Separations and Beginnings

Separation is akin to loss. We ache for the people we lose. We mourn the things we lose, and the more those people or those things mean to use, the deeper our suffering. Fictional characters are no different – at least, those who become most real to us are no different. In fact, the more we can identify with specific characters, the more real they become, and the more time we want to spend with them.

One way of making characters real, then, is to give them something to love then take it away. Make them ache, mourn, hurt because of the separation. The loss.

The basis of all our fears, some psychologists believe, is fear of loss.

Loss of life is instinctive. And the longer we live, it seems, the more we cling to the years we have left.

Loss of a loved one is possibly the most difficult to endure.

Loss of security can be scary, whether physical, emotional, or financial.

Loss of love may seem like the stuff of romance novels, but face it, we all need to love and be loved. To touch and be touched. It’s a human necessity. That’s why lonely old ladies have cats.

After separation comes a new beginning. We lose a home, we start over … eventually. We lose a love, we mourn … then somehow we start over.

In writing Emissary, I was intentionally cruel to my two main characters. I took away everything. That loss is their only common ground, in every other way they’re opposites.

Then I plunged them into a situation where the only salvation is to find each other. In finding each other comes a new beginning, but they have to work for it.

Emissary is a cross-genre thriller about separations and beginnings.

Pre-Order the book now at charthousepress.com/books/emissary