Daniel replies:

Inspiration, huh?  Hm.  People often ask about that.  """"What inspired you to write that?"""" they ask.   What happens to me is I get _interested_.  I'll have a little idea, or part of an idea, and I will think, """"this is interesting.""""  Then I'll start fooling around with the idea, or part of an idea, and it might get more interesting.  Then, in the case of a long book, like The Neddiad, I'll start working with characters, and giving them things to think and say.  Then it gets really interesting.  Once in a while the characters may start saying and thinking things that surprise me!  Then it gets more than interesting.  Maybe that's inspiration--I don't know--by the time that happens, I'm so busy writing that I'm not likely to notice.