Hidden Messages - #MFRWauthor

Still moving along with the #MFRWauthor blog hop. This week's topic is about life lessons in my books.


When I first saw this topic I really thought it'd be a week I had to skip. I'm a simple woman with simple thoughts. My good friend DJ laughs at me when I say that. She's quick to remind me that my stories are anything but simple. I don't see it that way, but she's good for pointing out what I apparently miss.

I don't plot so as I wrote my book I wrote it as the characters dictated thinking about nothing other than what was happening at the time. I don't write for a 'platform' of any sort trying to purposely convey some deeper meaning within my writing. That's why I thought I'd have to skip this week, I didn't think I had life lessons within my books. DJ told me I was wrong, not only that she rattled off five different things she picked out of my writings.

This is my only published book currently. It's a dark and twisted modern day take on Beauty and The Beast. When I started the story, I had one idea for it in mind, but as I started writing it that morphed into something completely different. Fiendish became a tale of how easily one can start to lose themselves in a relationship. It became a lesson on how little things led to bigger manipulations and control. The story became a picture into how one can get tangled up into an emotionally and mentally abusive relationship.

This was not my intention when I started the story. My intention was to take the classic Beauty and The Beast and give it a twist. My take was simply supposed to be could you still love a person who was a 'beast' but not in looks, rather in personality. While that question was answered in the book, bigger issues came into play as the relationship played out.

I've never been in the situations I created for Calida in this book. One thing I did find interesting as I wrote it was how sympathy shifted away from her over the course of time and that really made me think. Victim blaming. Not just in cases of rape as sadly happens too often in cases of rape and other sexual abuses, but it also became a thing for Calida. You hear sometimes in the media when it's a case of abuse, why didn't she just leave? Why would she stay with a person that treated her like that? Why not just go to the police? On and on it could go.

The depth of which the relationship spiraled was not my intention, but it happened. However, it did become an eye opener at how quickly something like that could happen and the person could be in over their head before they realized it and then it's too late. It's not as easy to just get out and walk away even when you know the situation isn't healthy.

Not Broken is the follow up to Fiendish. It's a love story about opening your heart to trusting again. The book is about Calida's recovery after the fact. Again I didn't set out for it to have some deep lesson. I wasn't out to make any sort of statement with it no more than I did with Fiendish. But, again according to DJ, I've done just that.

Never be afraid to reach out for help. Shame is a powerful thing. Guilt from her role in the relationship eats away at Calida and the shame she feels from events that happened keep her closed off. She's afraid to reach out to her friends and family and rather pretend things are better. Holding in things isn't healthy and use the support system around you.

So there you have it, with the help of my buddy, those are the 'life lessons' that I've apparently hidden within my books.

So have you purposely or accidentally written life lessons into your book?

This is a blog hop, so be sure to stop by the other authors and find out what their life lessons are.

Thanks for stopping by
~Meka