Love and Magick

24 Days and Counting!

People ask "Where do you get the idea for a story?" And since I write contemporary romantic women's fiction with mystical spiritual elements, I always pause before I answer.

(Pause)

I don't "get ideas" for stories. They just show up!

Sometimes they show up with clearly cut characters who have names like they did for Sarah's Ankh. (The "ankh" necklace was around Sarah's neck from the very beginning). I did have to work to come up with some of the secondary characters' names and on the advice of my editor, Kelly Schaub, I changed Sarah's hair and eye color a smidgen.

Being an adult woman who worked outside the home in the 60's, 70's, and 80's (part of that time in law enforcement related jobs), Sarah took on some of those characteristics the women of that time often used when dealing with what today is considered sexual harassment.

And, boy, did Kelly have A Lot to say about that!

The story had shown up that way, so what was I supposed to do?

I thought about my seventeen and twenty-three year old granddaughters who grew up in a society that had established boundaries. What would they have said and done if confronted with Gary's behavior?
I went back to the story and became Sarah but as she dealt with issues, I responded as I believed my granddaughters would. (No, neither have AK-47's so the jerk-villain was somewhat safe).

The result? A stronger story that is much more "contemporary" than the original. The premise of the story is the same, the goals and motivation of the characters is the same, but how they deal with the conflict has moved to the 21 Century.

I hope you enjoy reading Sarah's Ankh and our other stories in Love and Magick, Mystical Stories of Romance being released on February 14, 2014.