Hello! 48 and I've been writing since I was a child. It's been my life. I can't even tell you how many books I have on the "back burner" while writing the completed ones that I've never published (thank you, social anxiety!).
For the longest time, my proudest was a 3 part saga delving into my Scandinavian heritage and involved the Norse pantheon. I was Asatru for a while, even. If you have any questions about that mythology or culture, just ask!
I recently wrote a C-Drama style novel that pushed that Norse aside in my heart. I never in a million years thought that would happen, but this book just begged to be written. It wouldn't let me go and I worked day and night on it.
I even cried writing and reading the last chapter and epilogue because I didn't want to let my characters go. Not in a plot way, it has a happy ending, but meaning I was so invested in their creation and story that it hurt not writing about them anymore. Does that sound crazy? I promise, I'm only crazy enough to get through the day! š¤Ŗ
I put in a lot of research to get everything historically accurate, even contacting Chinese content creators on YouTube.
The black butterfly started it all. I was fairly new to C-Dramas last year, so I didn't know they tend to have terribly depressing endings. The Wolf came out and I was all for it! Then, it took a turn from fun into devastating. I decided to check out the last episode before I continued. I don't want to post any spoilers. I'll just say that yellow butterflies are the harbingers of death and despair! I couldn't keep from crying as I described it to my daughter (20), who got me into the K-Drama and C-Drama genres.
After THAT heart-wrenching fiasco and giving up on so many with drawn-out angsty concubine/obsessed women/queen mother episodes that only pulls the viewer away from the main plot, my daughter told me I need to write my own without all that pain and drama.
Cue: Traumatic yellow butterfly memories.
I said, "If I do write one, there will be NO scheming concubines, NO abusive and controlling queen mothers, NO stalkery exes who can't take no for an answer (even after 20 episodes of the male lead saying, "GO AWAY!"), and there will be NO yellow butterflies!"
And so .. a novel was born. It isn't boring without the drama. There's definitely drama in there, but it's mingled with war and spies and a pretty demented bad guy/clan. Romance takes up most of the first 20 chapters. After that, it's kind of all mayhem, chaos, and one disaster after another for the female and male leads.
Please check out the prologue and if you like it, let me know! If you don't, you can let me know that, too. I promise not to send a swarm of yellow butterflies to your house!