“Where do you get your ideas?”

As a fantasy romance author, I’m often asked this question. My response is—do you want the quick answer or the deep answer?

In the case of my current release BLOODSTONE, the quick answer revolves around these two photos and panning for gold.

The first picture is the Rock of Cashel in Ireland. This site dates to St. Patrick, and the roots of the place go deep into unwritten, ancient history. I was mesmerized by the empty windows and roofless walls. The image became Drakkonwehr, an ancient, ruined fortress with deep, mystical roots.

The second picture is from a spring day in a mountain forest. I was entranced by the quality of light and the promise of the opening in the trees ahead. It became the Wehrland, a place of danger and mystery, teeming with the potential of magic. Both pictures accentuate the light vs. dark imagery of the story.

The panning for gold was something my father did for several summers in Alaska. His stories and pictures laid the groundwork for an early scene of my hero panning for, not gold, but the ultimate prize of gem hunters in the Wehrland, bloodstone—petrified dragon’s blood.

That’s the quick answer. You’ll notice it covers setting, a hint of imagery, and the title object. Not a thing about the people who are, after all, the heart of a romance.

That would fall under the deep answer.

I wanted to tell a story about trust, about ignoring the illusions we surround ourselves with and seeing into the heart of a person—because that’s what true love is really all about. We might be attracted by the illusions, but the truth is what either deepens the relationship or drives us away. That meant I was going to tell a Beauty-and-the-Beast story, and because my mind works in mysterious ways, it was going to revolve around a snatch of scroll lore my characters rely on at various points in the story: “True hearts and no fear, against a mage’s power, hold dear.”

With a setting and a kind of story, my characters popped up, as they are wont to do, and carried on ‘living’ out the adventure. I just had to write it down.

BLOODSTONE - Spring Deal on Amazon

I don't know how Amazon makes these decisions to reduce prices on Kindle books, or what the exact pricing formula is, but BLOODSTONE is currently reduced to $4.61 for the Kindle edition.

Maybe it's a Happy Spring deal?

We can hope, anyway, after the winter we've had--the winter that never seems to end. I'm looking at a snowscape today, on April 16th. Our high won't even reach the average low for the day. My rhubarb's coming up and I hope it doesn't freeze out. About the only thing we can do is wrap up warm, hunker down inside, and read books.

Give me a shout out if you're as tired of winter as I am.

Gemstones and Story Icons

When I was a child, my pockets were always full of colorful and uniquely shaped stones. I still have an assortment of rocks collected over the years. It’s no wonder unique stones play a part in both of my published works.

In my first book PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE, gemstones have personal and political significance. In the icon the Prince is seeking, the Crown of Tolem, there were once four gemstones. The Kingdom Stone, a triangle-cut blue topaz, remains in the icon, the Crown. The other three princely or territorial stones have been broken out and the whereabouts of only the Tolem Stone, a round ruby, is known. The other two are believed to be a tiger-eye and a milky quartz. In addition, my heroine is a believer in the power of the birthstone, the one she wears around her neck that connects her to the deities.

In my current release BLOODSTONE I indulged my fascination for rocks and gems by making my hero a gem-hunter and my heroine’s father a gem-cutter (something like a jeweler). Consequently, my hero uses the properties of gems to describe the heroine, and the title object is desired for its unique properties. Besides being petrified drops of dragon’s blood, it reacts to sunshine with a burst of fiery red light, and my hero has a mystical connection to it. I called it bloodstone—for obvious reasons—but it isn’t at all like the real bloodstone gem. My bloodstone is actually inspired by a piece of volcanic glass known in the Southwest as an Apache Tear. The Apache Tear is droplet shaped and looks dull until you hold it up to a source of light. Then you realize it’s translucent. However, it doesn’t throw out bursts of fiery red light when exposed to sunlight like my fictional bloodstone.

When I was a child, I loved stories and stones. I had no idea I’d later be able to combine both loves in books. Even though “diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” what gems are you fascinated by or drawn to?

All the month of March, I'm participating in The Romance Reviews March Anniversary Party. A total of 450 authors are giving away books and other prizes at http://www.theromancereviews.com/event.php or click on the poster on the left. Hope to see you there!

The Monster as Hero--What's the Allure?

Beauty and the Beast. Cupid and Psyche. The Donkey Prince. What do these myths/fairy tales have in common?

A time-tested romantic archetype—the monster whose humanity must be restored through love.

The fairy tale Beast has made himself a monster. He’s committed acts so inhumane, he’s cursed with an exterior as ugly as his heart. Cupid, the Roman god of love, falls in love with the human Psyche, but like all ‘rock stars’ he’s afraid she’ll love him only because of who he is, his incredible beauty, and not for himself. He pretends to be a horrible monster and keeps her literally in the dark to see if he can win her love by his actions. The Donkey Prince is cursed at birth with a donkey’s body due to his parents’ actions. Determined to be accepted, he learns to play beautiful music, wear fine clothes, and behave with princely manners, but nothing will hide his donkey features.

They’re monsters, regardless of the reason, because that’s how they show themselves to the world.

How do they deal with it? The Beast withdraws, drowning in his misery and guilt. Cupid hides behind darkness and deceives his bride and her family. The Donkey Prince picks up his lute and seeks solace in his music.

What can save them? A woman courageous enough to withstand everything the monstrous exterior can throw at her because her compassionate heart detects the spark of humanity within.

With patience and prodding, Beauty digs the Beast out of selfish misery to selfless caring. Psyche pursues her man/god through all the trials his mother Venus throws at her to convince Cupid (and his mother) she fell in love with the beast long before she knew he was a god. The princess falls in love with the heart of the donkey who can make such beautiful music, and he sheds his animal skin.

Why do we love these monster-heroes?

Because each of us yearns to be seen for who we truly are rather than what we look like. We don’t want to be books judged by our covers. Look inside. Read our pages. Discover our stories. Every time one of these monster-heroes is redeemed and revealed, it’s an affirmation that love truly does see with the heart and not with society’s eyes.

Obviously, I’m fascinated with the monster-hero since I featured him in BLOODSTONE, but what about you? Who’s your favorite monster-hero? Why?

Book Spotlight and Giveaway!

BLOODSTONE is featured now through Feb. 21st on Riverina Romantics. In the run-up to BLOODSTONE's worldwide release on Feb. 21st, I'm giving away one e-copy of BLOODSTONE as well as one e-copy of my debut fantasy romance, THE PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE. Hop over to Riverina Romantics to enter the rafflecopter giveaway:
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Leave a comment! I'd love to talk about fairy tales with you.

Mistakes...or not?

This is a post about baking, but it's also about writing.

I love my bread-making machine. It makes delicious cinnamon rolls with half the work they used to take using my old stand mixer. When my DH suggested I make cinnamon rolls for dessert, I pulled out my recipe. Unfortunately, it's not written in the sequence designed for use in bread-makers. So I revised the sequence in my mind. (Note to self: Do NOT do this mind-revising thing again.) There are 13 ingredients. I put them in, liquids first, then sugar, flour, spices, raisins and dried cranberries, and turned on the machine. Ninety minutes later, I turned out the dough, added filling, and cut into rolls. I put the pan in the oven to rise.

They didn't rise.

I forgot ingredient #13, yeast.

Now what?

Well, I didn't want to waste the work or ingredients, so I baked the rolls and frosted them. Do they taste good? Well, yes. As good as they should? No. They're solid, heavy, and chewy without any leavening or yeast. Did I learn anything? Yes, I rewrote the recipe with the ingredients in the sequence required for a bread-making machine.

So what does this have to do with writing?

Sometimes, despite all our best intentions, a scene or story or character doesn't go the way we planned or intended. We may overlook or forget some key ingredient. Does that mean we have to junk our work and start over? Not necessarily. The result may still be viable. Different, indeed, but not necessarily bad. We need to be open to the possibilities of a serendipitous mistake.

Guest Interview

Vacation is over. The holiday ornaments are cleared away and the treats are gone. It's time for a new year, and I'm starting it with an interview featuring BLOODSTONE at the blog, You Read It Here First. I'm discussing the origins of the story, character challenges, and my writing process. Stop by and leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.