This is my favorite part of the blog. I love being able to share the story behind the story. This time around, I’m talking about The Gifts of Kali. Gifts will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the first book I wrote as a “full-time” author. Every book that preceded it was written during nap times, in the dead of night, or during holidays when my wife took over the kid duties.
Gifts was the first time I felt like I knew what the hell I was doing. I went from a very clear outline to a draft in 16 days. It was crazy, energetic, and incredibly freeing to be able to get everything down on paper.
So where did the story come from?
I’ve spoken about this before. There were certain points I wanted to hit with the prequel trilogy. One of them was the ribbon Soriya wears along her wrist. For as much as it is used I thought it was important to explore where it came from and what the circumstances were behind Kali gifting Soriya with this incredible tool.
That was the main thrust for writing this book. Everything that built from there came organically, and I’ll be delving into the lore in a later author commentary.
For this introduction to the book, I wanted to talk about one specific moment that started the ball rolling for me.
I wanted a car chase.
Is that weird? I certainly thought so at the time. I was driving my kids to school one morning and Counting Stars came on the radio. As we were traveling over a bridge I suddenly saw Soriya in this epic battle on the roof of a car. She was leaping along traffic, taking out villains left and right, all with her patented smirk.
I think I listened to that song 500 times while putting the book together. Every time, it seemed to amp up the action pieces.
The car chase ended up going in a different direction at the climax of the novel. I love the way it evolved over the course of the draft. When I close my eyes I can still see it from Ruiz’s perspective at the hospital, looking out toward the RDJ and seeing a lone truck barreling along the road to outrun the shadows chasing it down.
The RDJ
Speaking of this little tidbit… no one has said a thing to me about the name of the expressway. I thought I would get so many comments about the name, which is of course a nod to Robert Downey Jr. It was one of those cute little jokes I was able to squeeze into the background. I always hope readers pick up on these, or at least wonder if it means what they think it does, while they’re reading.
More to come next time. Thanks for reading.
