Manic Monday with Jacqueline Paige

Hi folks, today on Manic Monday, I’ve got Jacqueline Paige dishing about her writing. Jacqueline is a world class multi-tasker. She is a mother to five adventurous and unpredictable children, a cafe manager and a colossal imagination that allows her to step outside of reality into a world of paranormal romance with just a touch of suspense. Her first book was published in 2009 and since then has published six, with the most recent being Twice Cursed.

So without further adieu, here’s Jacqueline…

Thanks for having me here today! Mondays are my ‘insane’ days in the real world and make me wish I could just camp out somewhere in cyberspace and pretend there aren’t any Mondays in that world.

My opening just gave me the answer to what I will post about today. (up until twenty words ago I had no idea)  Creating a world inside your story, that works.

When I first began to write I kept to the safe places that shadowed the everyday world we walk in. After the first book I sat back and thought ‘bleh!’ It was boring and so normal it made me itch. I don’t read stories like that, so I really wasn’t comfortable writing them either. I loosened the reins on my muse a little bit, just to see where she would take me and before I long I found my characters inside a world that appeared to be just like the one I live in, but with so much more.

That’s when the real work began. The idea of creating my own little world for my characters wasn’t as easy as I first thought it would be. For every aspect I created in this fantasy world I had to make sure I jotted it down, otherwise somewhere along the way I’d break the rules already established. More often then I like to admit I had to back track and rethink the rules so I could find an acceptable reason why a character is suddenly allowed to do something.

I suppose it’s similar to the vampire twist in the various popular movies/shows right now. In twilight the vampires can go in the sun, they’re just a little on the sparkly side if they do — with vampire Diaries, charmed jewellery is the solution to some being able to step in sunlight and some not.

I ran into so many plotting issues with the magical community I created in Twice Cursed I actually had to sit down with a notebook and find those rules so it made sense. For example the method of travel my witches use in the book, similar to portals, I had to figure out how they could just end up where they wanted to and have rules so it wasn’t too easy (easy = boring). I encountered the same thing when it came to the actual curses in the story. Why were they created? How were they created? What happened if they weren’t broke or solved? What would break them? How? The questions were just endless.

Even though it’s more work than others may realize, any time I find myself needing to escape the real world, I create my own for characters to live in.

Thanks again for having me ramble here today!!

Thank you for swinging in! Here’s a quick look at Twice Cursed:

Maddy is the oldest witchling to ever attend the Hidden Cove Academy, having been cursed as a teen; she’s forced to have a solitary life outside of her own magical community. With her magic so dangerously unpredictable, she rarely takes the chance on mixing with the general public.

From one harmless trip to a museum, she finds herself spellbound yet again by an invisible boundary, caused by a three hundred year old curse, dictating that Maddy must stay close to the stunningly sexy Colin.

Being stuck with a tall, dark, incredibly lick-able stranger can’t be all that bad, right? Until they discover if they get too close the spirits bound with the curse will take over their bodies ... at the same time, if they’re too far from one another the curse will kill them both.

Will the curse's secrets be unravelled in time or does certain death await them both?


Folks, you can find out more about Jacqueline at the following places:

http://jacqpaige.webs.com/

http://jacqpaige.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jacqueline-Paige/1055083410

http://twitter.com/JacqPaige