Déjà vu or Premonition? by Tia Dani

Lately we have been experiencing déjà vu concerning one of our books.

If you have been following the news this past year there’s been a particular issue covered which was of interest to us (yes, there has been a ton of events happening but we wanted to discuss only one).

We’re talking about the outbreak of undrinkable water around the United States. For example, in January 2014, West Virginia was forced to deal with contamination of one of their rivers. Nine counties’ drinking water began to smell like licorice. Investigation eventually discovered a potential toxicity of Crude HCHM primarily composed of a chemical name 4-methylcyclohexand methanol had leaked from a coal company’s old storage tank into West Virginia’s Elk River, rolling down to many towns drinking systems.

Symptoms of ingesting this chemical through water soon gave way to various ailments such as stomachs, rashes, and other ailments. In time over 300,000 people were forced to go without tap water for three days.

Now, in August, we hear of cities around Lake Erie experiencing a water pollution problem as well. This time a major city, Toledo, Ohio, and parts of SE Michigan (over 500,000 people) were affected. Not only from their drinking water, but for bathing and cooking. The suspected cause...a blue-green algae growing in the usually warm Lake Erie and fed by high amounts of microcystin, a cyanotoxin. It came from excess farming runoff (nitrogen and phosphorus) and eventually drained into the lake.

When the incident happened in West Virginia, we thought…Oh, wow! How ironic…but now with Michigan and Ohio having problems, it really brought home how poignant our book Color of Dreams was turning out to be. One of the major themes in the book is about water pollution and how, if not checked, could affect people downriver who relied on waterways supplying their drinking water.

Color of Dreams revolves a young woman who is determined to stop a corporation from secretly dumping a pollutant into a river that feeds into a major water source. One stumbling block is the hero (and a former sweetheart) who recently came to work for the corporation.

Though the story also involves the premises of spiritual protection of our earth, the message to our readers was to show how important we as humans must protect our planet.

There is also another reason as to why we are so intrigued over this incident. More and more we are discovering that often our stories are premonition driven. We can’t say why or how it happens but we now believe it will eventually become clear. 

Right now Color of Dreams is on sale at Breathless Press for $2.50. (50% off) It's a great chance to download your copy. This sale won't last for long.

http://www.breathlesspress.com/index.php?main_page=product_free_shipping_info&cPath=13&products_id=417

Thanks for reading,

Tia Dani

Using a Pen Name

As promised we are giving our friends and readers a chance to get to know us a little better. The second question that pops up after why write as a team is "Why write under a pen name?"

Using a Pen/ Pseudonym is a personal decision. There are many reasons to use one. For us the decision was made because at the time we still had plans to publish stories on our own and when we did we would use our real names. Plus the first story we published was erotic and we were a bit self-conscious about how our families might react when they found out.

After our second book was contracted and became successful, we made the decision to put all our future work fully under Tia Dani. We registered the trade name and formed a partnership.  From that time on we looked at our writing as a business and Tia Dani was our business name.

How we came up with the name Tia Dani is interesting as well. We thought long and hard on a name to use first, Bev came up with the suggestion to put our 'middle' names together.  That didn't work because Christine doesn't have a middle name. However Christine really liked the name KrisTia. She used it for a while but eventually shortened it to Tia.

Bev's middle name is Ann.  Tia Ann didn't quite have the ring we wanted. So we decided to go to the mall, walk around, and brainstorm.  While running through a few names to go with Tia (not to mention trying on so many pairs of shoes our feet hurt, spraying ourselves with various types of perfume making us smell like a bordello, and…of course…sampling assorted chocolates and caramel corn) the name Dani was thrown in the mix. We both loved it. Bev likes being called Dani. It fits her. So Tia Dani was created. It was later we realized that Tia Dani in Spanish means Aunt Dani. But we don't care, it's a pretty name and seems to be well liked. So far, no one has asked whose aunt we are.

As most of you know writers are generally a shy group. This is why a pen name has worked well for us. Not that we are shy in front of others but using our pen name makes it easier and a little more fun. It's kinda like acting. When we give a workshop as Tia Dani, we like to role play. It takes away the Christine and Bev thinks, to Tia Dani says…

Anyway, that's our pen name story and we're sticking with it.

A second thing we thought about is several of our friends use a pen name to keep their writing identity secret from employers of their day jobs. It might work but it's not that easy to remain anonymous. Publishers are required to report to the IRS (via Form 1099) of payments made to writers, which means they need your real name along with your social security number.

Well…that was fun reliving our beginnings, but now we need to get back to work. We are wrapping up our next story, a paranormal set in the northern part of AZ. We have shape-shifters, ancient legends, apache warriors, magic, and reincarnation. And always a little romance. We hope reading Call down the Darkness will bring you as much joy as we have had in writing it.

See you next month,

Tia Dani

Authors of, Time's Enduring Love.