Immortality

What is it about immortality that fascinates us so much?

Paranormal romances are full of immortal characters, be they vampires who ‘live’ on after death, demons, angels, and other beings from spiritual dimensions who take human form, or other characters who gain immortality during a story from touching artifacts, spells, or other different intriguing ways.

For me, part of the appeal is that these characters have lived through experiences that we can hardly begin to imagine. They have seen great moments in history, suffered through the brutality of past ages, and in the process may have gained insight and knowledge we, in our short human lives, can only aspire to. Many have also undergone great suffering that has shaped them into tormented souls. And I love a wounded hero.

One of the biggest issues of course is the immortal character who falls in love with a short-lived human. That provides wonderful relationship conflict to overcome.

I have a few immortal characters in my Magic Knot series and I love the extra dimension of conflict they bring to the series.

What do you think about immortal characters? Appealing or not?

www.helenscotttaylor.com

Synopsis Hell

I love every aspect of writing fiction except one. I’ll give you one guess as to what that is. Okay, so the title of the blog gave away my weakness. When a synopsis is complete and my critique partners have given it the thumbs up, I forget what an effort it is to distil into a few pages the salient points of a story that comprises thousands of words. I suppose my mind blocks out the pain in the same way it did after having each baby. Otherwise, I’d never submit myself to the experience again.

But I’m pleased to say I’ve wrestled the latest synopsis into submission and it’s almost ready to go out the door.

My husband’s theory is that writing a synopsis is a left-brain activity, so it’s obviously too organised and methodical for me. Anyone who’s seen my desk knows I’m neither organised nor methodical!

Helen Scott Taylor writes adventure-fantasy romance. Find out more at www.helenscotttaylor.com