I was deep in the throes of my PhD when inspiration struck. It had nothing to do with my PhD, except maybe offering an opportunity to escape scholarly thinking. I woke up one morning, shuffled into the bathroom, glanced at myself in the mirror…and did a double take. At first glance, it had looked like I had a black eye…which I didn’t really, but shadows play tricks now and again. But the seed had been planted. What would have happened if I HAD had a black eye? Where could it have come from? And why? Soon, a story opportunity seemed to be beckoning. The reasons and a character started to develop in my mind like a puzzle I would turn over and over in my hands trying to discover its secrets. I thought, this was absurd to be thinking of writing another novel when I needed to finish my PhD. But who was I to say no to a fun idea? So I wrote 5 or so chapters to get the bubbling gist out, and then let it sit for a while, dabbling with it here and there until I finished my PhD. Though it would still have to wait for me to move and get married to get printed.

The human trafficking element came in because somehow I got interested in learning all I could about what is going on in our country and world regarding human trafficking. It’s absolutely horrific, and so much more prevalent than we think or want to admit. It really needs to be exposed in a greater way. So I read a lot of books on the topic. The more I fill myself with information on something, the more likely it is to come out somewhere in one of my books it seems. When I saw how it fit into the novel, I pursued the research in this area even more.

As for the feel or style of the book, I started it after reading just about every Jane Austen book I could find. I loved her brutal and humorous honesty, and her fearlessness when dealing with people’s foibles. She presents her characters in all their faults with a witty eye, and gives social criticism with tongue-in-cheek insights. I LOVE her style. I am not saying I wrote in her style, but she was a definite influence on how I wrote this book. It’s interesting, I have found that each of my novels has come after reading extensively one author (or in the case of The Realm, three authors). For 2108: Eyes Open, it was the Hunger Games series. For The Realm, it was Tolkien’s LOTR/Hobbit books, a HUGE selection of Madeline L’Engle’s novels, and C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series.

NOW the wait is finally almost over. Soon, Space, Time & the Shopkeeper will be coming to a bookshelf or Kindle near you!
Make sure to sign up on my mailing list to hear about it’s release (*Hint: it will be free for 3 days on Kindle at some point).