Beam Me Up Monday with Shea Berkley
Everyone has secrets.
Some secrets are more salacious than innocent, or more irresistible than outrageous. What I like about being a writer is that I get to uncover my characters secrets, and to their horror, wave them around in public before piecing their broken lives back together. (Sort of sadistic, but that’s a fiction writer’s life.) I torture characters for your entertainment. Muahahaha. (Sorry. I rarely let loose an evil laugh, but it just seemed fitting here.)
In DARK SECRETS:EDGE OF EVIL I have Alden Caldwell, a man raised to cherish a code of honor, who finds himself running from a shame riddled past. It’s filled with terrifying deeds, which he’s embarrassed he’s done, and he’d rather not remember them. (Yeah, like I’m going to let him hide from those juicy tidbits…not even. Poor guy.)
I don’t know about you, but I embarrass myself on a daily basis. I’m really good at it, but rarely do I do something that fills me with complete and utter shame, and I certainly don’t bury my deeds so deep I hope I’ll never think of them again. And that’s what got me to thinking (yep, that’s what brought on this story, an “I wonder” moment). In my story, Alden is given a choice—immortality or death. For most of us, that would be an easy choice, but what if the act of being immortal enslaved you to a wicked, truly evil person? Does that lessen the allure of immortality?
No one wants to die, and most people will do nearly anything to live. Me being the vindictive writer I am (I’m sure that’s how my characters view me), I placed the choice at Alden’s feet. Immortality or death. He knew he’d be enslaved, yet he still chose immortality. As the years progressed, the burden of that choice began to weigh on him, tearing apart his soul in ways he never thought possible. And there you have it. I gleefully ripped his life apart, horrible deed by horrible deed, becoming a man much like Dorian Grey, whose handsomeness on the surface hid the ugliness underneath. Instead of his sins being imprisoned in a painting like Mr. Grey’s, Alden’s actions leave mental scars that run deep, and what he has to do to break away from his enslavement will most likely see him dead. But wait, the whole reason he chose immortality was because he didn’t want to die. And like I said before, people will do nearly anything to live…
So, have you thought about what you would do for eternal youth? How far would you go to be immortal?
If you want to find out more about Alden’s story, it’s available at: Amazon Paperback Amazon Kindle
To find out more about me, Shea Berkley, I have a website. www.sheaberkley.com
You can follow me on Facebook (where I mostly hang out) or on Twitter (where I sometimes hang out). Or you can ask Darynda all about me, and she’ll just laugh and say, “Oh those waters don’t run all that deep.” (Scary how well she knows me.)
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE TODAY, SHEA!
