Spooky Season has arrived! For some of us, Spooky Season is just part of our everyday existence and this is when we come into our full power.
Personally, I have a hard time getting into an autumnal mindset when it’s still 85 degrees and 1,000 percent humidity. The best I can get this time of year is a cool morning and a chilly evening.
I know I don’t look it, but there’s a bit of a witchy goth under this suburban-yoga-teaching-SUV-driving-cardigan-wearing exterior. I was never quite good at matching my aesthetic to my interests and personality. But there’s a reason why I gravitate towards paranormal romance.
My creative foundation was formed by RL Stine’s Goosebumps and Fear Street books, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Exorcist, Pet Cemetery, and The Crow. I made The Craft my entire personality for a couple of years and to be honest that influence still lingers.
But, writing Sliders and The X-Files fanfiction (before fanfic was a thing because at the time home internet barely existed) is why I headed towards a career in writing.
Paranormal romance is a good genre fit for me because it gives me the high stakes conflict and fantastical elements I crave while the guaranteed happy endings keep my anxiety from spiraling.
It’s a fun challenge to create a story where the main characters are experiencing otherworldly dangers and come out of them stronger as individuals and as a couple.
The Thriller that Inspired Roots in Ink
The inspiration for Roots in Ink came from a few different places, but the idea for the central conflict was born out of a writing exercise from October 2021 called Obsession will Set Me Free. Obsession is a short thriller and most definitely DOES NOT have a happy ending.
Curious how the two are connected?
From the Roots in Ink blurb:
When Liam begins suffering from a mysterious illness that strips him of his humanity and threatens his life, Emma connects his ailment to a demon in Sara’s diaries. Using Sara’s harrowing account as her guide, Emma must tap into her own ancestral magic to destroy the demon before it kills Liam and finds a new, more powerful host.
To read Obsession will Set Me Free, pop on over to Bookfunnel and sign up for my mailing list.
Current subscribers got a link in my Sept. 13 newsletter, but you can grab a copy here. The digital bouncer at Bookfunnel is checking IDs to make sure you’re on the list. When prompted enter the email address you used to get this mailing.
Give it a read and tell me what you think by commenting below or sending me an email.
