing a while. So she came out and told Grant I might be locked in the bathroom.
I said, “There’s a book in that.” We started laughing again. So hard I cried. But thankfully not down my leg since I’d already taken care of that. I dabbed my eyes with a napkin. As soon as I did it, I thought, they’re gonna think I’m upset. We pulled ourselves together and enjoyed our food.
A minute or so later, the waitress came over to me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Oh good. One of the girls said, ‘She’s out there bawling her eyes out.’”
We busted out laughing.
“I laughed so hard I cried.”
She laughed. “Okay good. I’ll go tell her you’re okay.”
About the time we finished our food, I saw the man—my rescuer. He came over and apologized to my husband. I think he must have been the owner or the manager. We assured him we got a good laugh and I mentioned that I write books and this might go in one.
Now in the book, it’ll go something like this. The heroine gets locked in the bathroom and is on the verge of a panic attack because she’s claustrophobic. And the hero will talk her through getting out. When the door opens, she falls into his arms gasping. He holds her until she stops trembling, their eyes lock.
But then his restaurant gets a bad review. And he learns, she’s the restaurant critic who trashed his restaurant.
Or he’s a locksmith who owns a hardware store across from the restaurant and she puts a fru fru décor store next to his business. And he loses business because his manly customers don’t want their trucks seen at the fru fru store.
Because fiction is always more dramatic and interesting than real life. Over the years, I’ve used lots of real life mundane and funny episodes in my fiction. 
Like the time we went to the Fort Worth Stockyards to research my rodeo series I set there. Our son wanted to go in the Cowtown Cattlepen Maze. He and my husband tackled it first thing. This is a human-sized maze modeled after cattlepens with rubber rats strategically placed. It didn’t take them long. My son wanted me to do it. I walked and turned, and walked and turned, getting more and more lost as I went. Smart aleck signs read, Are you lost? or Haven’t I seen you before? while family members on the observation deck above try to help you out and often get you even more lost.
You have to find punch machines in the shape of each letter of the word maze. It took forever. It seemed like forever anyway. It was hot and there’s no breeze in the maze. I don’t do heat well. I found all the letters and punched my card, but I couldn’t find the exit. I found the entrance 3 times, but not the exit.
Finally, I found my son and said, “If I find the entrance again, I’m taking it.” Actually, I was thinking about crawling under. A few minutes later, we found the entrance again and we took it.
As we walked away, I thought, it might have been fun if the weather had been cooler, but as it was, what could be worse? If it was even hotter outside. Or if you got in an argument with your significant other while in the maze and you couldn’t find your way out. In Rodeo Hero, that’s the predicament I put my characters in. The heroine is a new Christian and dating a youth director. He’s a virgin and she has a promiscuous past. Even though he’s falling for her, he’s struggling to forget her past. On their date at the Stockyards, they run into one of her old flings. The argument that ensues erupts in the Cattlepen Maze and they can’t escape each other.
Another funny event happened at the American Christian Fiction Conference. My critique partner’s book was a finalist for an award and we were wearing fancy dresses for the banquet. On the way to our table, Brenda stopped in her tracks with wide eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“My hose are slipping down.”
“Can you make it to the table?”
“I think so.”
“Just get to the table. Then under the long tablecloth, you can slip them off and I’ll put them in my purse. No one will ever know.”
Because I’m the only one who ever has a purse big enough to conceal things. Amidst a lot of giggling, that’s what we did. And I said, “Dibs.” That’s writer speak, for this is going in my book, not yours. It sounds kind of rude since it happened to her, but it’s okay. Writers know we can be rude when it comes to inspiration, snatching ideas from each other. As long as we agree we don’t both use it, we’re good. I used the pantyhose thing in Rodeo Regrets. My poor heroine is at a wedding and is so distracted by her wardrobe malfunction, she can’t think straight for worrying she won’t be able to dance with the hero.
Have you ever experienced anything that made you think, that should go in a book? Tell us about it and you’ll go in the drawing for a print copy of my Christmas on the beach novella collection with four other authors, Candy Cane Wishes and Saltwater Dreams. U.S. and international. Deadline: Nov 17th.
Award winning author, Shannon Taylor Vannatter writes contemporary Christian cowboy romance and has over a dozen published titles. A romance reader since her teens, she hopes to entertain Christian women and plant seeds in the non-believer’s heart as she demonstrates that love doesn’t conquer all—Jesus does. She gleans fodder for her fiction in rural Arkansas where she spent her teenage summers working the concession stand with her rodeo announcing dad and married a Texan who morphed into a pastor. In her spare time, she loves hanging out with her husband and son, flea marketing, and doing craft projects.
At the moment I can’t think of any bookworthy embarrassing moments but I loved your blog today! I was crying ( from laughter) with you.
This is more on the morbid side, but here goes. I’ve enjoyed murder mysteries for years, and even tried to write a few. Last year on a trip to Michigan, I was looking at the woods and thinking, what a great place to hide a dead body. Not that I’d really kill someone. Though I might write a murder mystery.
I love this sooooo much! I’m always on the lookout for real-life events to put in my books. A couple of years ago, I was driving on a country road in winter, and pulled onto the shoulder to stop and take a picture of the beautiful sunset–only it wasn’t the shoulder, it was many inches of snow, and my car sunk down. My son and DIL rescued me and while I was waiting for them, I wrote a scene in my head based on my dilemma–only it’s the hero who gets stuck and the heroine who rescues him with her truck. I keep a list of “back burner” ideas and this is on it!
This is so funny!! I did have something happen, and I put it on FB and told all of my author friends there someone had to use it in a book! They haven’t yet, though! I have my cell phone on silent from 10pm to 8am. One morning at 4am my phone lit up, which woke me up. My old phone would do that, my new one doesn’t let anything come through! Anyway, it was a text message from John to Amy. He’d met her at a bar around 2am that morning, and wanted to hook up again. I deleted the message and went back to sleep. When I got up, I realized I could have really had some fun with that! Poor John, either Amy wasn’t as into him as he was her, or they were both so something the number was written wrong, entered wrong, or something!
I had one time where it actually went into the local newspaper. When I was 10 I was in 4-H cattle. I had a female Shorthorn. Burgundy Rose. She was such a sweet heart with a heart of gold. When I got home from school, after my chores and homework, I would take a book and if Burgundy was laying down, I would lean against her and read aloud. If she was standing, I would go to one place inside her pen and read to myself. Usually she would lay down and I would move to her side and start reading out loud. We went to our first fair a few towns over and Burgundy and I were entered into the Cattle of CA, AZ, NV section as well as some local contests. Well one day after cleaning her and brushing (she loved to be brushed), I sat down next to her and started reading out loud. We were in the sun and I was tired. I fell asleep against my beautiful cow. Well some newspaper men saw me and started taking pictures. My three brothers who were there, told them all about the two of us.
Not that I can think of
My kids started calling dibs on their own stories to keep me from using them in my books. Like when my daughter was on a college tour of a cadaver lab, and a girl fainted and face-planted in a human heart. Some stuff you just can’t make up. Or if you used it in fiction it would be too unbelievable. Glad you escaped the loo.
I’m a very shy, dull, un-newsworthy person. But your blog was very entertaining. If anything comes to mind, I’ll let you know.
Loved the post Thanks for sharing I can’t think of anything off the top of my head but I know with me there has to be something LOL Have a Blessed Day!
Hi, wow, I love your true stories and how you add them in your books! When my son was in 10th grade and on the day of his Confirmation, my brother (my sons Godfather) my son and I had to be early to the church. Well , when we got to the church parking lot and as I got out of the car my half slip just dropped down to my ankles, I looked around hoping nobody had seen it happen and I slipped it right off me and put it in my purse, it was pretty embarrassing, there were people getting out of their car a little ways away from us, so I was hoping they hadn’t seen it happen which to this day, I have no idea if they saw it happen, anyways during the mass I was hoping my skirt wasn’t too see through.
It is embarrassing, but my mother and I were out shopping, just chatting away. My mother walked out of a store with the underwear in her hand – without paying. Too much talk and laughter and she was distracted.
The security people were very nice about it. They marched her back in to pay with huge smiles on their faces.
It had to be intimates!!
Besides the medical things that maybe a doctor would want to write a paper about, I can think of one thing.
It belongs in a funny/comedic book scene. I was standing up filming my sons birthday and the ceiling fan pull got caught in my hair was pulling my hair up. My family thought it was hilarious.
I love hearing about how writers come up with the ideas for their books, it’s fascinating, and your stories are very funny. The stories everyone is telling in the comments are great too, this has been such a fun read today!
I don’t think much happens to me that would be entertaining in a book – the only thing I can think of is I’m not the world’s best driver, and a couple of years ago I had a hospital appointment that meant parking in the hospital underground car park, which has tiny spaces mostly next to big concrete walls. I found a space and for some reason drove in at the wrong angle. I tried to back out and straighten the car, but got more and more confused and was getting closer and closer to the wall – at least it wasn’t close to the car on the other side I suppose! In the end I was only an inch or so from the wall at the furthest point and almost touching at the closest, still not straight, and couldn’t work out how to get the car out, and was getting more and more stressed as I had to make my appointment. I couldn’t open my door, and had to climb across the passenger side to get out. In the end I had to call my father in law, who is retired and lives quite close so was home to come and back out the car for me. He was very kind and rescued me, but he and the rest of the family have never let me forget it 😳
You made me smile with these stories :)
I’m terrified of the flying insects…so, I was running away from the bumble bee and hit the side mirror of the school bus (parked…luckily). My husband was laughing too hard to help me up :)
Glad I could give you a giggle, Jeannette. Maybe I am the only 1 such things happen to.
I’ve thought that too, Marti. And I don’t write suspense or mysteries. But there’s this stretch of interstate on the way to Little Rock with really dense trees.
can’t think of anything
nothing comes to mind
One would be a fire starts in the unit next door in the early morning hours. Our dog would continued to bug me to wake up. He kept nudging the bed. I finally got up to go to the bathroom. I did my devotions. When I walked back into the hallway, I could see smoke in the stairway. I quickly dressed. and we went out the front door.
In the meantime, a gentleman kept knocking on my Mom’s door who lived across the street. He called her by name. He told her that I needed her. She needed to get up. She looked out the peep hole. She did not recognize the gentleman.
As I was walking across the street with our dog, I saw a gentleman walking toward the corner. My Mom was at the front door with it open asking me what was going on. When we called 911, the fire had already been called in.
Lol
I have an idea book with tons of fodder for future projects. I love how you flipped your experience. It doesn’t always have to be the heroine needing rescued.
That is funny. I wish you had messed with John and Amy. I get calls for Debbie all the time. Apparently she had my number before me and she doesn’t pay her bills and still gives her creditors her old number.
What a unique reading buddy, Lournetta. I love that story.
I’m glad you’re not accident prone, Kendra.
Oh that’s funny, Angela. Calling dibs on their own stories. I would be right there with the face-plant girl. I don’t do blood and guts. Me too. I’ve never been so happy to see a door open.
Sounds like you’re just not accident prone to me, Bonnie. But keep me posted.
Glad I could give you a giggle.
Oh wow, Alicia, that’s funny. I’m sure it wasn’t at the time though. I hate half slips that don’t fit. Been there, done that. Only mine just hung beneath the hem. I never totally lost one.
Chuckle, Mary. I’ve never done anything like that. But I have accidentally lifted a carton of eggs. They were under my purse in the cart and I totally forgot about them until I got to the car and moved my purse. I had somewhere to be so I didn’t go back in. Butthe next time I bought eggs there, I told the cashier what I’d done and had her scan my eggs twice.
I’m glad it wasn’t the blade on the fan, Maryann. That could have been bad.
Oh Ruthie, I feel your pain. I’m not the greatest at parking in tight spots and I can never get it straight. Backing up in a parking lot freaks me out too. I’m one of those people that find a slot where I can pull on through and park where I can go forward to get out. And end up going the wrong way to get out, but I don’t have to back up. And forget parallel parking. I only do that if there are 3 continuous open slots so I can pull in forward.
I’m glad you’ve never gotten locked in a bathroom, lost in a maze, or lost you nylons, bn100.
That’s a good dog, Debra. I’m glad he watched out for you. Hmm, maybe the man was an angel. I love stories like that.
I don’t like bumble bees either, Natalya. They’re big and they sound menacing. I’m glad that happened when you were an adult. The school kids would have been mercyless.
Ex…..act…ly! I wrote another character into a scene, a cab driver who’s an older, blowsy woman who takes every corner on two wheels. It’s a short scene, but she packs a punch! Thanks for your fun post.
Nothing really has happened to me other than some unexpected falls that have occurred since we moved to our farm. There are way more uneven surfaces here than even ones and I guess I don’t pay enough attention. I also don’t tell my doctor about all of them. Now that I am “older” they consider that bad.
Oh my, Linda. Be careful out there. There are definitely more uneven surfaces in farm life than city life.