I have been tagged in The Next Big Thing by Judith Van Praag @ Hope Filled Jars. So in this game of "Tag, You're it" my current Work in Progress gets to be tagged and then I have to tag 5 other writers' WIPs. When Judith tagged me in this post and emailed me the idea behind it, I was thrilled to be in and to be tagged. This blog-tag post is perfect for writers as most writers I know, including myself, hate talking about ourselves but ask us about our stories and our characters and we can wax lyrical. Look for the five writers I have tagged at the bottom of this post - their "Next Big Thing" posts will be posted between the 11th and the 17th of September so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for those.

What is the working title of your book?

The Tattooist - Liquid Ink

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was reading an article about tattooing and how intimate an art form it can be and it sparked an idea. A few nights after reading this article I dreamed the first scene of the story. I woke up at 4am and started jotting down the dream and within a couple of hours I had the first draft's main plot-points drafted out.

What genre does your book fall under?

Paranormal Psychological Thriller

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Heroine = Sasha Roulette

Keira Knightley is the perfect actress to play my main character in The Tattooist - Liquid Ink. She has that rare quality of being believable as a bad girl turned good but also has this raw vulnerability that gives her depth. Keira IS Sasha in The Tattooist - Liquid Ink.

Hero = Shane Patrick

Colin Farrell IS my bad boy hero. He is the perfect flawed character, the bad boy who you want to reform. He IS Shane Patrick, my bad boy hero.

Villain = Michael Dali

For my villain I needed to cast someone intense, charming, seductive but chilling - who better to fit this role than Viggo Mortensen. My villain is known by many names but the one he chooses to call himself is Michael Dali. Killing is not just an occupation but it is a calling and an art form to this ice-cold killer. Viggo IS Michael Dali.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A paranormal psychological thriller about a tattooist who bonds psychically with the people she tattoos who realizes that she can now read a sadistic serial killer's mind and is the only one who can stop him but if she can read his mind, can he read hers?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I will be submitting it to agents.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I am still in the process of the first draft but typically a first draft takes me 4-6 weeks to write.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I have long been fascinated with tattoos and I have been designing my "dream" tattoos for years now. I have not yet found the perfect tattoo that I would want inked on me permanently yet so the search continues. But a tattoo is so much more than a symbol or a fashion accessory, in many cultures it is an integral part of the culture's history and spiritual practices. Tattooing is a bizarrely intimate ritual: a ritual where a person literally carves a symbol, words or an image into your skin with permanent ink. As a writer alone this bizarre ritual where blood and ink are fused together into a permanent "stain" sparks my imagination. This long-held personal fascination with tattoos and the desire to seek out their history in different cultures + the article I read sparked the idea behind The Tattooist - Liquid Ink is the first book in a Trilogy called The Tattooist. The what if's started piling up in my imagination and before I knew it I had a plot.

Next the characters themselves inspired me to write their story. All three main characters, the heroine, the hero and the villain have a very strong voice. I also wanted to write a story where the heroine is not your typical girl next door or perfect heroine. I love flawed characters and characters that have to fight their way through life. All three of my main characters are deeply flawed and in this story the truth is never just black and white. Nobody is all good or all bad in this story.

The story's theme is about facing the fact that we all have darkness within us and that we could all be pushed to give in to that darkness if the stakes are high enough. All three main characters, the two protagonists and the antagonists fight this inner darkness as their own demons threaten to overwhelm them. At the end of the day whether they choose the darkness or the light is what will be both the making and the breaking of them.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Related articles

• Patti Larsen takes a walk into my dark mind for #Creepfest (kimkoning.wordpress.com)
• The Next Big Thing - Week 10 | Love & Art in post WWII Amsterdam (Judith van Praag @ hopefilledjars.com)
• The Next Big Thing - Week 9 (Zoe Brooks Books & More)
• The Next Big Thing - Week 8 (A.K. Taylor @ backwoods author.com)
• Week 7 of The Next Big Thing (Jonathan Gould @ daglit.blogspot.com.au)
• Week 6 of The Next Big Thing (Coral Russell @ alchemyofscrawl.com)
• Week #5 of The Next Big Thing (Gail Baugniet @ gail-baugniet.blogspot.com)
• Week #4 The Next Big Thing (Laurie Hanan @ westoftheequator.wordpress.com)

(Originally blogged on Wrestling the Muse)