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Hello, Siobhan and all you brilliant Blog Buddies,
Thank you Kimber for doing this fantastic post. You can Visit Kimber online via [Website][Blog][Facebook]
If you haven't read the books and want to know about about them you can check out my reviews for Crushed Sugar and Sugar Rush.
When Siobhan suggested I write about what inspired The Ophelia Dawson Chronicles, I scratched my head and was like, “Uh…” It’s been so long and I have such a cluttered imagination.
Like a lot of writers, I get a lot of stories from my dreams. Talk about working the graveyard shift! Want to know a funny thing? Being pregnant multiplies these dreams by a factor of ten, I swear. You would not believe the torrid affair I had with Frodo Baggins when I was pregnant the last time. I was a naughty little girl hobbit who was just after the One Ring of Power, you know. Anyway, it was my fifth pregnancy, so my husband understood. What was I saying? Oh, right, inspiration!
I was dreaming along and I stepped out of this tiny cottage in a small mountain town surrounded by flowers. I mean, there’s flowers everywhere, the gardens, the window boxes, even the roof are covered with these little white flowers, which turned out to be the rare Arctic Poppy. (If you’ve read Sugar Rush, that might ring a bell. The Arctic Poppy burns Newbloods like acid.) So, I step out and I see the Boy I Love approaching and he’s come to rescue me. Only, as he approaches, I’m suddenly uncertain if he’s come to rescue me or hurt me, because I sense that he’s changed. I’m in that little cottage surrounded by all those flowers because I escaped the Bad Guy (who turned out to be Martin in the novels) and I use the flowers to protect myself from him. Now, the Boy I Love (turned out to be Adrian) has been changed into the same kind of creature as the Bad Guy. I’m faced with a decision, trust in his love or ditch him? ‘Cause he can’t get past those flowers unless I let him. If you’ve read Sugar Rush and Crushed Sugar, you might be thinking, “Huh?”
Well, I did say I have a cluttered imagination.
This scene is actually in the *fourth* book in the series. Yeah, I said the fourth! Weird. I really had to backpedal to get everything sorted on this one! Even after Sugar Rush was accepted for publication, I backpedaled with Crushed Sugar, which you may notice is set before Sugar Rush, but was released after it! Oy, it’s enough to give a poor reader a headache and I am so sorry about that. Maybe as I mature as a writer these things will get easier.
Why backpedal on the dream scene? I had to figure out why the Bad Guy had kidnapped the Heroine (who turned out to be Ophelia) in the first place. These guys are alien/human hybrids, not vampires. The blood-sucking dead guys didn’t see any action until I threw Brandon into it, and he isn’t exactly Dracula. But, the alien/human hybrids had some things in common with the mythical vampire. I realized I had to backpedal again and bring in the mythical vamps in order to help *define* the alien/human hybrids.
Yeah, cluttered. You should see my sock drawer.
So, what inspired that original dream? I have no freakin’ idea.
I also had one about the Pope and John Travolta.
Uh, no, don’t ask.
Thank you Kimber for doing this fantastic post.
You can Visit Kimber online via
My Reviews: Crushed Sugar and Sugar Rush
Buy Crushed Sugar: [Amazon UK][Amazon US][Decadent Publishing]
Busy Sugar Rush: [Amazon UK][Amazon US][Decadent Publishing]
