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| Not the Author! DepositPhoto |
Our topic this week is painting yourself into a corner,
writingwise.
The best example of this I’ve ever seen is the opening
sequence of the movie “Jewel of the Nile”, where romance author Joan Wilder is writing
the most fantastic pirate scene and it keeps building and building upon itself,
more complications and worse problems for the plucky heroine and then…she’s
trapped alone with a ship full of evil pirates and NO escape.
“I don’t know what the pirates do any more,” she says
basically, in despair.
I have never, to the best of my recollection, painted myself
into a corner in a book.
I sit down, I write the book over the course of a few weeks
(now that I’m fulltime), I don’t have Michael Douglas in his prime to distract
me, as ‘Joan Wilder’ did…I start out knowing the beginning, the ending, and a
few key scenes along the way. I don’t end up in box canyons like the bad guys
in old movie Westerns and I don’t have to rely on suspension of disbelief, as
people had to do sometimes with the old movie serials, like Flash Gordon, as
embodied by Buster Crabbe. One week the serial would end with him facing
certain death or Dale Arden facing certain death and there’s no way Flash can reach her in time…and the
next week’s episode starts off with her safe in his arms and no explanation
given because of course, he’s FLASH. What? Eat your popcorn and don’t ask
questions.
Yup, doesn’t happen to me when I write. Somehow my faithful Muse and I avoid those
issues. We might have other issues perhaps but not that one.
So I had exciting news last week. I was really honored and
excited to receive a phone call telling me that Lady of the Nile, my 7th paranormal romance set in ancient Egypt,
had been selected as a Finalist in the Romance Writers of America Fantasy
Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter’s PRISM Award!
That’s exciting stuff to a writer in the FF&P romance
genres…see the full list of Finalists in all categories here. Congratulations to
everyone whose book Finalled! Winners will be announced at the national
conference in July.
I write my ancient Egyptian tales as a labor of love – not
that I don’t love my scifi romance books because I DO and those are my main
focus and genre – but the reader audience for ancient world romance tends to be
smaller, without much crossover between the SFR genre and this one.
Here’s the story:
Tuya, a high ranking lady-in-waiting at Pharaoh’s court,
lives a life of luxury, pageantry and boredom. Khian, a brave and honorable
officer from the provinces temporarily re-assigned to Thebes, catches her eye
at a gold of valor ceremony. As the pair are thrown together by circumstances,
she finds herself unaccountably attracted to this man so unlike the haughty
nobles she’s used to. But a life with Khian would mean leaving the court and
giving up all that she’s worked so hard to attain. As she goes about her
duties, Tuya struggles with her heart’s desires.
When Tuya is lured into a dangerous part of Thebes by her
disgraced half-brother and kidnapped by unknown enemies of Egypt, Khian becomes
her only hope. Pharaoh assigns him to bring the lady home.
Aided by the gods, Khian races into the desert on the
trail of the elusive kidnappers, hoping to find Tuya before it’s too late.
Neither of them has any idea of the dark forces arrayed against them, nor the
obstacles to be faced. An ancient evil from the long gone past wants to claim
Tuya for its own purposes and won’t relinquish her easily.
Can Khian find her in time? Will he and his uncanny allies
be able to prevent her death? And if the couple escapes and reaches safety,
what of their fledgling romance?
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