This question always comes up when someone hears I’m an author. And the answer isn’t necessarily a simple one. It depends on the book.
I’ve been told by some that I channel my stories. I don’t know exactly how that would be different from how anyone else writes, but once I get an idea, I just sit down, put my mind in neutral and go for it. And usually what I think is going to happen goes in some other weird direction I never would have thought of.
Jareth, First Lord began as a recurring dream. Not the beginning scene of the story, but somewhere down in chapter 1. When it wouldn’t leave me alone, I sat down and wrote it out. But how did we get to this point in the story? And where do we go from here?
Viviane was simply the second part of this story, so there was no problem there. But Morgan was a secondary character in Jareth. I liked Morgan and wanted to know more about her, so I sat down and began to write. I knew she’d come from Clan Belfort, but why had she come? And where would she end up?
Gambler’s Folly started from a song–South Coast. It’s an old song, but it tells about a man who won his wife in a card game. Now how could that happen today? As my mind turned this question over during the day, it began to spin me this tale of a pleasure world away from Earth, where anything could be won or lost in the games. And Gambler’s Folly was born. How the rest of it came about is nearly as much a mystery to me as it is to anyone else.
Dante’s Angel, the second book in the Gambler’s series came about much like Morgan did. He was a minor character I really liked and wanted to know about. And so I let my mind go and began to write. He turned out to be quite a character, as did his soul mate.
But The Russian was born from someone I saw in a video. A Russian rapper by the name of Geegun just looked like a werewolf to me. Probably with dire wolf blood. Now, how could I write him?
What about Master of the Fleet?
At various times in various places, I’ve been a member of the Society for Creative Anachromism–SCA. My persona was named Anne-Marie de Villehardouin, from 13th century France. One night, for some unknown reason, I dreamed a scene at one of the feasts. We had planned a sketch as part of the entertainment, run it by those in charge and had it approved. It involved a couple who started arguing at the table and escalated into her trying to stab him with a dagger. When that doesn’t work, and she loses the dagger, she grabs a sword and the two of them fight in front of the high table.
Now, this was not possible for real, at the time. But I thought it would be fun to do. As I turned it over in my mind, the thought came that it would make a good scene for a story as well. Only instead of it ending as part of the entertainment, it should end with a forced marriage.
Maybe he was a wizard of some sort as well as a swordsman…
I know. My mind is a very strange place. I can assure you, you wouldn’t like to visit.
But feel free to visit my worlds–Gambler’s Folly, Esperance, and the Cote d’Or.
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