I finally did it! I finished writing my latest novel and have submitted it for publication. It was an intense endeavor filled with lots of research on my part (at least one year's worth) and checking many resources before I felt comfortable enough to write about the 19th century, one century that I haven't lived in except in fantasy!
It all began when I asked myself the question, "What would happen if during the war between the Ottomans and the Greeks in the 1820s, a Greek girl is separated from her family?" All kinds of atrocities are performed during wars that we do not hear about and I did not want to focus on that aspect, but instead focus on what people did with their lives once they found themselves in those unfortunate situations.
Then I began to imagine how my heroine (Lily) was separated from her family (captured by gypsies), and her subsequent adventures. Once she learns of her true identity at the tender age of sixteen, the search for her true parents begins. She is besought by conflicting values as she goes forth to find her identity -
prejudice - when others find she grew up as a gypsy and treat her with spite
envy -because of her beauty,
greed - when a cousin attempts to abduct her into marriage in order to get her inheritance money
love- even though the one she loves is engaged to another
