This is one of the most annoying questions a writer is asked. Ideas are everywhere. It isn’t a paucity of  ideas that is a problem, it is the time and effort it takes to translate those ideas to stories. I take ideas from anywhere – they aren’t copyright—and store them. I’ll read an news article and store it in my “possibles” file. “Cat lands on awning four stories below apartment.” “Gangs scam restaurants with substitute credit card machines.” I’m not surprised that  I can take a newspaper story, adapt it, redesign it and use it to start an imaginary story. Writers do that. What sometimes confuses me is to see in a magazine or newspaper a story that closely parallels one I have already imaged and written.  That is decidedly creepy.

From Writing for Children and Young Adults  Self-Counsel Press