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Is writing a book lonely?
Have you ever watched a Netflix series — as in binge-watching — to the very end? Last night I finished El Dragon, a Mexican movie on the international drug trade. I was totally transfixed by the mix of Japanese/Mexican culture, the Samurai warrior approach to discipline, and the two hot male/female leads. I cried at how it ended.
That’s exactly what it’s like when I begin writing a novel. Usually, I will start with a theme. Target in the Sun is a story about an older woman and her young Mexican lover who hides his pain with alcohol abuse and carries secrets that no young man should ever have to bear. It’s an unusual romantic suspense story. She lives in Canada and travels to Mexico every few months to spend time with him. So their relationship evolves through a series of emails. It’s so much easier to reveal who you are when you are not face-to-face with your lover. When I wrote this story, I decided to feature three main characters. Each tells the story from his/her point of view. One of them is a female FBI agent. It’s fascinating to watch the story unfold. At least it was for me. There were so many surprises, events I never expected or plotted, experiences that came from somewhere inside my vivid imagination. When I completed that book I knew I would have to continue their story with a sequel, Vanished in the Sun. I was as curious as my readers to find out what might happen next.
