As I talk to people about Dawnkeepers, one question that comes up repeatedly is one of inspiration, and how I came to take pieces of ancient Mayan mythology and bring them into a modern day paranormal romantic thriller. Given that I'm a scientist by training and have spent the last bunch of years writing medical romantic suspense, it might seem a little off-topicfor me to be writing about Maya mythology. But really it isn't. . . it goes back to being a little kid and visiting a big pyramid. This was back when Cancun was just starting to become Americanized. My parents and I stayed at small local hotels and took rattling bus tours to Mayan ruins across the Yucatan.
Ever since, I've been fascinated with the Maya. I can still close my eyes and feel the damp chill of the narrow stone stairway inside the great pyramid at Chichen Itza, or remember the squirrelly quiver at the pit of my stomach as I stood at the edge of the Cenote Sacrada. It's those images, those memories of history and grandeur and a deep sense of otherness, that came back to me, grabbed me by the throat and dragged me along for the ride then I stumbled over a reference to the endpoint of the ancient Mayan calendar, and how it aligns with scientific concerns about a stellar conjunction set to occur on that very day. . . December 21, 2012.
I mean, how cool is that?
So I started working on the concept for the Novels of the Final Prophecy. But the stories that I love to read and write aren't about a place, or a situation. . . they're about the people in those places and situations. In
Dawnkeepers, ex-lovers Nate and Alexis are forced to work together to recover seven lost Maya artifacts that are critical to the end-time war. In the process, they're forced to deal with their pasts and each other, and things heat up fast! But really, it all goes back to a rattling bus tour and a guide who'd never seen snow before (that really blew my kidlet brain).
. . and a bit of inspiration.
So tell me… what inspires you?
Jessica Andersen
