A sneak peek at
something that inspired this tale...
Out
of all the places found on this planet, the
first place that came to mind after seeing the map for The World was,
well, what's the direct opposite of the hot middle eastern climate -
Siberia, of course. 'Russia' is my twist on a real Russian
billionaire who had been in the news for making a success of himself when
capitalism came to Russia. After ruffling a few feathers, he was
eventually stripped of his money and companies, then sent to prison. Mixing around in my mind with this man [I still think about him,
wondering if he's still rotting away in one of the worst prisons in
Russia] were the questions paramount to the series: who would buy a
private island and why they'd live there, and I had my Russian hero.
Actually I had an idea of who he'd be if he was ever released. There
was no doubt Vasiliy would be a strong character, with a need to be
in complete control, so I dabbled in the domination and bondage arena.
Now,
'New Zealand' was basically there the moment I turned my mind to what the
second story would be. When I lived abroad the Five Nations Rugby
tournament was big, really big, and the team to beat at that time was the
All Blacks. The star of the moment was Jonah Lomu, and he was quite
a personality who drew fans and novices into the game. Now, there's
one thing that happens before each All Black game that is an incredible
sight to behold. After the warm up, the entire team gather in the
middle of the pitch and face the opposition and dance the haka, a Maori
war dance [there is a great video explaining the meaning behind the dance hereand
this is an Adidas commercial showing a good part of it
]. Yup, very powerful. These warriors of the rugby pitch
needed an erotic romance written about them and so I did. A
delicious ménage a trois seemed to fit Timu and Luke best.
There
you go, how I settled on Russia and New Zealand, or more like how they
worked themselves out in my mind.
