The Next Best Thing Blog Hop

Hello blogoverse! It's 12/13/12 so it's time for a new post. I sometimes struggle for ideas so luckily the delightful and super-cool @MeganPaasch called me out on her Blog: Rhymes with Smash!...and so now to the questions:

I hope I have some good answers...

What is the working title of your book?

It started off being called Solace. Which is the name of the fictional town it's set in. For the last six months though I've been calling it PERSEPHONE, after the main character. I think I'm going to stick with that.

Where did the idea come from for your book?

I had an idea for a trilogy of stories based around the disappearances of three young girls. The first was MONSTERS, my self-published book about a detective hunting for a young girl kidnapped on Halloween.

The idea was to connect the stories both thematically and using the same basic cast of characters. One of the characters in the first story, Emerson Watts, used to be a Federal Agent and his life was defined by one big moment in his past. That moment was the rescue of a young girl from the clutches of a serial killer. During Monsters I set-up a couple of little threads which I intended to continue in the next book. A young woman appears in Monsters...a cameo, if you will, before her starring role in my new story. Her name? Persephone Bright.

What genre does your book fall under?

Thriller/Mystery/Suspense Somewhere in that ballpark. 

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Kidnapped, abused and tortured as a child, Persephone Bright has tried hard to move on from her harrowing past but, the man she escaped from wasn't as dead as she had been lead to believe, and now a series of murders in Solace suggest The Dollmaker is back and he may be looking for the one that got away.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

My first was self-published. I've seen how that works and have been able to see the strengths and weaknesses in doing it that way. This one I'd like to have represented by an Agency. I want to go through the process and try and learn about it. If I come up empty handed, I will then go back to the self-publishing route. I intend to spend some time pushing this story though. 

How long did it take for you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It took 30 days during NaNoWriMo 2011 to write the bulk of it. Then another couple of months to get it to the right sort of length I wanted. It's undergone a few revisions though and I'm still working on fine tuning how the story is told. I want it to be similar to the first story but not told in the same way so it doesn't feel I'm just regurgitating the same stuff. 

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I would liken them to any story that has strong characters and a thriller/mystery angle. I think the Alex Cross stories by James Patterson would be a decent parallel. Fast paced, strong characters and I like my stories to carry a psychological aspect to add the thrills.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I don't normally like to share this information since it limits the imagination a bit. If I was casting a movie version I have an idea who I'd like in the main roles but I generally keep that stuff to myself. I will share one character from Monsters. Emmy Watson was based entirely on Elisabeth Shue, only with red hair and green eyes. I've had a mad crush on her since the Karate Kid came out (the original one from a hundred years ago...not the Jackie Chan one). 

*sigh*

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The psychological impact of kidnap and captivity has come up often in the news with children being found, or being lost altogether. That fear of losing a child is in the heart of every parent and that has been true throughout human existence. The basic idea of my story borrows from the Greek myth of Persephone. She was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the Underworld. Persephone's mother, Demeter (The Goddess of the Harvest), went on strike until Zeus did something to get her back. Persephone was returned but she had eaten seeds from a Pomegranate which meant she returned to the Underworld for a period of time every year. So the myth explains the seasons, why the ground is fertile and things grow in Spring (Persephone's return) and withdraw in the Autumn and Winter (Demeter on strike).

I took this myth as the backbone of my story idea. In my story Persephone was rescued as a child after being abducted. I wanted to write about what would happen if the same guy got a second chance to take her.


What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

If you read the first one, you will enjoy the returning characters: Doyle, Watts, Harald and Travis. There's thrills, spills and a wee bit of sexy. Hopefully the twists in the narrative will keep you turning the page.

Ok, well I hope that cleared some things up. :0)

Now, I have to pass the torch and my nominations are:

@BuddhistOnABus
@GinaWestAuthor
@Mari_Wells4
@FebruaryGrace
@saraleggz

Let the world know about your WIP...give us the skinny!