Inspiration in Her Dreams by Fiona McGier

MUSE MONDAY

How fun to have Fiona McGier on Discover... for Muse Monday. And let me clue you in: all of her books are on sale at Smashwords in July. I've also heard some are free. Leave a comment and ask her about them!

Hello, I’m Fiona McGier. Have you ever wondered how authors get the ideas for their books?

For me, the answer is often dreams--vivid and convincing dreams, which show me the story arc my characters want me to write. One time I dreamed of a brilliant Black female scientist doing research into the brain chemicals involved with intelligence. Once she succeeded, her boss sent her home with orders to tell no one. When she balked at that she became the target of murderers sent to silence her. The dream also had the Mayan prediction of the end of time in 2012 as part of the setting. I started to write Keesha Brown's story but got stalled during the second chapter, where I had to introduce a man for her. I was going to have him be a Native American doctor, but it just wasn’t flowing out of me. So, I put it aside. 

Months later I had another dream in which a tall, pale man with white-blond hair spoke directly to me. Never before or since has a character spoken so boldly to me like that. He told me I was having writer's block because I was giving Keesha the wrong hero--it had to be him. Then he smiled, showing me his fangs. "Oh no," I told him, "I don't write vampires. They're too overdone. There's nothing more to say about them." He shook his head, still grinning, and told me, "Research the Mayans." I woke up the next morning and did just that.

What I found was that the religious and public rituals of the Mayans all involved blood sacrifices. Leaders would pierce themselves in various places, many of them sensitive, intimate areas, to produce blood collected on paper or fabrics, or in urns, to be offered to the gods. I wondered why the Mayans regarded blood as life—then I remembered those fangs in that sexy blond guy's mouth and saw him nod at me. Of course! Vampires were the Mayan gods! 

I pulled the manuscript up, tossed out the second chapter, and the rest of Prophecy of the Mayan Undead wrote itself. My vampires are intelligent and articulate because they are the ones who have what it takes to survive eternity. We all think we want to live forever but in reality, life is precious because it's ephemeral. Anything taken for granted loses its value. My supporting vampire characters include a 700-year-old Spanish teenager who crossed the Atlantic with Columbus, and his chosen mate for the last two-hundred years, a Russian man forever in his early twenties. The hero is Yuri Kozakov, brought across in his late twenties by Rasputin in the waning days of the Romanov Empire. César has lived for centuries in the Yucatan Peninsula surrounded by ancient Mayan structures, supporting himself as many vampires do, by being a part of the supply chain of illegal drugs that have no effect on the eternal ones, but render their cattle more controllable. And all are working in various ways to support the return of the Mayan gods as predicted for December 21, 2012. 

Blurb: Keesha wants to find a way to increase the intelligence of humans to save the world. What she finds is the secret to eternity that comes from the stars, and a love that can save her. Ying never expected to discover her own humanity in the arms of an alien--he never expected to fall in love. Can they join forces with others on Earth to face the return of the Mayan aliens and save humanity? 

Excerpt:

Yuri is a Russian vampire who has been searching for years for someone to help him research what causes vampirism. He engineers a meeting to Keesha because he thinks with her intelligence, she can find his answers. Once he meets her, he is surprised to have his body respond to her generous curves, since he had thought himself to be "past all that". When she doesn't show up in the coffeehouse they had agreed to meet at, he goes to her apartment to find out why. When he finds evidence of a fight, he’s determined to find her.

         He quickly searched her apartment for anything that might give him any clue as to where she might have run to. Then he remembered the boyfriend.
     Of course. She’d have run there first. Now where is her computer? I can break into it and hopefully find an address or phone number for him.
     It didn’t take him long to find what he searched for. With one final look around, he promised the air that he would make someone pay for the damage done to her piece of mind.
     If she’s been harmed, I’ll tear the limbs off the persons responsible and laugh while they bleed to death.
     A few minutes later, Yuri scaled the side of the building Dan lived in, up to the penthouse. He stood on the balcony watching and listening as Dan made a phone call.
     “Is it done yet?”
     He listened, and then responded in a petulant voice.
     “You said it would be done already. I know you are just waiting until they call you to tell you it’s done. Every minute that she’s still alive is another minute she could find someone to believe her about what’s been going on. That would jeopardize the plan.”
     He listened again and then sighed heavily.
     “Fine. Just let me know when it’s done, all right?”
     Yuri felt the growl start somewhere deep inside of his soul. He watched until the perfidious boyfriend turned his back to the balcony to pour some brandy into a snifter. He didn’t have time to turn around before Yuri sank his teeth into his neck to sip the blood while he delicately sorted through the recent memories.
     Two men were pursuing her. They chased her for days. They found her today. They are driving her to a desolate place so they can kill her. She knows too much. We can’t let her ruin all these centuries of planning.
     With a start, Yuri broke off the contact to stare at the man who collapsed at his feet.
     Centuries of planning? He’s mortal and too young to have even seen a half a century. What is this all about?
     “Danny-boy? When are you coming back to bed?” Two naked blonde women stood in the doorway leading to what apparently was the bedroom. They stared in shock at Yuri standing over the object of their desire.
     Damn.
     Throwing himself across the room, Yuri grabbed a wrist of each of the girls and twisted, forcing them to kneel in front of him.
     “Look at me,” he commanded aloud, while exerting enough mental force to capture their minds but not to destroy them. He created the memory of watching as Dan collapsed while pouring himself the brandy. No one else was in the room.
     He let go of them both, then turned and walked back to the balcony. Determined, he gathered his strength and took a deep breath, then imagined himself riding the night breezes out of the city. And he did.Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/barA8x

But for the month of July, since I self-pubbed this book on Smashwords, it’s half-price, so $1.49, ONLY if you purchase it at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1023111

Author BIO:

I write romances that involve strong, independent women who don't mind casual flings, but who are not looking to fall in love. Enter the man who decides this is the woman for him. I think that how they ultimately both realize that they have found the one is the most interesting part of a romance. I read and review romance because, as I've told my long-time HEA, the only men I'll cheat on him with live in books. Some I write, some I read. And he's okay with that. Phew!

Website: www.fionamcgier.com  (1st page is my blog.)

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