Before I get started, I want to announce that to celebrate the June 30th release of EDGE OF DAWN, I’m giving away a copy of IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, the first book in my Light Warriors series. A winner will be randomly drawn from all those who leave a comment.
I had to turn to Twitter for help on blog topics and one of the suggestions mentioned was to talk about what inspired me to be a writer. I’m not sure there was one thing, though. In my memory, it’s a series of events spaced years apart.
First, I always had stories in my head. When I was a little girl and playing Barbies with my friends, they’d be done with their scenario and I’d still be enacting mine. I never understood why my scenes–and that’s what they were, actual scenes–were so much more elaborate than any of my friends. I only know I had a story to go through and prods to “hurry up” didn’t get it finished any faster. :-)
Then there was all the daydreaming I did when I was bored. At school, in church, at some social event my parents dragged me to, I’d just find a corner and zone out, playing different scenes from some story out in my head. I did it constantly.
I never put anything down on paper, though. Not until eighth grade. A friend of mine decided to write a book with the entire class as characters. I didn’t like what she did with me, she refused to change it, so I decided to write my own story. Only I found I couldn’t write real people, it felt uncomfortable, so I put down one of my daydreaming stories.
After that, it seemed everything was geared toward me writing something. I worked on the school newspaper in ninth grade and the yearbook in tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. I had the opportunity to take a journalism class my junior year in high school, I was in Advanced Placement English, I took composition.
By the time I entered college, I knew I wanted to write, and since I already realized fiction wasn’t a lucrative career path, I majored in journalism. I started out as a broadcast copy major and switched to advertising copywriting, which I guess is fiction writing in a way. And every time I strayed from writing after college (which was often), I met someone who steered me back toward the path.
So what inspired me to write paranormal romance, particularly my Light Warrior series about a society of magic users who protect humans from demons and other evil creatures? I blame it on too much television as a kid. :-) I was totally hooked on reruns of I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched.
Who wouldn’t want to have magic? Look at some of the cool things my hero from EDGE OF DAWN can do. Logan can travel thousands of miles in seconds simply by doing the spell to open a transit–walk through this gateway, and boom, you’re there. He can throw fire and lightning, which is a pretty cool way to fight, he doesn’t have to clean his house–at least not dusting and vacuuming. (Logan’s kind of a slob, so there are still clothes on the floor.) Forgot something at home? No problem, just do a little spell and bring it right to you. (And wouldn’t that come in handy?)
I had a really fun time writing EDGE OF DAWN and not only because of the magic. Logan and his heroine, Shona, were cute together and Logan, while being this badass warrior, is really sweet with women. Hey, he has three little sisters and he dotes on them. That was one of the things that I found so interesting–his family dynamics. Then there was his developing relationship with Shona all the while trying to hide magic from her and still fight the bad guy that’s after her. Yeah, it wasn’t easy for him, but then I have this thing about torturing my characters.
To find out more about EDGE OF DAWN or any of my other books, please swing by my website: www.pattioshea.com I have the back cover copy, excerpts, and other information available there.
