Michelle Cornwell-Jordan of Indiewritersreview interviewed me recently. I thought I would share two of her questions and my answers with my blog followers.
What inspired Bone Dressing? What is the story behind the story?
Let’s break that apart and take that in two bites. Nibble number one, the inspiration for Bone Dressing, the whole seven book series, start to finish, came to me in a dream one night. When I woke up the next day I couldn’t write fast enough, I was consumed with getting every bit of the outline down before it slipped from my memory. Then came a mountain of research, a ton of writing, and voilà ... Bone Dressing took its first breath.
Now for the second bite, interesting question, “the story behind the story”, because Bone Dressing is a series of mini-stories nestled within a broader tale, that is itself, only a single piece of the over-riding storyline. So, let’s start with the mini bits tucked deep within the series and work our way out, shall we? Each of these inner stories lies within the heart of one of the seven books. These revolve around Syd’s past lives, so the inner story in the first book is focused on the love between Jesse and Rachel. As the series progresses, these mini-stories will intermingle, ultimately fusing with the broader tale of Syd and Beau. These past-life single-book stories, as well as the cross-book tale of Syd and Beau lie within the pages of Bone Dressing. But, the story of Syd and Beau centers on a girl trying to make sense of herself and the world around her. It’s a story of love and of loss, of good and of bad. And because of that, it’s a story that blurs the lines between the two, because as soon as we choose to define what’s good, then we must also give birth to what’s bad. This is where the final story begins ... where it ends depends upon both the tale that’s left to be told in the remaining books of the series, as well as what happens outside the pages of Bone Dressing ... what happens within the person in whose hands my little story has crept ... we may all find ourselves doing a little Bone Dressing by the time we turn the last page of the series ...
