Fire Storm: Alex and Ari
12 March 2014
There was something about the cover to Ally Shield’s Fire Storm, http://allyshields.com, that haunted me the first time I saw it. It wasn’t just that the depiction of Ari was absolutely ethereal. Something about the cover itched at me. One of those things that wouldn’t leave me alone.
And then it came to me. The cover resembles my eldest niece, Alex!
And that got me to thinking. As far as I know Alex did not pose for this cover (although before she was born her beautiful mother was asked about posing for a book cover), but the resemblance between real life Alex and paranormal Ari is uncanny.
That Alex looked like the cover was interesting. But was that all that itched at me? I thought about how a good book draws the reader with elements that feel familiar. Elements that don’t have to be exactly like real life, because when a writer is told to write what she knows, it doesn’t mean only witches can write about witchcraft. It means the writer takes the attributes that make a live person special and give them to a fictional heroine.
Both Alex and Ari are determined and don’t take failure for an answer. Her path was not easy, but Alex let nothing stand between her and getting her Bachelor’s degree. Ari will not give up just because Andreas may be inside an impenetrable fortress guarded by nasty foes. Two goal-driven young women with steel inside holding up the beauty outside.
Both are magical. Ari is a witch, and Alex enchants pre-schoolers. Children, like magic sensors, come to Alex attracted to the special person she is. I can hardly wait for her to get her own classroom.
I want a happy ending for Alex even more than I want one for Ari. And I’ll be on the lookout for a cover that looks like Alex’s equally beautiful and accomplished little sister, Jillian. After all, it’s a small world.
Kath who is thinking about her own daughter, writing a paranormal heroine, and …
