Now, I’ve got one book out with great reviews, the second just a few weeks away and I’ve just completed copy-edits on the third.
Life can do some funny, funny things to you. It can twist and turn so quickly that you’ve got no choice but to hang on and hope eventually you’ll get to stop and catch your breath.
That’s one of the things I love about romance. You take two people – who often think they’ve got life sorted and things are just dandy, thank you very much – and then they meet and BAM! Everything changes.
Each of the books in the Dream of Asarlai trilogy features a character who’s just like that – quite sure of the way things should be. In Secret Ones (July 2010), it’s Maggie Shaunessy.
Maggie’s not that impressed with being the member of a secret magical race, the gadda. She’s more interested in being part of the human world. She’s a teacher, she’s just finished her Masters degree and she’s pretty damn happy with her lot.
In fact, when we first meet Maggie she’s buying champagne and nibblies for a party to celebrate her success.
However, Maggie doesn’t know that a) some pretty nasty people have it in for her; b) that she’s about to meet a particularly dishy man and c) that she’s destined to become one of the most powerful magical beings alive.
In book two, Power Unbound (out January 1), the character facing incredible changes to her world is Ione Hammond Gorton.
Ione’s not had an easy life – she’s one of the few members of the gadda who can’t access her power. She got over that through her love for her husband Patrick, only to lose him a year after their son Jack was born.
So now Io’s got a precocious, fabulous eight-year-old son and she’s making her way in the world by taking on the very human profession of computer programmer. Sure, she’s a woman with needs and when she sends Jack to stay with his grandparents she gets those needs seen to, but she’s quite convinced that the life she’s built for just the two of them is the right one and she doesn’t want to mess with it.
Enter Stephen O’Malley. Ione tries hard to resist – really, she does. But what’s a girl supposed to do when her son’s away and she’s got the hottest guy she’s ever seen staying in her spare room?
Except Ione doesn’t count on Stephen capturing more than just her attention. And then she becomes the new focus of the people intent on changing the world of the gadda forever.
In book three (Rogue Gadda, due out July 2011), we spend time with the man who’s become a favourite amongst all the women who’ve read the series – Hampton Rourke.
He’s the Sabhamir, the protector of the gadda, the most dangerous man alive. He loves his job, but it’s really not the kind of life that you can share with someone. However, people have a way of getting into your life regardless…
Turning people’s worlds around on them and watching them deal with the consequences is one of the most fun aspects of writing.
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You can be one of the first people to read Power Unbound. I’m giving one lucky commenter a copy of it, AND Secret Ones. There’s your holiday reading there! So pop in and tell me a story about a time your life spun on itself, or your favourite fictional moment of that.
I’ll pick a winner next Wednesday December 8, so be sure to pop back then!
The first thing that comes to mind for me is when my husband (now ex) was working in another state and was coming back to get me and the girls and he came back long enough to tell me he'd met someone else, gave me $150 and left. I had 3 days to get out of the house we were renting, no job, no running car and two kids in school. That pretty much spun my life around. It all turned out for the good though in the end.
ReplyDeleteseriousreader at live dot com
Hi Nicole! I really like the summary of all three gadda books. Life does have a tendency to be like that.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's more a case of when has my life not been like that....I am still aspiring to have the sensation of my life not being twisted and turned everytime I think I can dare to sit down & go...yep, it's in order.
Definitely the year I eloped, got married, moved interstate, becoming pregnant completely against the odds (placing on permanent hold to travel/move o/s), buying a house & having a baby...well that was a rather large one. Had friends who got to the point of saying "What now..." rather than hello.
But, essentially, that is my life. I long for a routine existence...
Linda, so sorry to hear that - life's twist and turns aren't always a good thing or an exciting adventure, are they? Your last line suggests that you're now in a better place - I hope that's the case and that you never have to face something like that again.
ReplyDeleteNicky - wow! I have some friends like you, that dramatic things keep happening too. From time to time, I wish something dramatic would happen to me, then I decided that's a stupid thing to wish for :)
Linda and Nicky, wow! I don't have any life changing moments to rival those.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me reading about the trilogy is that for once ordinary life isn't being dismissed as boring. The characters are happy/content, then life changes. I think that makes for higher stakes. The initially unhappy character has less to lose. These women are having happiness (and lives more or less under their control) taken away from them. Nice conflict :)
Hey Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI think this is also the reason i love Romance so much. Just two people finding each other, whether they were looking or not....for lack of better words..it just rocks!
It's not really dramatic, but definitely life changing when i found out i was preggo the first time. i was not expecting (or planning) on a baby any time soon. Just remebering how i felt...i was now responsible for another life..it was awesome!
I love the sound of your books. Secret Ones is waiting patiently on my TBR pile to be read.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Nicky - my life has twists and turns with family health issues. It would be nice to be boring for once. :) The biggest twist for me personally was after years of struggling with CFS while working, I was no longer able to do it. It was like the body said 'ah ah, no way, no how'. It's been an interesting few years since then and I still struggle to pace myself. :)
Congrats on the soon to be released Power Unbound!!
oh, both books?! Now that would be awesome.
ReplyDeleteMy life turned around 7 years ago when my husband had a heart attack (from a blood clot) and he went from being okay to waiting for a heart transplant in 48 hours. He spent 31 days in the hospital. Our children were 7 and 2 at the time. 7 years later and you would never know it happened. They say he is the poster child for heart transplantion .
Wow - some amazing stories there. It's really inspiring to read this and realise the resilience of the human spirit.
ReplyDeleteJenny - I'm definitely all for the ordinary. There's cooking, packing, unpacking, doing dishes in amidst the action and magic and loveydovey :) Just like in real life. Except with uber-hot people :)
Practimom - I have nothing but admiration for mothers. Now THAT is a job and a half. One of the reasons that I made Ione a mum - I wanted to make sure that I showed a variety of women in different stages of their life.
Eleni - The body has a way of just stopping and saying 'Nup', doesn't it? My husband has chronic health problems and while he's going through a good patch at the moment, it gets valued and wrung for all it's worth cause who knows how long it will last.
Sharon - how fabulous that your husband is doing well. That must have been absolutely terrifying at the time - pleased that it's got a happy ending. :)
Hi Nicole :)
ReplyDeleteMy life spun on itself when I had undiagnosed bipolar disorder which caused me to lose my place, all my possessions, my job, etc. After hitting the lowest of the low, through medication, counselling, family & friends I am starting over.
All the best,
RKCharron
(PS - Nicole Murphy is on Twitter! She's @nicole_r_murphy)
RK Charron - I've done some articles on mental health, so have some small idea of some of the things you've been through. I have nothing but admiration that you're working to gain control of your life. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Nicole,
ReplyDeleteyour books sound great!!
I long for a 'normal' life (is there such a thing?) and I think where I am now is about as normal as I'm going to get!! (oh, LOL!!!!!!) But at least as writers we get to draw on our life experiences, good and bad =))
Mel, that is something to be said about a dramatic life - grist for the mill :)
ReplyDeleteIn the year that I turned six, my oldest brother was run over by a train and killed. I watched my other brother, then eight, splash lawn-mower petrol onto a fire he had made in the backyard and burst into flames. He lived, but still bears many scars, both externally and psychologically. As soon as he came out of a long stay in hospital, still bandaged and in pain, dad wanted to go on a planned holiday. Mum said my brother wasn't up to it, and that if dad went not to bother coming back. He went. She didn't let him come back. So in the year I was six, I went from being in a family of 5 to a family of 3, with a single mother with no income aside from government payments and a changed brother.
ReplyDeleteI am fine now, with a happy little family of my own. But that was the year my life was ripped apart and everything changed.
There have been several times when my life has spun on itself. The first was when, as a healthy thirty two year old with a toddler, I slipped on a something dropped on a step at work and ended up at the bottom of a staircase with a back injury which forced me to give up work permanently. The treatment resulted in my losing nearly half my stomach and left me with a debilitating digestive problem that I'm still suffering from more thirty years later.
ReplyDeleteThe second has been this last month in which my husband has been diagnosed with cancer and I have been diagnosed with macular degeneration. We'll get through it - we always do, don't we - but it means we're looking at a complete change of life yet again.
Well, the day that really turned my life around was the day I found my ex-boyfriend cheating on me. I loved him (still do, if I'm being honest with myself) but I dumped him and wouldn't talk to him for years (not that he really tried to talk to me...but that's a whole 'nother story).
ReplyDeletec4casey(at)comcast(dot)net
The day everything changed for me was when my fiancee decided to call off our wedding 2 months before the big day. We had just moved in to our new house, and he decided that things just didnt "feel right" - at least he didnt wait til the day of. Things turned out for the best, but it never ceases to amaze me how we think things should be but hardly ever are.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your thoughts guys - am impressed by your positivity and resilience.
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