Whenever Iโm at a book event, one question seems to spring up: Where do you
get
ideas for your books? Inspiration comes in various waysโa song on the radio,
a
current news story, or just while chilling with friends and family. The idea
for
Touching Fate came from seeds planted in my past, fertilized with moments
and
connections in the present, until they bloomed into a story.
Iโve always been fascinated with the supernatural, with ghosts and witches,
with
sรฉances and tarot cards. I first encountered a sรฉance as a young girl when
my
siblings and the neighbor kids piled into our shed. The doors closed, the
lights
off, weโd call for Jessie James and Lizzy Borden to show themselves. Noises
in a
shed tend to be louder in the dark, but we all swore we heard a woman moan.
We tore
out of that shed so fast, screaming and flailing our arms. It was such a
rush.
A few years after the sรฉance, a friend bought a deck of tarot cards at a
yard sale
for fifty cents. Not knowing how to read the cards, sheโd have us each pick
one.
That single card, determined our fate. I pulled one with a woman in bed
burying her
face in her hands with nine swords over her head. My friend said I would die
in bed
after nine men stabbed me. Her interpretations were a little morbid. A boy,
who
drew the Death card, freaked out and told his mother. My friendโs mother
took the
tarot deck from her and grounded her for a week.
Down the street from another close friendโs house, lived an old woman, bent
over
and crooked from arthritis. Weโd walk by her house and sheโd snap at us to
be quiet
and to stop our laughing. Pointing at us, she would grumble that we were
disturbing
her rose bushes. She was so scary. My friend insisted she was a witch and
had just
placed a curse on us.
Recently, I attended a book convention in New Orleans and had my tarot cards
read
in Jackson Square. The reader didnโt look like the stereotypical image I had
burned
in my mind. She was pretty, with long blond hair, and stylishly dressed. The
reading was fascinating. So far, three out of the four predications she made
for me
has happened. Iโm crossing my fingers hard for the fourth one. Itโs a
biggie. This
reading gave me the spark for a story.
A few months later, I attended my publisherโs conference in Las Vegas. There
were
brainstorming sessions and an idea hit me. A story bloomed, mingling with my
recent
encounter with the tarot reader and memories of my past. It haunted me the
entire
conference. I had to tell this story. My writer friends helped me hash out a
plot
while in the hotel elevator, and I couldnโt wait to write it.
Ideas grow from tidbits of the past, from something as simple as a turn of
phrase,
from lyrics of a song, from a coffee table book filled with the worldโs most
beautiful libraries, and just from witnessing the lives of others around
you.
Stories whisper in your ear like a ghost in a darken shed, and if you donโt
listen
and grab the idea, it will be lost in the flip of a card.
And thatโs how
TOUCHING FATE came to life. It's a story filled with
romance,
betrayal, curses, fates, friendships, and family bonds, with a touch of
magic. I am
currently working on book two in
The
Fated Series,
CURSING FATE.
Brenda Drake grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force
brat, and
the continual new kid at school. Her fondest memories growing up is of her
eccentric, Irish grandmotherโs animated tales, which gave her a strong love
for
storytelling. With girls of all ages populating Brendaโs world, it was only
fitting
that she would choose to write stories with a bend toward the fantastical
for both
younger readers and the young at heart. And because she married her prince
charming, thereโs always a romance warming the pages. Her favorite books are
The
Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe by
C.S. Lewis, Kings Row by Henry Bellamann, and Anna and the French Kiss by
Stephanie
Perkins.
When sheโs not writing, she hosts workshops and contests for writers such as
Pitch
Wars and Pitch Madness on her blog, and holds Twitter pitch parties on the
hashtag,
#PitMad. In her free time, Brenda enjoys hanging out with her family,
cuddling
their two cats, and chasing their ferret around the house, or haunting
libraries,
bookstores, and coffee shops, or just reading someplace quiet and not at all
exotic
(much to her disappointment).
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One touch is all it takes...
Aster Layne believes in physics, not psychics. A tarot card reading on the
Ocean
City Boardwalk should have been a ridiculous, just-for-fun thing. It wasn't.
Aster
discovers she has a very unscientific gift-with a simple touch of the cards,
she
can change a person's fate.
Reese Van Buren is cursed. Like the kind of old-school, centuries-old curse
that
runs in royal families. Every firstborn son is doomed to die on his
eighteenth
birthday-and Reese's is coming up fast. Bummer. He tries to distract himself
from
his inevitable death...only to find the one person who can save him.
Aster doesn't know that the hot Dutch guy she's just met needs her help-or
that
he's about to die.
But worst of all...she doesn't know that her new gift comes with dark, dark
consequences that can harm everyone she loves.
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