I have always been an enthusiastic reader and a lover of words. My profession of teaching grammar,writing and language skills in English and Spanish was the perfect background for easing into a post-retirement career of writing. I love to tell stories that kids and adults would enjoy.
After writing a children’s series of adventure and fantasy books I tried my hand at writing a thriller: Edge of Escape. Emotionally impaired yet clever, Eddie obsesses over pretty Rebecca. He drugs her, abducts her and locks her away. She escapes, but that is part of his plan as he pretends to be her knight in shining armor. Will she accept his special devotion or reject his fragile love?For this book I wanted stalking to get a sympathetic twist, after all, my husband likes to tell me he’d be my stalker if I hadn’t paid attention to him.
Most of my characters, probably all, are based on people I know, especially in my children’s books. In Edge of Escape the characters were easy to develop since the former students I modeled them after were fresh in my mind; I had just had them in class for two semesters. Now, however, Eddie and Rebecca are more real to me than those students. All the time I was writing I felt sorry for Eddie. But at the same time I was rooting for Rebecca. I made her a strong female, not a helpless, screaming victim. I think we girls are tired of pathetic, clueless victims. Rebecca does makes some wrong choices but for the right reasons.
I challenge the reader quite a bit by moving back and forth between the past and present lives of the characters so you get an idea of what motivates each of them. For me the worst character is Eddie’s mother, who shaped his wretched life in a most pitiable way. I wanted to show how trauma, neglect, and abuse affected Eddie and hopefully make readers think about their own attitudes toward people we usually shun.
There are plenty of excerpts from all of my novels on myblog. Come visit me at http://www.edgeofescape.blogspot.com.Thanks for hosting me on this tour.
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Sounds like an interesting read. Thanks so much for hopping by WV Stitcher, I loved the dog in your avitar so much that I had to hop over and follow you back. I look forward to reading your reviews.