Guest Blogger, Robyn DeHart

Please join me in welcoming author Robyn DeHart as the special guest blogger here today at Thoughts in Progress while she makes a stop on her tour of the blogsphere.

Robyn’s latest book, DESIRES ME, was just released. Thanks to Robyn, Anna and the folks at Hachette Book Group I have 5 copies of the book to giveaway. Please see the giveaway details at the end of the post.

Here’s a brief synopsis of DESIRES ME: “Years ago, Maxwell Barrett found a map to Atlantis and dedicated his life to the search for the mystical lost continent. But when an alluring woman makes a wager for the priceless artifact, he may have discovered an even greater treasure.

A descendant of Atlantis, Sabine Tobias needs the map to decipher an ancient prophecy. What she doesn't need are the sparks flying between her and Max. He's too devilishly charming to be trusted: The fate of her people is at stake as well as her heart. Yet a ruthless killer also covets the map. Now Max and Sabine must race to decode the prophecy's riddle before this criminal fulfills his deadly mission.”

For Robyn’s stop here today, I asked her, “did any of the recent movies about treasure seekers inspire you to write this book, were they more of a problem for you or did they have no effect on your writing?”

Great question! But I’d want to ask you a question in return. J By recent movies, do you mean the National Treasure movies and the DaVinci Code? If by those, I’d have to say no, these movies had no real affect on my series as I came up with my Legend Hunters idea before I’d seen these movies. But I would say that movies like the Mummy and Indiana Jones and Romancing the Stone certainly would have been inspiration for me.

I think most writers would tell you that there are no new stories in the world. We’ve all been retelling the basic stories over and over again, it’s just in the way we package them that makes them new and fresh. So I know there is probably borrowing that takes place when it comes to story construction, you take elements you like and repackage them. Not the same thing as plagiarism, of course, that is completely unacceptable. But case in point, I got the

inspiration for my cursed bracelets in the first Legend Hunter book, SEDUCE ME from the second Mummy movie. My bracelets were completely different, but the concept was the same.

So I’ve said that the National Treasure movies didn’t act as inspiration, but I will admit that while I was working on my own scavenger hunt for DESIRE ME, I kept hearing that line from the movie again and again in my head, “and that will lead to another clue, which lead to another clue…” It made me chuckle as I worked out the clues and riddles for Sabine and Max.

As to the second part of the question, no, none of them were a problem for my writing. If anything it was encouraging to know that people still like those types of stories. I can only hope they translate well to the written word. I have been harboring fantasies though that some movie producer will find my series and put my characters on the big screen. I can see it now, the quest for Atlantis, the elixir, the ancient prophecy and all the murder and mayhem…now that’s an adventure!

Thanks for having me today!

Robyn, thanks for dropping by during your tour. Now I will have that line from NATIONAL TREASURE playing in my head all day, LOL.

For a little background on Robyn, she’s always known that she wanted to be a writer. It took her a while, however, to figure out precisely what she wanted to write. Reading Kathleen Woodiwiss’ A ROSE IN WINTER sealed the deal for her  and she’s been reading and writing romance ever since. For more on Robyn check out her group blog.

Oh, the giveaway (thought I’d forgot, didn’t you). I have five copies of DESIRES ME to giveaway, thanks to Robin, Anna and the Hachette Book Group. To enter the giveaway send an e-mail (mcbookshelf@gmail.com) with “Win Desires Me” in the subject line and be sure to include your name and address in the body of the e-mail. The giveaway is open to residents of U.S. and Canada only and no post office box addresses. The giveaway ends June 21.