Guest Post: On learning and growing from life experiences by Dela, and Giveaway

Guest Post: WHAT INSPIRED THE 52^ND

When I was 16 I moved to Mexico for a term. Upon traveling the ancient ruins I immediately fell in love with the indigenous history. I didn’t know it was inspiration to write a book. I only knew I wanted to share this magical place with the world, but how?

I put it to rest and finished high school, started college, got married, and then began a family. It wasn’t until driving home one day from an anniversary trip that two distinct characters came into my mind. It was clear as day what I was to do. I went home and began writing, having never written a story of this length before. Once I realized the amount of work it would have required to complete the job and be proud of it, I grew timid and stopped. A few months later I decided to go all in and finish the project. I did, and I am so glad that I did.

The first thing that inspired THE 52^ND were the two fantastic characters, Zara Moss and Lucas Castillo. Zara was this spunky, human girl and Lucas was this immortal Aztec prince. The pair’s dynamics wouldn’t come until the plot had further developed, which brings me to my second thing that inspired me—research. Though it proved entertaining to read all the detailed events of what happened in the early 1500’s, I was itching to get back to the writing. But I had to be patient. I took my time with the numerous books and would take note of certain details that intrigued me. Later I compiled my favorite things of history and created a plot, a plot that still had a lot of holes to be filled.

The third thing that inspired me for this novel was life experiences. These would be my ‘hole’ fillers. I would put on headphones and push play on a playlist I created. I would choose certain songs for certain scenes, merely trying to create the mood. It helped. In fact, it helped so much that during this time you could always catch me with a pair of headphones over my ears. At the same time I would have my senses keen to lookout for anything that would inspire the novel. Obviously travel was a life experience that gave me inspiration to write this whole novel! But also I watched people interacting with one another, the twins were inspired by my husband and his twin, and the hard decision of breaking away from tradition became something not only real in real life but on the page as well, which became the message of the story. I played with this message to mold a reason why Lucas acted the way he did toward Zara in the beginning. How many times are you angry, cold, or cautious when you are doing something you aren’t suppose to be doing but do it anyways because you know it’s right? It doesn’t mean that he’s a mean person, it just means he’s dealing with a lot internally. But people on the outside (and Zara) didn’t know this at the beginning. These emotions I believe to be real, and I used those life experiences to shape not only the plot but the characters as well.

To end, many life experiences, good and bad, should be used as a learning tool. Grow from them. And if you want to write a novel, let me know because I’d love to read it!

I hope you all enjoyed this post enough to want to read my debut novel, THE 52^ND. Be brave. Be daring. Be you.

xoxo,

Dela

Title: The 52nd

Author: Dela

On the tip of the Yucatan peninsula, the immortal Castillo family gathers in Tulum. Weary and haunted, they receive the names of fifty-two human sacrifices chosen once every fifty-two years for the Underworld, a tradition thought to have disappeared with the fall of the Aztec and Mayan empires.

Driving home one night, college freshman Zara Moss swerves to avoid hitting a ghastly figure in the road. Lucas Castillo witnesses the car crash, but when it comes time to supervise her abduction from the wreckage, he intervenes. Something is different about Zara: Lucas has been having dreams of her arrival for five hundred years.

As Lucas and Zara come together to put an end to the bloody sacrifices, they discover that the ancient tradition isn’t so easily broken. The gods are angry, and they have until the Winter Solstice to drag Zara to the Underworld.

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About the Author

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