When you write paranormal romance, people talk about the world of your stories.
“A paranormal world that moves with the rhythm of the waves of the tide.” – Suzanne Brockmann
“A breathtaking new world.” - Lora Leigh
“A haunting new world of passion and danger.” - Nalini Singh
Which is wonderful! Except then you run the risk that people will actually ask you about your world building. I get asked, and I laugh. Actually, I cough nervously and try to pass it off as laughter.
I read books, published books, books I admire, with glossaries, charts, character notes, and prologues that set up these imaginatively conceived and beautifully executed worlds.
And that’s just the finished product. Talk to the authors, and they’ll tell you that in the writing stages they create even more elaborate lists, fact sheets, family trees, species traits, and special powers that would make a dungeon master drool. (“My hero is a fourth level Paladin with a Sword of Light and the ability to see in the dark when the moon is full.” Or whatever.)
All those charts and lists and notebooks are positively inspirational. Except…I don’t do them.
My story pitches to my editor go something like this:
ME: So, I thought I’d do this police chief on an island in Maine, okay? And he’s on the beach and he finds this beautiful naked woman who’s been attacked.
EDITOR: You want to write another romantic suspense.
ME: Um…No. Not exactly. I was thinking maybe the woman—the victim, you know?—I was wondering what would happen if she weren’t human.
EDITOR: Okay. What is she?
ME: Well, there are these Celtic folk legends about the selkie…
EDITOR: The what?
ME: Immortal beings who take the form of seals in the sea and take off their pelts to come ashore as beautiful naked men and women.
EDITOR: Naked is good.
ME: Yeah. So anyway, I thought maybe the heroine—Margred—would be selkie.
EDITOR: Your heroine is a seal.
ME: Well. Sort of. Except she comes ashore as a human for sex.
EDITOR: Sex is good.
ME: Usually.
EDITOR: So where does she live when she’s not on shore?
ME: I’m not sure.
EDITOR: Who attacked her?
ME: I don’t know yet. But I think it may be another elemental who wants to pin the blame on humankind.
EDITOR: Go for it.
Every detail, every plot twist, every complication after that, is driven by the characters and their situations.
I do try to incorporate as much original source material as I can. In Children of the Sea, I used the Orkney ballads of the selkie
http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/sulesk.htm(“I am a man upon the land; I am a selchie on the sea”)
and structured the trilogy around an old sea shanty, “The Keeper of the Eddystone Light.”
http://home.comcast.net/~debee2/NNNS/Eddystone.html(“of this union there came three…”)
Obviously, since all the details grow organically out of a basic premise—and then I’m stuck with them later on!--I try to keep things simple. As the characters and the series go on, however, new layers, new complications, and new dangers develop. And I wouldn’t have it any other way! In Sea Lord (May 2009), the underlying reason for the attack in Sea Witch (July 2008) is revealed. Who knew? And the prophecy in Sea Fever (August 2008) has a new and devastating twist.
I hope readers enjoy discovering the world of the children of the sea along with me.
Virginia Kantra
*Leave a comment for your chance to win a signed copy of SEA FEVER, Virginia's 2nd release in her Children of the Sea series. *
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