I began writing years ago because I wanted to emulate the stories I'd loved. Now in an age that seems to glorify everything fast, I'm a bit of a relic. I believe that great things take time (you know--Rome wasn't built in a day). I take my time as I write and edit as I go because after a decade of being an editor and English composition instructor I know of no other way. Much of the joy of writing for me comes in the choosing of the exact word that can deliver just what I want a character to express to affect the reader the most.
For me, books aren't just narratives of this character did this, so this character did that, and therefore this occurred. They're stories full of the bigger issues of life: love, hate, power, lust and sex, hopes and dreams. And these wondrous things all thinking and feeling beings experience are shown not through the telling of he did and she did, but through the slow unveiling of events and characters so the reader becomes a part of the story. As Stephen King has said, “Good books don't give up all their secrets at once.”
The idea for my first book came to me in a dream. I know that seems almost cliched, but it did. I woke up one morning after having an extremely vivid dream and began to jot things down that I was able to remember. Days later, I had the first pages written and the ideas that I had dreamed about had become the characters in my first book. Those characters are the basis for the first series I've written, The Destined Ones Series, about a people called Aeveren who have lived side by side with humans since almost the beginning of recorded time. The first book in that series, Stolen Destiny, was published in June 2011.
I'm still working on The Destined Ones books, and I look forward to what my imagination has waiting for me next. The second book about Aeveren, Destiny Redeemed, was released in October 2011. I've finished the Victorian Erotic Romance Trilogy, three erotic novellas set in Victorian England. The first one, Vampire Dreams, is a paranormal erotic romance. The second novella, another erotic romance but an historical, Love's Master, involves some light BDSM. The third novella, Masquerade, is a straight historical, no kink or paranormal but still a great story.
And now I've begun a new paranormal series called The Sons of Navarus series that begins with Blood Avenged. Anyone who read Vampire Dreams will remember Vasilije, Brandon's sire. Blood Avenged is his story. The second book in the series, Blood Betrayed, was released in May 2012, and this fall 2012 the third book, Blood Spirit, was released. I've even reworked the original Vampire Dreams to be an official prequel to the series, Vampire Dreams Revamped. As the series progresses, readers are drawn into the civil war between the Sons and the Archons who seek to take over the vampire world. It's a power struggle to the death, for only one side can win this battle.
The joy of storytelling isn't in the end result but the journey, not only for the writer but also for the reader. In a world that seems increasingly disposable, I work to create tales that find a home in readers' hearts and memories.
I love to hear from readers, so drop me a line at gabriellebisset@gmail.com