June 14, 2021
GIVEAWAY – The Blood Will Dry CLOSED
Week 25 – The Blood Will Dry
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Release Date: August 15, 2017
Cover Design: Kate L. Mary
Formats: ebook, audiobook, and paperback – grab the ebook for just $0.99!
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This week I’m going to tell you all about writing The Blood Will Dry and I’m so excited! I love this book, you guys. It’s such a cool world and was so much fun to create and I would love to write more about stories that take place in it.
I got the title for this book from a song by Skylar Grey called Coming Home, Pt. II and it’s actually the first line in the song:
“And the blood will dry underneath my nails, and the wind will rise up to fill my sails…”
I don’t really remember the exact thought process around why I chose that title except that something about the line in the song really spoke to me. It also seemed in line with the idea I already had for the beginning of a book and the character it wold create. ***Spoiler*** If you haven’t read The Blood Will Dry yet and don’t want any spoilers, jump to the next paragraph because I’m about to talk about why that line really works for Diana, my main character in this book. If you have read it, you know the first chapter takes place on day one of an alien invasion when the heroine of the book is out with her husband and baby daughter, which ultimately leads to their deaths. When I started writing this book, this was the only clear idea I had. A woman whose life is shaken nearly to destruction when she is forced to witness the two people she loves the most in the world die. I remember imagining a mall exploding in front of her, and I knew I wanted it to be a result of an alien invasion, but those were the only ideas I had. If you read a lot of my books, you know I love damaged characters with a lot of baggage, and I knew something like this could create a very cool, layered character.
The second chapter picks up five years into the apocalypse in a nearly unrecognizable Dayton, Ohio. This is the second book I set in the Dayton area – the first was Collision – and as you know, I did it because I’m from the area. (I’d just moved back to Ohio when I wrote this – had only been back in the area for a few months.) At this point in the story, the planet has been thoroughly terraformed by the aliens. That was really the most enjoyable thing about creating this world. Describing all the alien plant life and how it came to be. It all came out of me organically as I wrote. I didn’t plan any of it ahead of time, didn’t have any mental pictures of what it should look like. I just wrote and it developed as I did, and the result is pretty cool. Next time I write a book in this world I’m going to start at the beginning so the reader can see the world change as the character does, because I think that would be a very cool story to write.
This book is a little more heavy on the romance than some of my others since it has Diana not only trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, but also trying to heal, but it’s not so heavy that it can be described as purely romance. There’s a lot of action in it, and a lot of creepy alien encounters as well, which makes for a fun sci-fi read.
I’ve created a lot of worlds at this point, and while this one isn’t my favorite overall, it’s definitely up there because it’s so different and creepy.
