Sunday, May 6, 2012

How James Cameron Changed My Life

Fifteen years ago a little movie came out, you may have heard of it. It was called Titanic. It was James Cameron's triumph, leading to thirteen Oscars for the film and three of those for him specifically. So how did he change my life? 

Outside of introducing me to the bittersweet ending, he cemented a budding friendship into the kind of sisterhood I never had with my own sisters with Missy Goodman. We were writing partners, first a book where  I was writing with a monetary goal in mind. I'll be honest me and the romance genre have an interesting history. I kind of looked down on it whereas Missy loved it. But Titanic was nothing if not an epic romantic story.Technically a not a romance, as they don't end up together but the movie is classified as a romantic drama.

Missy and I embarked upon a writing partnership and on a lark started writing screenplays. Our story, one of twins Ariel and Adriana Stuart, daughters of mob boss Gerald Stuart and his wife has been with us for fifteen years has taken many forms over the years. In its most wip progress it's a novel.

What James Cameron did for me made me dare to dream that impossible dreams are possible. They may not be guaranteed but if you work at it they're possible. And here is an excerpt from my e-book Another Way To Die. What is your story of inspiration? I'm curious to know. Leave a comment and I'll be sure to try and answer all of you. Meanwhile, enjoy the story :)


Blurb:
Almira Sands has been running all her life from her abusive father Jack. She knows one day the running will end and only she or her father will be left standing. What she doesn’t expect is to be kidnapped by Daniel Logan.
Daniel Logan is a mercenary who only intended to use Almira long enough to get to safety, but when she takes a bullet and almost dies he finds himself questioning who he is and what he does and saves her life.
On the run and falling in love they are forced to decide: a life on the run together, or face her father, the man who has the power to separate them forever.
Excerpt:
I felt his hand tapping on my face and heard his voice coming from what seemed like a million miles away. “Almira. Almira, wake up.”
My eyes slid open for a moment and I saw him as he was. Older, stronger, maybe crazier for helping me now than he had been then. My eyes drifted closed. I was back in the past with him carrying me out of my father’s estate and into his waiting car. I was so doped up on pills and heroin at the time I couldn’t think beyond ‘help me get out of here.’
Then Daniel’s voice called again, this time from the present day. “Don’t you dare die on me! Not now. Not after all of this.”
My eyes opened again, and he was standing over me. I managed to scan the room and saw a beautiful woman preparing to work on me.
“If you fail her, I’ll come looking for you.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Danny. You know I do good work. If I didn’t, you wouldn’t have called me in on this.”
I gazed up at Daniel and said raggedly, “Yeah, Daniel, don’t be so dramatic.”
His head jerked downward and he took my hand; images of our brief time together flooded me: him carrying me… throwing me in the shower... of us naked in the shower, making love. Suddenly I felt hot all over—well, as hot as can be under the circumstances.
“Daniel, don’t go…” I murmured. Daniel let go and pulled up a chair, lighting a cigarette.
“I’m giving you something for the pain but it’s still going to hurt. Put that out,” Jasmine said as she worked over me, digging out the bullets; the pain was mind numbing. Tears rolled down my cheeks as he took my hand again and I crushed it.
With each dig into my body to retrieve those goddamn bullets, memories flooded my head. The night Daniel and I spent together surfaced. Suddenly I felt at peace…
“I’m losing her, Daniel.” Jasmine’s voice sounded like a faint echo.
“Stay with me, kiddo, stay with me.”
I opened my eyes but I wasn’t in the present. I was in another time, another place. I felt hands pressing down on my chest. Air rushed down into my lungs.
“Save her damn it!” Danny’s voice was so like it had been all those years ago.
I could see us that night as we made love. Hear his voice. “You don’t know what kind of man I am,” he’d said.
I’d known exactly what kind of man he was then.
His mouth captured mine. His air breathed life into me, desperately pulling me back from the brink.
I opened my eyes, coughing and sucking in air as he held onto my face, his gaze burning into me, reminding me of why I had slept with him in the first place. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” he said. “Do you understand me?”
“Is she gone?”
He looked up toward Jasmine. “No.”
“Then get her the hell out of here because I don’t trust her.”
“Ungrateful bitch.”
Daniel leaned back. Before he could stop me, my hand shot up and I nailed her in the mouth with a hard sucker punch.
“Crazy—”
Daniel stood up. “I suggest you choose your next words very carefully,” he warned her.
My eyes slid shut. I heard a door slam, and before I lost consciousness completely, I heard a faint whisper. “This time I refuse to let you go.”

2 comments:

Debby said...

wow, sounds amazing! One to add to my list.
debby236 at gmail dot com

Unknown said...

Thank you, I have one releasing in June as well called GLADIATOR. And another one later in the year BOUNTY HUNTER.