Blogging for ‘Spirited!’

Below is an excerpt from my upcoming interview with Calisa Rhose on Friday, April 12th at http://calisarhose.wordpress.com

It all began when…

Two seeds of thought came together and gave birth to an idea. The first seed sprouted when I learned about certain Harlequin guidelines requiring that the hero of a romance must be at least a millionaire.

 I was out of work at the time and going through a very difficult period of life, facing bankruptcy and foreclosure on my home. I had problems that could be solved by money, so yes it would be wonderful if some multi-millionaire fell in love with me. I should be able to build a wish-fulfillment story about that … but, something in me rebelled at the thought. The second seed sprouted from my feminist/science-fiction fan sensibilities. I didn’t want my problems solved by some rich man. And, while I was dreaming, why stop at the problems money could solve? Why not dream bigger? What I wanted was magical powers that would help me solve my own problems. If I had the kinds of power a magical djinni might have, I could turn lead into gold, cash it in, and solve the monetary problems – and I could create things not found in any store, help clean the air and water, provide food and housing for the homeless, cure diseases… the possibilities were endless.

Thinking about those possibilities inspired me to write about them. But where would my heroine acquire such magical powers? Okay, I’d go Harlequin one better with a hero possessing vast magical powers. My heroine would encounter a djinni who would fall in love with her. He’d make sure she had the powers to take care of herself, whether she liked it or not.