Monday, May 17, 2010

The Glass Cage by Regan Taylor -- An Exercise is Catharsis and Celebration!

Most of my books have at least one element of my life in them. In Her Eyes, co-written with Jennifer Cloud, we had an element of walk-ins, what happens when a soul isn't ready to move on and it finds a new body/home to reside in. His Eyes went a bit further with my belief in reincarnation. My kitty, Ginny, has a guest appearance in one scene.

I used to work in law enforcement. In fact, I was recently taken to task by a fellow dispatcher at the California Highway Patrol for not mentioning CHP in my bio. That will shortly be remedied. He didn't exactly write me about it; rather he bcc'd me on a mass email he sent to a rather large number of dispatchers I used to work with, updating them on what I was doing and did they notice they didn't rate a place in my bio. He then wrote and told me he didn't mean anything bad by it. Uh huh. The CHP has a minor part in my current work in progress. They were there before I received said email. It was my experiences working in local law enforcement that drew me to writing the McKenna series. We had a stalking case while I was there. He didn't do anything the stalker in The Spell does, but with my background in psychology I did spend time looking at what motivates a stalker.

The Glass Cage, book 2 of the series, available ohhhhhh in about 4 hours here at Siren-Bookstrand, draws more intensely on my own experience in the police department. The ride along scene is similar to one I actually experienced. Even though that incident happened about 7 years ago, I still got goosebumps when I wrote the scene, remembering what I saw and felt that night. Watching a suspect reach for a gun when you're maybe only five feet away is tense to say the least. It also draws on an experience that 5 of my friends and I shared. Not out of choice, it was perhaps one of the most horrible experiences in any of our lives. I could not have written The Glass Cage without Eb, Lori, Maggie, Karin and Sandy, the friends I dedicated it to. We supported each other during the experience and out of that trial by fire we forged friendships of a lifetime. Of all my books, this one was the most cathartic.

        The Glass Cage

No comments: