What Inspired my Novel Into the Fire

Before I can answer this question I have to go a little farther back in time. You would have to learn something about me first before we get to me as an author.

I grew up in a family where most of the adults around me read in their free time. We never passed a bookstore inside a mall or book sections of stores. I was also not censored on what I could read. My family felt that if I picked up a book and thought that I could read it they let me, they also answered my questions or taught me how to look my own answers. This played a large factor in my ability to read by context and increased my vocabulary. When you read so much from such a young age I feel that you start to develop your own stories. Writing was always something that I loved in school.

So was Into the Fire the first novel you’ve written?

No, it isn’t I have was able to write a novel before in my mid to late ’20s. Sadly, I lost the manuscript but the story lived on in my mind and in 2020 I wrote a better version of that lost novel for Na(tional) No(vel) Wri(ter) Mo(nth). I am so very glad that I waited until I knew more and I will continue to work on it and the series it created while I write my Fire series novels for you.

Why did you decide to start Into the Fire if you had this lost novel floating around in your head?

At the time my life and job got turned upside down. My family lost two members to circumstances beyond our control we also lost their incomes. On top of that our landlord informed us within days of that loss that they were selling the home we were renting and we needed to find somewhere else to live. Needless to say, we were devastated and lost. I drifted in crisis mode for months. Making lists and handling the next crisis that came our way. We needed to find a roommate to help cover the costs of finding a new home. The person I work for as a full-time caregiver was devastated by the loss and in grief. Once we were finally settled in somewhere I needed to find my way out of crisis mode and into something resembling a path to a new normal. On that path, a story started to form in my head and Into the Fire was born.

So, what caused Into the Fire to form in your mind.

Leverage, yes the crime, mystery, thriller television series that ran from 2008 to 2012. I watched a lot of Leverage in those first few weeks and it is completely understandable. Who could resist a show where the bad guys get what’s coming to them. I was already a big fan of one of the actors on the show (Christian Kane). I also watched his short-lived cooking show Kane’s Kitchen. Which if you haven’t you so should. I have always been a foodie which sadly learning I have diabetes has changed my foodie lifestyle quite a bit. With the combination between the two shows and my ability to form stories in my head the novel just started to write itself in my head.

That is how I was inspired to write Into the Fire. I needed to find something to focus on and find my way out of the chaos that was our lives and my work and writing did that for me. The moment I had the basic outline done for the story I knew that it was going to be a series. I ended up with this huge tablet of paper and plotted out the series of books.

Today is the last day of the Cover reveal giveaway on my Twitter and Instagram

If you would like to enter you still can if you answer any questions on the posts on my Twitter @crowshirley or my Instagram @crowshirley before 11:59 pm CST. The winner will receive an ARC of the novel. So head over there and enter ASAP!

Currently reading: Protecting Fiona by Susan Stoker the SEAL of Protection book 3

Listening to: the audiobook of Les Miserable by Victor Hugo which will let me check off France on my Read Around the World Book Bingo

I am at 15/80 books for my Goodreads Challenge if you aren't following me on there well here you go.

I won the Bookish Bingo for January on Instagram

Watching: Ripper on Netflix

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