It Started with a Whisper

It started when my friend Denise whispered, “I’m going to write a romance novel.” Story snippets of dashing men and valiant women have always raced through my mind only to fade when the phone rang, the traffic light changed, or the kids got loud. I thought I was a real Walter Mitty. But Denise’s whisper made me stop and think. Could I write a book, I mean really, write a story and get it published?

How many times had I enjoyed reading a story so much that when it was over I would ‘write’ the epilog. I wasn’t willing to say good-bye just yet. Just one more … well, just more. My friend’s whisper raced around my head for days. My romantic daydreams have plots and my characters have their goals, motivations, and conflicts. Dare I commit my story to paper? I didn’t decide to write. I needed to write, a compulsion that turned into liberation. How empowering for my stories to come alive, to give my characters breath, and watch the words fill page after page. But that’s only part of my adventure. The genre surprised my family but oh how well it fit.

For me the lure of time travel has led to many wonderful stories filled with adventure and romance. My early favorites included Rip Van Winkle, A Connecticut in King Arthur’s Court, The Time Machine, Outlander and Knight in Shining Armor and, as I read more, I’ve added others to the list. What is it about time travel that readers find it so compelling? Time travel stories provide a unique writing devise where characters can reunite with someone they’ve lost, they can fix a past mistake, or they can look into the future. I was interested in looking at the past. Contemporary really didn’t interest me but the past was a treasure trove to me. My debut story, Knight of Runes, is a historical time travel.  

In my time travel story, the conflict centers around the very different attitudes of a woman’s place in society, the disenfranchised woman of the 17^th century juxtaposed against the liberated woman of the 21^st century. How she faces the attitudes and how she and the people she meets learn to deal with each other are a big part of the story as well as adventure and romance.

What genre do you like to read? What are your favorite stories? Wait, let me get a little closer. Whisper it in my ear …