Friday Guest Post: Mertianna Georgia

Mertianna Georgia Interview Intro:

Mertianna currently lives with her husband, son, and three dogs in Northern California. At a young age, while traveling the globe with her military family, she discovered the joys of reading. Armed with a fascination for science fiction, the paranormal, and fantasy, she amused, shocked, and impressed her teachers with her imaginative stories.

As an adult, reality reared its head, and she joined the business workforce. After many years working as a professional manager while secretly wishing she was a writer, she took a detour from the corporate world to immerse herself in the fictional worlds of her own making.

She has accumulated multiple graduate degrees in business and survived years of doctoral studies in psychology, all of which undoubtedly has influenced how her characters behave or don’t behave as the case may be.

Mertianna is the proud creator of the SYNEMANCER series which currently consists of 1 book - “Syn in the City”.   She is currently working on another SYNEMANCER story, “Angel of Syn”.

For those of you new to Mertianna’s work, we thought we’d give you the book synopses for the books to get you up to speed…

“Syn in the City, SYNEMANCER #1

Cara Augustine came from a long line of powerful witches, but her powers didn't manifest until she celebrated her 21st birthday with her cousins Evika and Sonya in San Francisco. To Cara's horror, she awakens the next morning in bed with a dead stranger and Evika is missing. As Cara searches for her missing cousin, her powers spin her life wildly out of control.

“Angel of Syn”, SYNEMANCER #2:

Coming in 2012

Cara Augustine still has men issues but now the supernatural police are after her for breaking a major Covenant. When she accidentally made a werewolf her familiar, it amounted to enslaving a human — the penalty? Death.  Throw in a power-mad French werewolf, a half-angel/half-witch bodyguard who’s obsessed with her, and getting trapped in a strange mirror dimension and you have Cara’s out-of-control life since becoming a Synemancer.

Story ideas.  Where do they come from?  I often have people say to me “how to think this stuff up?”  I’d like to believe it’s in a good way, but you never know.  I enjoy writing short stories.  They allow me to explore different ideas and different genres without having to commit to a full-blown novel.  I write fantasy, mystery, romance, and other types of short stories.

Where do story ideas come from?  For me they come from asking “What If?”  For my short story in “Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft” I took as inspiration one of Aesop’s Fables, you know the guy who wrote all those little morality tales? 

One of his Fables, called the Cat Maiden involved the gods disputing whether it was possible for a living being to change its nature.  Jupiter said "Yes," but Venus said "No." So, to try the question, Jupiter turned a Cat into a Maiden, and gave her to a young man for a wife. The wedding was duly performed and the young couple sat down to the wedding-feast. 

"See," said Jupiter, to Venus, "how becomingly she behaves. Who could tell that yesterday she was but a Cat? Surely her nature is changed?" "Wait a minute," replied Venus, and let loose a mouse into the room. No sooner did the bride see this than she jumped up from her seat and tried to pounce upon the mouse. "Ah, you see," said Venus: Moral of Aesops Fable: Nature will out

So I asked myself, what if this story had a twist?  What if a crippled young man saved a kitten from bullies? What if he had a magical legacy that could only be his if he got married?  What if none of the women in his village could marry him?  Bring in a kind-hearted sorcerer and witch who tried to turn the cat into a maiden?  But then the same bullies who tried to kill the kitten started to be killed by a wild animal?  Well I won’t give away anything else, but the story took on a life of its own after that.

“What if” questions are hugely powerful and I ask myself this question all the time.  Maybe I got from my son.  When he was little, it was his favorite question, in addition to the mainstay of all young children, “Why?”

We can have that child’s curiosity and imagination at any age. Next time you see something, read something, or hear something interesting, ask yourself “What If?” and see what happens.  Believe me, its lots of fun and costs nothing.  Now that’s entertainment.