Why, Lady, Why?

I’ve been working with my amazing beta readers the last few weeks, getting Return to Masonry polished and pristine for it’s release (two more weeks! Can you believe it??) And one of them asked me my absolute favorite question in the world: What inspired this story?

Honestly, I love questions like these. I put so much thought into the characters and the trials they face, that it tickles my heart and I get completely giddy when someone sees enough to ask for more.
SO, I wanted to share with you all the answer to that very loaded and complex question.

The characters of Return to Masonry are based on some very real people I’ve met.
Since high school, I’ve noticed how many broken people live in this universe. People who’ve been abused, people who’ve lived through something tragic, People that carry burdens so heavy you wouldn’t think they’d be able to stand up every day.

I have a friends who represent all these different types of brokenness, and I’ve met more in passing that bear those similar scars. And it makes my heart bleed seeing people full of so much potential feeling like they’re stuck where they are, and just trying to get from day to day.

But even more, I’m daily impressed by the strength and fortitude so many of them have. I’ve seen them come through astounding experiences. I’ve seen them stand up under tremendous loads and ask for more. I’ve seen them pick themselves up again and again, no matter what life throws at them. I wrote Masonry to honor those people; the scarred, the broken and the struggling.

    Alanor is someone who has been taught to settled for a life far less than she really deserves. She’s managed to drift through life expecting very little for herself, and in one instance is thrown into a world of extreme possibilities. She meets other people- broken, grieving, in pain- and is quite flummoxed by how all of them bear those burdens. And she’s faced continually with opportunities to change her own way of dealing with life.

I wrote Masonry to help show that you can be bigger than your circumstances. And that even when you are stuck with scars emotional or physical, you don’t have to let them define you. This story is simply about broken people, dealing with grief, fear, self doubt, self loathing, ignorance, etc.

    As for the setting, I had a lot of fun building the world of Basal, where Masonry takes place. I played with the scientific premise of adaptation and how a person’s environment can affect how they interact with the world, and I guess it just exploded from there!

Thank you so much to my team of beta readers, for helping me tell this story. Many thanks to bootpot Studios (www.bootpot94.deviantart.com) without whose brilliant concept and cover art I would have never seen how my characters came to life!

And of course, thank you to my Lovely, darling, amazing and wonderful readers, without whom, I would not be able to do what I do.

 

Coming February 14th

Want more? Grab Masonry: Tales and Lore of the Old Kingdom at Amazon or Barnes & Noble!