Kidnapped Published May 11th 2012 by Desert Breeze Publishing
It's a late winter night when Patricia Risden heads home in her car, on a road she's driven many times before. She doesn't have a care in the world, that is, until a man appears from nowhere, right in front of her.
The next thing she knows is being a prisoner of the unscrupulous Alliance Commander Travis 152; an intimidating man who demands information and complete cooperation. Travis soon realizes his mistake; Tricia doesn't know anything, and she is incapable of even getting a glass of water from the ship's computer.
Infamous for being a ruthless executioner, conditioned since childhood to feel nothing besides fear and pain, he still deems her harmless, and finds enough pity for the lost young woman to let her out of the cell; a decision that will change both their lives forever.
Before I say anything else, a big Thank You for welcoming me to the blog. I am delighted to be here at Kindred Dreamheart!
Being a writer, I have a pretty good imagination that paints out vivid pictures of almost everything - except for names. I know what the people in my books look like, what they think and feel, what food they like, and the faces of their best friends when they grew up. I just don't know their names. I finish most of my books with the hero and heroine eloquently named X and Y, and when I finally think of something, I search and replace.
In my new book Kidnapped, the heroine went by a lot of different names. I started with Elizabeth, and it didn't work. Then, I tried Debbie and Carrie, but neither was completely right. I finally named her after one of my Facebook friends, Patricia, and everything fell into place. A name carries something of a character's personality, and it has to be just right.
I had the same problem with the main character of "The Goddess's Saga" - a series of scifi/romance novels. The heroine is based on a role-playing character that came alive on Myspace around 2007. Problem: her first name is the same as mine. I foresaw all sorts of problems with that, but every time I tried changing her name, her personality changed too. Weirdest thing! In the end, keeping the name and smiling gracefully when people say, "Oh, you would like to be an all powerful Goddess, wouldn't you," was easier than changing it.
I have the same problem with the books themselves. I usually take a large paper, coloured pens, and brainstorm. I google synonyms and toss the words around, and hopefully something not too bad comes out of it.
When it comes to Kidnapped, I toyed with the idea of calling it "Abducted." It might have been more appropriate since it is a science fiction book, but I associate that word with little green men doing unmentionable things to their captives. That's not what the book is about. It's about being lost, and finding both oneself and the way home.
About the Author
Born in Sweden in the early 1970's, Maria showed a large interest for books at an early age. Even before she was able to read or write, she made her mom staple papers together into booklets she filled with drawings of suns and planets. She proudly declared them, "The Sun Book." They were all about the sun. She also claimed, to her mother's horror, that her being on Earth was a big mistake and that her alien family would come and bring her home at any moment. This never happened, but both the interest in space and the passion for bookmaking stayed with her.
As an adult Maria's creativity got an outlet through playing bass in a number of rock bands, and through writing technical manuals and making web pages for various companies and organizations. She did write drafts for a few novels, but the storytelling muse was mostly satisfied through role playing online on Myspace.
It was here, while writing stories together with people from around the globe, she stumbled onto Mike. They started talking out of character, and she moved over to Florida to him late 2008. Today the two are married and live in the Tampa Bay area with three rescue dogs.
Besides writing and playing bass, Maria enjoys driving off-road, archery, and Tameshigiri.
Tour Courtesy of Bewitching Book Tours!
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