I’ve never written anything quite like Skies of Grey. I did
a stint with some embarrassing ghost writing when I first graduated from UTD,
and I’ve written gross and scary stories before, but nothing nearly this dark.
It’s interesting the things that influence you.
My grandmother passed away a few years ago and during that
time I couldn’t write worth a damn. I had several much lighter toned works in
progress, even if they didn’t all have traditional good guys. But for about two
months nothing worth reading came out. And then I wrote the first chapter of
Skies.
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I was experimenting with different voices, different
characters, and I had all of these horrible scenarios running through my head.
Nothing I tried made them stop and they kept getting in the way whenever I
tried to write my normal stuff. Or at least “normal” for me. T-bird and
Mortimer came first.
Mortimer was supposed to be a main character, but the more I
tried to write him as anything other than a sniveling weasel the more it didn’t
work. Somehow, and I’m still not sure how, T-bird beat down the doors of my
imagination and stormed in with chapter one and stayed consistent ever since. I
liked writing T-bird. She was violent and in control and dang did I ever want
to be those things. Winter and Reem came later, followed by Fleshchild and
Primo.
I know they say that characters are some sort of reflection
of the author’s mind and if so, then mine were born of my grief and anger and
everything vile that twisted around in my gut. I’m pretty sure Mimi, who loved
legal thrillers and Nora Roberts, would have been appalled. But also very
proud. She was an incredible woman, and our family gatherings and holidays
still have a hole she used to fill. We’re moving on—because that’s what life
makes you do—and writing this was instrumental for me doing that.
I hope that your reading experience is as enjoyable for you
as the writing was cathartic for me.
