Storm of Visions

Like most of my ideas, the Chosen Ones started when I wasn’t paying attention to writing. Instead, I was watching the first season of Grey’s Anatomy on DVD. I was fascinated by the way the interns met, learned about each other and their jobs, and faced disasters, personal and professional. Because I loved the show so much, I analyzed why I cared so much for these characters—who were not always likeable—and rooted for them as they melded into a close-knit group of friends and colleagues. I realized it was because, as the series went on, they became family to each other, and family stories are what I love.

At the same time, I had left a thread dangling in the “Darkness Chosen” series. In the series, children who were abandoned and rejected by their parents had gifts of power, and my readers wanted to know why and how.

Fueled by excitement, I began to wonder how I could create an ensemble cast of disparate characters forced together by circumstances beyond their control. What if they had been abandoned as infants and raised in difficult circumstances? What if they are drafted by a mysterious, ancient organization called the Chosen Ones who are the world’s last bulwark against evil? What if the worst happened, and the new, inexperienced Chosen are left alone to battle the devil and all his forces, save civilization … and decide who should change the toilet paper?

Once I decided on the arc of the series, I developed characters of the Chosen Ones themselves, four men and three women, each with a unique and powerful gift. The thief who vanishes into a dark mist. The resentful psychic. The society girl with healing hands. The lawyer who controls minds. The free spirit who hears the song of the earth. The wounded warrior. And Aleksandr Wilder, son of the infamous Wilder family, who has no gift at all…or so it seems.

Then I wondered who could possibly make these reckless, dangerous, embattled Chosen fall in love. At last I had all the ingredients of the stories I love to write—very human heroes and heroines riddled with flaws and unprepared for the challenges that face them, a powerful enemy, the ultimate battle to fight, and the kind of passionate, irresistible romance between one man and one woman that is the stuff of legend.

Storm Of Visions (August) and Storm Of Shadows (September) are the first two books in the Chosen Ones. To read excerpts, view videos, and learn more about the Chosen Ones, visit www.christinadodd.com. While you’re there, I’d love for you to join my mailing list and become part of the Christina Dodd family!

May your summer be full of sun, excitement…and good reading!

Warmly,

Christina Dodd