I have often wondered when I have read a book - What set the author on this path. What was one of the driving forces that so motivated this person that they had to sit down and actually write the story out.
Sure, there's creativity and self-motivation. What I'm referring to specifically, though, is that one push, outside of the author's internal drive, that set the rock rolling down the hill.
With Matriarch, it really began with a discussion with a friend of mine.
At the time, it had been a couple of years since I wrote my last novel. And, although I had ideas for stories, I really could not get out of my own way and with all the other 'lifing' items to put pen to paper again.
So, I'm speaking with this friend one day. It so happens his brother had been into doing some book publishing and had actually assisted me with how to self-publish when I wrote my previous books.
Unfortunately, he passed. Despite that tragic event, my friend decided to pick up the mantle, as it were, and continue the work his brother had been doing.
That brings us full circle. As I was visiting with him one day, a conversation about writing and publishing came up. He asked if I would be interested in writing again - and perhaps for his business.
As the discussion went on, it was like a door that had been partially open suddenly burst wide open. Ideas flooded in - and with them, an urgent desire to write again.
I declined the business opportunity because I knew once I started, my brain would take me down a path that would culminate in something that did not necessarily fit what he was looking for. You have to be true to yourself, right - and what you know you will end up doing with an opportunity.
But, I took the ideas that started formulating and pressed on, nonetheless. I can say that what has come out of the drafts and revisions I have done so far is both very much the same and yet very much different from what I started with.
Maybe different is not the best word. The stories have evolved and grown and have been honed.
No clubbing the words onto paper; this is slicing with a fine-edged sword. Well, okay - a sharpened knife at least.
The revisions press on and more to come.