Sometimes what you think is going to be a great idea for a novel turns out to be a whole lot of work! That’s what happens when you realize the idea you are now in the middle of isn’t going to work the way you thought it would. In THE CONSPIRACY, I got the idea for a book that started in Texas, moved to the Caribbean, and ended up in Venezuela. With all the trouble country is having, I thought it would be a great setting for a Romantic Thriller. Unfortunately, after I was well into the book and started doing the necessary research for that segment of the story, I realized the geography I needed and the rural setting didn’t exist in Venezuela. I I spent days digging around in South America, looking for a rainforest that could be reasonably reached from the Caribbean island of Aruba. Nothing worked. Finally, I realized there actually was spot that exactly fit the image in my head. (This happens to writers all the time. No one knows why.) The spot was in Colombia, a place I had no desire to write about, but fit the story exactly. So I went to…
As Knox sprinted across the frozen tundra, he summoned a thick cover of shadows. In seconds, total blackness shrouded him, hiding him—and Vale—from the view of others. “Can’t see,” she said, her teeth chattering. “So dark.” “You don’t need to see.” The urge to return to the prison and pick off survivors bombarded him, but his desire to save the little Terran proved stronger. One minute had ticked into another, more and more of her strength drained, until she stopped fighting entirely. She even lost her grip on her bag. Earlier she’d mentioned medicine. He doubled back, grabbed the pack and hefted it over his shoulder, but she offered no thanks. The feisty mortal had grown quiet, as well. At this rate, she would freeze to death before he reached his bunker. Rifters? He glanced at his right hand. Good to go. Rifters were made of a crystal-metal hybrid and resembled open-ended thimbles. They fit over the first, second and third fingers, and stretched from the nail bed to the middle knuckle. When you clinked them together, they vibrated. When they vibrated, you could wave them through the air to cut a doorway to somewhere else on Terra. You had…