Letters from Lydia
Weekly behind-the-scenes content, sneak peeks, opportunities to get advance copies, and whatever else I feel like discussing.
Weekly behind-the-scenes content, sneak peeks, opportunities to get advance copies, and whatever else I feel like discussing.
Two of my favorite parts of Mai Tais & Murder are the prologue and epilogue. I wasn’t going to have a prologue initially, and when my editor suggested I include one, I had no idea where to go with it. I sketched out some ideas, hated them, and generally moped around for a couple days, feeling lost.
Then the funniest thing happened, although I’m pretty used to it by now. I woke up at 4 a.m. with a fuzzy idea. It was dreamlike, wispy–but complete.
I was going to write the prologue in the context of astrology.
I went back to sleep and started drafting as soon as I woke up a couple hours later. I had so much fun writing it, and it delights me even now. The epilogue was also astrology-themed and a fun bookend to the prologue.
So that’s what I’m doing with all the Beach Cocktail prologues! Here’s a sneak peek at the unedited prologue to Dying for Daiquiris…
Every eighteen months, Venus, the planet of love, reverses its rotation and spins backward.
Well, it doesn’t really. But from a human vantage point on Earth, the planet appears to slow down in the sky and begin to rotate in the other direction for physics reasons that are beyond the scope of this prologue.
Other planets also go retrograde—the most commonly known retrograde is that of Mercury. A retrograde is a time to review, to reflect, to assess. It’s generally not recommended as a time to start new things. Unlike a new moon, a retrograde is not a time of auspicious new beginnings. A retrograde brings things to a halt—or to the surface.
Venus Retrogrades, like their more well-known cousin the Mercury Retrograde, have a powerful, though lesser known, effect on those of us here on Earth, particularly when it comes to romance and relationships.
During the six-week period of a Venus Retrograde, past lovers may return, repressed issues with your current love may bubble to the surface, and general confusion may reign in areas of love.
Generally, it’s not advised to get married during a Venus Retrograde. The energy of the retrograde will get baked into the fabric of your fledgling marriage, imbuing it with confusion and misunderstandings of the heart.
That doesn’t stop most happy couples, though. Rare is the couple who consults a full astrological calendar when choosing their wedding date. Such was the case for the bride and groom gathering at the Golden Hibiscus Resort with friends and family for an extravagant marital bonanza. The fact that the planet of love was spinning backward in the cosmos had never even occurred to them.
Nor had it occurred to the wedding party, or to the other guests staying at the resort during the retrograde. Many had themselves inadvertently wed during a Venus Retrograde.
The man in the room next to the ice machine had also gotten married during a Retrograde. He would have advised the young couple against it—if he was still breathing.