Guest Post by Author Jess C Scott

Inspiration Behind the Novel: The Other Side of Life


Thanks for hosting me today, Krystal!

SUMMARY (The Other Side of Life / Book #1, Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy):
A thieving duo’s world turns upside down when an Elven rogue uncovers the heinous dealings of a mega corporation.
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The Other Side of Life is the first book in my trilogy featuring cyberpunk elves (as of the time of this posting, I’ve completed a first draft of the second book...though it’s far from finished in terms of a final polished draft!).
The impetus to create the story was because I thought the concept of “cyberpunk elves” was a cool one (that’s really all there is to the “short version” of the inspiration behind this project).
Once I’d committed myself to creating some kind of story for the project (for the first book, at least), I began to see some of the potential difficulties with regards to plot development.
Because cyberpunk is set in the near future, it is usually set in a dystopian setting (with corporations and governments looming over every citizen’s thought, movement and action).
At the same time, I’m mostly an optimistic person at heart, and have always liked inspiring others to find some kind of lasting happiness and satisfaction in their lives too.
Relationships have always been on my mind since I was in my early to mid teens. Ididn’t have to go on many dates for the subject to be on my mind very often (astrologically-speaking, I have a Venus Scorpio in between the 7th and 8th houses -- Venus being the “planet of love”with the 7th house being the house of relationships).
Dystopian settings can make bringing in a love story very tricky (people are jaded; the two themes of dystopia and romance don’t exactly go naturally well together).
I think it’s that tension and conflict between the two themes that make it challenging and interesting/engaging to work with (a bit like the tension between balancing art and business, or any themes that are “opposite” in nature).
In both real life and fiction, I’ve stayed focused on taking a more serious than frivolous approach to love.
Sometimes,I think the world gets more and more dystopian the more “advanced”the human species becomes. The human spirit (which includes the fundamental themes of love and sex) is the only thing that gives a glimmer of hope with regards to fighting the all-pervasive corporate and/or governmental control over society.
That’sone of the key focuses of the project (as relayed through the romantic slant in the plot), one that I will “take my time” to get right as best I can, for a story/message that can be remembered.
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Jess is a professional non-conformist with a fresh, youthful world view.She is an author of relationship-based erotic fiction (and other unique projects, including a series that features “cyberpunk elventhieves”). She’s cool, supportive, and writes with both intellect and a lot of emotion.
She has most recently co-authored Teen Guide to Sex and Relationships with Matt Posner (Spring 2012). For more info, please visit http://jessink.com/teenguide.htm
Jess can also be found on jessINK, Facebook, and Twitter.