Plot Twists and a Free Read

Once Upon a Time there lived a girl who tried and tried to be normal, but it never turned out that way no matter what she did….

Sorry got started off going down the wrong path on that one. I was actually going to dive into the craziness of my brain and what it means for me to be a writer. After following my own white rabbit down holes for many years and coming out the other side with a book, you would think I’d run out of ideas. Believe me, people have asked me where the inspiration comes from. Honestly, sometimes it’s from dreams, other times a song, or something in a movie or a book sparks the idea and I run with it.

A great example of that is my first series, Soul Reaper. I had this great dream about the two characters pretending to be something they weren’t. I had gone to New Orleans at the time, had the dream ther,e and wrote the first book, Masquerade, in six weeks. It was crazy, even for me, but all the pieces came together. Before I knew it, I had my first horror series- don’t let the covers fool you. From that series one of my long standing characters was born, Azrael, the angel of death. And what is death if he can’t hop universes? Death is everywhere so he’s been in at least twenty-five books by now. He was a plot twist I never saw coming.

Many authors I know outline their books. They are plotters. Others, like me, are pantsers. You know, white rabbit running amok, leading me down places I had no idea where the story would go. For me this works most of the time. It’s how I wrote my first draft of Forest of Bones. After going through the finished draft, the glaring holes and the connections I tried to make weren’t working. So I starting outlining chapter by chapter what had to be done and what dots had to be connected. Kinda doing it backward, right? On the fourth draft, I had a working book, a map of the world, and an even better understanding of the characters. On the fifth draft, it was ready to go. The book took me five months to write and then two years off and on to edit and fix.

You’re reading this and going… wasn’t there a promise of a free story? Yes there is. I wanted to share a bit about my twisting mind. I joke about the white rabbit, but sometimes that what plot bunnies are. They pop up out of no where. I follow them into their burrow trying to wind my way to the end. Usually I know the beginning and ending of a book. It’s the journey that makes it fun. If someone tells you there is only on way to write, I would disagree. There are many just keep writing until the story comes out. No matter if you outline or if you follow your own rabbit.

This story is a little ghost story I wrote a while back called Legend Tripping. The idea of the title came from a paranormal show I was watching at the time. Give it a read. It’s all in fun. Let me know what you think.