Wednesday, March 27, 2013

WIP Wednesday - The Next Chapter

I am visiting Maggie Thom again today; I always enjoy visiting with her, whether she is a guest at the Book 'Em North Carolina blogspot or whether I am with her on hers. I hope you'll stop in, read her interview of me, and leave a comment for the chance to win a Celtic necklace I'll be giving away at the end of the blog tour.

While I am touring the world on this amazing blog tour, I am also writing my next book. The Tempest Murders, which I finished last year, and After the Tempest, which I am writing now, haven't been picked up by a publisher yet. But I have faith that they will find a home. It's part of writing; sometimes, an author has a publisher waiting for the new installment and sometimes one writes "on spec" having enough faith in the story and the writing to know it will someday be published.

The Tempest Murders' climactic scene takes place against the backdrop of Hurricane Irene. The main character, Ryan O'Clery, has discovered the serial killer he has been investigating now has his sites set on the woman he is falling in love with. And as Ryan races toward the Outer Banks to try and reach Cait before the killer, the hurricane slams into the shores of North Carolina.

From the time Ryan was a small boy, he had dreams that he didn't understand. They were of a woman he lost in another hurricane - one that washed ashore in Ireland in 1839 - as he raced to reach her before a serial killer got to her first.

The dreams were inspired by people who actually have dreams from a very early age of another place and another time. In many instances, psychiatrists examined the dreams to find they depicted real events that occurred years before the person was ever born - sometimes, centuries earlier. The dreams occurred long before the individual knew the history of the place... and therein lies the mystery.

In Ryan's case, he becomes convinced that history is destined to repeat itself - unless he can reach his lover before the man who wants to kill her.