I've Got Secrets-And I'm Keeping Them!

by Fae Rowen

I have a friend whose birthday is the Fourth of July. It must be tough growing up, thinking that the fireworks are for your birthday.

At least, that's what he'd believed as a kid. Wouldn't you?

As for my secrets, well, as my friends will tell you, I have plenty in my checkered past. But I'm tight-lipped with them. My best friends are golden. They've been to hell and back with me. But none of them know all of my secrets. (That's what therapy is for!)

They know certain ones, on a need to know basis. I'm not one of those people who loves to share my past. Not that I am ashamed of it. It's just over. When I received awards in school, I gave them to my parents for safe-keeping, with the understanding they would not be displayed, and moved on. There were more mountains to climb, figuratively.

The problem is, I don't know when my cover slips and I expose some of my self in a book. When one of my best friend's housemate read my first book, she said that she'd never known someone who'd written a book, so she had no frame of reference, but she would have known I'd written that book because it was all about me. She's a librarian! Really? She sees me as a girl who flies skimmers and lives with a tiger?

I know a lot of authors leave personal surprises (in the gaming world they're called "Easter eggs") for their readers. That must be cool to do and cool for the reader to find them and know what they mean.

Nobody has ever accused me of being cool.

As much as I don't share specific information, I do realize that if you know me well enough, you know certain things about me. I've written five fiction books. Looking back at them, they all share character traits that, for better or worse, parallel my own personality and beliefs.

The female characters are fiercely independent. Smart. Capable. Fighters.

My mother said that once I learned to say the word no, I wouldn't let anyone help me do anything. I wanted to do it myself, even if I couldn't, got frustrated, and cried. I graduated from college in three years with two degrees, going on in two years to be a department head in a "man's profession." Did I mention I got a brown black in judo, while studying aikido and saber?

Heck, I just write what I know. Isn't that what new writers are told?

I'm revising my fifth book for release in October. It's the second in my YA series, PRISM. The characters must deal with past lies and deceptions, odds not in their favor, and the lack of weapons equal to those of the mercenaries they're fighting.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay 

Who of us haven't had to deal with lies and deception of people from our past, or even our own lies coming back to bite us in uncomfortable locations? Who hasn't had to come from behind in a contest or compete against someone with a better resume or experience? Now, I admit I've never had to use weapons to defend my life, and I've certainly never had to engage in warfare with mercenaries to escape slavery, but if we take artistic license and think metaphorically, well, maybe…

So, yes, I have secrets. Am I going to tell you about the day I showed up at my first job without zipping my miniskirt? Of course not? (Oops!) But could that happen to a character? Yep. Am I ready to cop to what is my personal experience in an interview? Not yet. As my husband says when I ask him questions he doesn't want to answer, "Leave that chapter out and make it a mystery."

ABOUT FAE

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes that she can live anywhere but the present. As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

  P.R.I.S.M., Fae's debut book, a young adult science fiction romance story of survival, betrayal, resolve, deceit, and love is now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Fae's second book in the series — PRISM: Rebellion —will be available for pre-order October 1, 2019.