21 Days and Counting!

22 Days and Counting!

22 Days and Counting!

Once upon a time -

I grew up on stories that started that way. Grimm's Fairy Tales being favorites. My Mom or my Dad would read using various voices for the characters, adding dramatic pauses for effect, increasing the speed at which they read when the characters were fleeing danger - well, you get the idea.

Now when I'm reading for pleasure I do the voices, pacing, pausing - in my head.

But there is one place I still read out loud and it is not to grandchildren (at 17 and 23 they'd rather be on their smart phones or computer or talking to friends). I read out loud to myself when I go through my manuscript one final time. It is amazing what I find as awkward, what just doesn't "sound" right when I do that.

Remembering the time in my life when having books read to me was special, I know I also want to explore audiobooks.

That idea is leaping forward in time because at this point, Love and Magick is 22 days away from release. But it is an idea whose time will come!

23 Days and Counting!

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.

25 Days and Counting!

25 days and counting! It is an exciting time for Sarah, Diana, and me. Taking charge of our dream has had its ups and downs but with the end (i.e. the release of Love and Magick) so close at hand, the proverbial light is shining bright at the end of the tunnel.

26 Days and Counting Until Our Book Launch!

27 days to the Love & Magick Book Launch!


Two things inspired my second story in LOVE & MAGIC, titled The Curse of the Neahkahnie Treasure. My first inspiration came from my first trip on a sailboat. We sailed from the West Mooring Basin at historic Astoria, Oregon, seven miles down the great Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. Astoria is my favorite small town, and its history and economy have been linked to the ocean for over two-hundred years.

The bow sussed through swells instead of roaring like a diesel engine. The experience was magical, so quiet that I heard wing flaps when a flock of pelicans took flight as we passed.

Never mind that I got seasick. Never mind that it was freezing cold for much of the sail. Never mind that  we were crossing the Columbia River Bar into coastal waters so dangerous they are known as the Graveyard of the Pacific.

The forty-footer was a thing of beauty as sleek and graceful as a sailfish. The cabin below deck sported gorgious polished woodwork and shiny brass fittings.. The surrounding natural beauty touched my soul. I love adventure, and this was a whole new way to explore the sea. I walked on air for days after the sail.

A week later I wrote a flash fiction short story set at  on a sailing vessel. I'd never written a historical, so I set the story in Astoria in 1871. When Judith Ashley, Diana McCollum and I later decided to collaborate on a collection of romantic short stories having paranormal, magical or mystical elements, I decided to lengthen my short-short story from 2,000 to 13,000 words and include the tale in the anthology. Readers had commented that they wanted me to expand the story.

My second source of inspiration for The Curse of the Neahkahnie Treasure is fodder for another blog post!

Thanks for reading. ~ Sarah Raplee