Archive for January, 2011
Life Choices: Pursuing Your Passion
Turning Point International's new book
Turning Point International will release yet another “Life Choices” anthology in March 2011. I’m happy to say that I’ll be a contributing author once again.
With the title, “Pursing Your Passion,” it shouldn’t be hard to guess that my contribution, “The Muses Whisper,” is insight into how I found my passion – writing romantic, sexy and edgy historical adventures. I hope it’s also a statement about how it’s never too late to follow your dream.
The book launch will be in Las Vegas March 11. I look forward to meeting with the other 25 authors, who all have great personal stories about pursuing their own passions.
If this Life Choices book is anything like the previous two, each story, like each contributor, will be unique. I love working with such inspirational, dynamic people who have made their Life Choice to follow their dreams.
2011 – It’s a new year and a new incarnation for Isis
I’m starting my “out loud read” of Athena today. It’s the last step before putting it in .pdf and sending to print for my First Reader Edition. The cover is done; the map, the glossary and the layout are done. Book Two of the Red Mirror Trilogy is almost there – at least the first go round. Having said that, who knows how long a first read through can take. You can really get stuck on the first few chapters or so. You really weren’t in the swing; you didn’t really know the characters yet. It’s all kind of stilted and artificial compared to the rest of the book.
I like her – Athena’s smarter and more directed than Isis the party girl. The modern Isis is evolving; she’s learning to take charge of her own life. She’s learning about her own power. She learns from Athena, but Athena learns from her. Athena takes a lot more risks than she would have.
As soon as Athena’s back from the printer, I’ll get it out to my select group of First Readers for input.
Not until then can I let myself start on the third book – at least the mental part of research and daydreaming.
Elektra has been knocking on the door and I keep pushing her away – “Not yet! Too early! Can’t go to Rome now!”
I work from such an intuitive level than I can’t really write unless I am channeling. It’s too forced otherwise. I can’t channel two characters at once – at least, I don’t think so.
Elektra scares me a little (actually a lot). I’m going to have to dig deep into places I don’t know about – or have only heard of. Will I find my black swan?
S. L. Gore 
Athena off to the printer
I finished the first reader edition of Athena of Korinth, the 2nd book in the Red Mirror Trilogy, and will email the pdf version off to printer today. It feels really good. I’ll have twenty “first reader” copies printed, wait for their arrival, get them out, and then sit back, biting my nails, waiting for feedback.
Athena of Korinth
The most important input – besides whether they like the story, of course – will be whether or not I should tone down the sex. By “tone down,” I don’t mean eliminate it, but make it less explicit. It’s been a very interesting experience for me. I had no idea there was so much fear and discomfort about sexuality. But I don’t want sex – even though my scenes are often described as tasteful and sensual – to interfere with readers enjoying the story.
I know a couple of women who have not read Isis out of fear. I had thought of giving them a redacted version with black lines through those scenes. It is really very few pages, or even paragraphs, in both Isis and Athena.
I’m looking not only at possible revisions to Isis and Athena (toning down), but also at my approach to Elektra, the third book set in Roman Egypt. The Romans were not nice people in many respects. They certainly had voracious appetites for both sex and violence, often at the same time. The character of Elektra – as I envision her – is a woman fully in charge of her sexuality. She has not revealed herself to me, but I have strong hints of a dominatrix type. But the sex is only part of the story. It’s about empowerment and a woman using everything she has to survive and control an environment where women have very little value. I’m not that sure things have changed that much.
Share this:
January 15, 2011 at 10:12 pm Leave a comment