Authorpreneur Dashboard – Melissa Abrehamsen
Foretold
Teens
Lance Harper and Lucy Burns have avoided one another all through high school. He’s the son of the town psychic; she’s the daughter of a fundamentalist preacher. But the wall between them crumbles when Lance has a mind-splitting vision of Lucy’s bathtub suicide. She resists his help, desperate to take a dark secret to an early grave. Fate has other plans. Lance and Lucy share chilling flashes of a different kind of blood bath. A dark figure. A gun. A high school massacre. A hallway full of bodies. Can Lucy overcome tensions at home that threaten to crush her? Can Lance convince her that there are no bat wings and cauldrons in his living room? As they attempt to put their polar differences aside to save their classmates—and manage to fall in love along the way—a deranged killer loads a gun and plots a horrific Columbine-style homecoming that no one will forget.
Book Bubbles from Foretold
Attraction Distraction
I needed Lance to look past Lucy's God Squad persona and truly sense that there's something infinite inside this suicidal girl. Something that eventually links them on a heart level. This scene encapsulates his instant spark for her. Which gave me the opportunity to take him on a journey of patience and self-awareness.
Exposed
For these characters to connect, I first had to establish an event that linked the unlikely duo. The mission? Exposure. Lance's vision of Lucy's suicide propels him to wait for her before class and expose himself as a psychic as well as expose her intention on her life. For them, this is the point of no return.
The Suicide Monster
In this scene, Lucy believes the only way to escape her shattered life is to flee from the monster she created. Herself. I wanted to delve into her mind and emotions and pour everything out. Show that she's struggling with this death wish despite her arduous list of reasons why she's worthless. She still cares about the people she'd be leaving behind. This was integral to her story, and I loved writing every bit of her journey.
The Trust Factor
I wanted to show the painful process of Lucy and Lance's relationship. Here are two people from completely different worlds. Him, the son of the town psychic. Her, the daughter of the town preacher. There's a trust barrier that has to be broken before they can evolve past their differences. But broken gradually and believably. As believably as what brings them together in the first place. His vision of her suicide. She's built a sturdy wall around her secret, and an even more formidable wall around her death wish. But in the process, he chisels at her barrier until true trust in born.
