The Secret to Writer’s Block: Misfit Inspiration - Guest Post E.B. Roshan
Real-Life Inspiration for Speculative Suspense
Over the course of the last few months I interpreted for a young woman (I'll call her Sonya) during various medical appointments related to pregnancy and dental problems. While volunteering as an interpreter is nothing unusual for me, this particular situation was different.
For one thing, even though Sonya had moved to my home state, I'd moved to the Northeast, so my conversations with Sonya and her various doctors all had to happen over the phone. For another, my mother (who doesn't speak Sonya's language) was often the one driving her to appointments. Add to the mix heavy Southern accents, medical staff unfamiliar with some aspects of Sonya's home culture, and multiple shots of Novicaine to the mouth—did I mention the dental problems? and you can imagine why this interpretation experience was unique.
Sometimes life truly is as strange as fiction.
Since returning to live in the United States after spending several years in Asia, I have had the opportunity to serve many refugees and displaced people, some from the regions where I used to live. It's one of the things I am deeply passionate about.
Just a few years later, when I found myself spending more time at home with two small children, I began to write, and those early stories gradually developed into Shards of Sevia, an ongoing Speculative/Romantic Suspense series. Not surprisingly, themes of loss, ethnic tension and war are woven throughout the series, along with the challenges of cross-cultural communication. One of the main characters in the series cares for a baby who lost his family in the conflict. Another is an interpreter for displaced people. Still another risks his family business to employ workers from the ethnic minority who are being discriminated against.
Sevia, the Southeast European country where the Shards of Sevia series is set, is fictional. (Sorry, curious readers, there is no Republic of Sevia on the Eastern coast of the Black Sea, nor has there ever been, to my knowledge.) However, Sevia feels real, because the struggles the characters face as they are driven from their homes, forced into camps, beaten up for their attempts to help, are real. Even the worst events in the series are easily surpassed by the nightmarish experiences of people I know personally.
However, Shards of Sevia is not all doom and gloom. Because it's a romance series, the theme of enduring love trumps all the others, and brings hope into even the darkest moments. The three couples the series follows—Boris and Anna (from the ethnic majority) Kiva and Preen (from the ethnic minority) and Radoslav and Dunya (the cross-cultural lovers)—will all get a happy ending to their stories.
I'd be pleased if readers of the Shards of Sevia series find themselves so caught up in the joys and struggles of the characters that they don't want to put the books down. But when they do, I'd be thrilled if reading Shards of Sevia has inspired them to leave their comfort zones and offer a friendly hand and a listening ear to the most recently-arrived members of our society.
Want to learn more about the author or the Shards of Sevia?
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20265632.E_B_Roshan
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/e-b-roshan
Series Website/Writing Blog: https://shardsofsevia.wordpress.com
Goodreads Book Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61969667-judgment-call
I hope that these ideas help you to break through!
Disclaimer: This post is exclusively the words and views of the guest blogger and do not necessarily represent the views of Heather L. Barksdale. The story featured has not been read or reviewed by Heather’s bookshelf.
Still getting writer’s block? Tell me how I can help!
