Savvy Commentary #1: The Origin of Paradise in Flames

If you’re reading this blog, it’s probably because you know about my debut novel, Paradise in Flames. Now, you’re coming to your ol’ pal S.K. Salazar with your questions about it. Well, let’s start with the reason why I chose to write this story.

            My initial spark came from watching The Phantom of the Opera. You know how it is. You’re watching a movie, you go down a rabbit hole, imagining yourself in the adventure or what kind of other adventures it could spark. Then, the movie has already moved along and you have to rewind it because you need to catch up on the juicy details.

            Well, I liked the dark and light dynamic between Christine and the Phantom. I found it romantic. I imagined a person aligned with darkness learning kindness and goodness from their partner, who is aligned with light. And vice versa, I imagined a person aligned with light learning how to occasionally chase their own desires and to stand up for themselves.

            That’s when I realized that an angel and a demon could represent this dynamic so well. So, I set to work with creating their identities and picking out their names. Duilius was easy. I wanted to choose a Latin name that meant “warlike” or “warrior”. (Since Duilius is a war demon and all.) As for Celestina, I wanted her name to ring like something heavenly. I couldn’t pick Celestia, because of the obvious My Little Pony ties. I also couldn’t pick something so simple as Celeste or Celesta. I thought about Seraphina at first, but that would be too ham-handed. But Celestina? That was grand enough and unique enough to fit my character. (Nevermind that Celestina is the name of a minor character in Harry Potter. Keep in mind that I read that series after I finished Paradise in Flames.)

            Long ago, I used to be a Doreen Virtue fan. She's introduced me to a lot of life-changing ways to work with the angels and archangels in your life. (Yeah, I'm one of those nutty New Age types. Oh well.) Although I never came around to fully believing in the concepts she presented in her book Earth Angels, I was still intrigued by the concept of humans being reincarnations of mystical beings based on their behavior and proclivities.  Since I have such a fascination with reincarnation, I was inspired to create human personas to match the angelic and demonic ones. I chose Blake’s name from an online article about “bad boy names” and I chose Lily’s from a list of “pure girl’s names”. Both of their names ended up working swimmingly, actually. The name “Blake” has Old English origins, meaning “black”. And Lily usually has a connotation to the flower, which has a connotation to the color white. I thought about changing her name to Bianca at one time, since she is Italian. But after going over that idea with my old friend and very first beta reader, Joey, I just couldn’t do it. He said, “I feel like changing her name would be killing her.” I was also told by a member of my writer’s critique group that her name sounded too biblical (and therefore too cliché). But I made a decision of the heart and kept her name after all.

            You wouldn’t believe how fast I wrote the first third of this novel. Unfortuantely, I was supposed to be packing and getting ready to go to Brazil at the time. (This was around March 2015.) But I was inflamed with this desire to write this story. I spent hours on and off on the treadmill, listening to music and planning out the scenes in my head.

            At first, I didn’t plan on selling this story. I just wanted to write it for fun, just as something to give me an outlet for this passion. But once I kept to a good writing schedule, I decided that I had to share it with the world and to pursue my purpose as a writer once again. (Prior to Paradise in Flames, I had written and closeted a fantasy YA novel which I was going to call Lydia: The Orb of Light. I put it on hold because I had left it alone for too long and had already "outgrown" the novel once it was finished.)

            So, between the day before I took off for Brazil and a week after, I had managed to write eleven chapters. (Granted that those chapters were short.) Why? Because I was jonesin’ for the opportunity to write the sex scene. (I’m an animal and I have animalistic desires, okay?)

            After that, the process was pretty slow-going. It took about nine months to have my giant 160,000-word baby. And it took a year to pare it down to 130,000 words.

            Now, let’s get to a nasty subject that nobody really likes to talk about. I can already imagine the criticism that my story will bring, so allow me to defend myself right now.

            Yes, Blake and Lily have an incredibly unhealthy relationship. It can border on abusive sometimes. “Why write this?” you ask. “The market is already saturated with bad boy and good girl stories and unhealthy relationships. Why add to that?”

            Because, and I know that this reason isn’t good enough for a lot of people, I’ve also been a victim of emotional abuse in a relationship. I’ve also been the abuser in the relationship after that first abusive relationship. This story was my opportunity to get it out of my system. It was my chance to experience that “excitement” I needed one last time so that I could move on to a healthy relationship.

It is my sincere hope that Paradise in Flames doesn't glamorize or promote unhealthy relationships. Instead, I want it to spread out a chronological map of how a person's life can deteriorate when their partner disrespects their boundaries and how it can thrive once again when those boundaries are reinstated.