I’m not quite sure how, but I have half of a draft of my next book. I only submitted the last one three weeks ago and I tried, I truly tried to take a break. But breaks are off now because my next book has reached the ‘entropy’ stage. It’s starting to settle into order. How do I know this? Because I’m seeing hamsas everywhere.
The heroine’s amazigh (Berber) grandmother was important to her childhood and a hamsa necklace has made a couple of appearances so far. To be honest, I only knew the rudiments of the symbolism of the hand before using it for what should have been a pretty minor point in the story. But the hero is Israeli. And the symbol unites them. I didn’t realise at first. Now I’m seeing hamsas on everything I’m researching, for both characters. I even visited a festival of African culture last week and there were hamsas everywhere. The world in the book is settling into my mind, as it often does at this stage.
This whole project has had a ‘fated mates’ vibe from the beginning. The characters and the romance are a good fit for the Mills and Boon Modern line and they announced they were having a Blitz promotion around the time I was developing the story idea, so I’ve planned it to their guidelines. Except the fated mates. It’s not a trope you see in this line. But it’s here in the story. It works well as a hint, as an ominous background hum, so I’m happy to downplay it for the sake of the guidelines. There are a lot of other sources of conflict (both of them have very screwed-up families and no desire for a relationship with each other).
I submitted the first chapter to the Blitz, so my Harlequin/Carina submission count is at three. Spin the wheel to see which one I hear back about first!
Leonie Mack 