I Dare You! I Double-Dare You! by Tia Dani

The fact we've been writing together for a very long time still amazes us how well we work together. The reason? There's a strong bond of trust between us and, as we've always said, "Our friendship is imperative", beyond any other emotion or personal quirks.

What's one of those quirks, you ask?

Well, we're a bit competitive.

Pushing our limits has become a challenge. For example, we are "dogged" determined to dig deeper and deeper into our current story in progress. Which makes it kind of difficult since, at the moment, we're working on two stories at once. One is a paranormal and the other a futuristic. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. Have we mentioned before we're eclectic? Yep, it keeps things interesting for us.

Anyway, back to our competition. We call it our Double-dog Dare. Here's what happens.

An initial story gets written.

So far, we're good with what's on the pages, but it really needs to zing.

Tia, ever thirsty for drama and spine-tingling action, takes off and inserts all kinds of spooky, weird, unusual, and not your run-in-the-mill happenings. "Hmmm," she chortles and rubs her hands. "What disaster can be added to intensify the story?"

Dani, however, forever the romantic, plunges into the protagonists' love quandary. How she can push the boundaries and build their relationships. She loves to dream about how passionate our hero and heroine can have it and build the sexual tension. She smiles and asks…"What incredibly sweet or spicy thing can I do to them before disaster strikes?" With that, she blissfully types away.

Dani calls this the fun stuff. Tia calls it the gooey, hooey stuff. Uh-oh, our personalities are showing.

Working together and daring each other to push harder is how we create realistic characters, strong emotion, and a story line that keeps our readers entertained all the way until the end.

Take for example our paranormal story we're working on right now. The story involves quite a bit of Apache Indian culture and Arizona history. The story didn't start out that way. It originally started with the hero and heroine meeting on a guest ranch in northern Arizona. 

Okay, simple, but not exactly a hand wringer.

Then we into competition mode. And one chapter developed into another.

The hero and heroine soon find themselves drawn into a battle of metaphysical beliefs. Two Apache lovers have been trapped in time by a shape-shifter's curse. The lovers? Well, Dani won that round…lots and lots of emotional and physical love scenes.

Once Tia gives in to Dani, she insists there has to be a twist. Ensnared within her own spell, a jealous Apache woman vows that no one will ever free her captives.

Sounding stronger…BUT…the bar has to be raised higher. Tia pushes for the past-life regressions to be dangerous and scary. Dani agrees, but insists the heroine and hero must find themselves strongly bound together through time and other lives.

Kinda of a draw wouldn't you say? Round one to Tia. Round two to Dani. Round three. A mutual agreement: The love between the hero and heroine must be strong enough break the curse cast by the evil one.

To find out how it happens...you'll have to read the book.

One more thing though.

Before this book is ready to send to our publisher, we have one more step to achieve. Make sure our historic storyline stayed believable all the way through. So, off we went the world acclaimed Heard Museum in Phoenix for research. It ended up being a wonderful adventure. Not only did we discover some Apache objects to enhance our story, we also learned that many of the incidents we wrote were darn near spot on. (Spine tingling and lifting neck hairs hit us both.)

Some of the Native American jewlery on display at the Heard Museum.

 Apache wedding dress.

Navajo blanket robes. The Apache traded for goods and would very likely have blankets like these.

Apache footwear on display.

It was a perfect day to enjoy lunch on the patio and make some notes. We have learned the hard way...write it down while fresh in our minds.

We also enjoyed a glass of Twisted Cedar Native American Wine. http://heard.org/

Final round to the competition? To our powerful channeled spirits who helped us become one with the book.

As far as the futuristic…that's an article for another time…After we manage to say farewell to our Apache spirit guides and attempt to contact our space-aged, highly-advanced guardians for more help. Won't that be fun?

To find out more about the writing team Tia Dani and our books visit us at:
http://bookswelove.com/authors/dani-tia/  
http://tiadanismusings.blogspot.com/

Twitter:   https://twitter.com/TiaDani 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tiadani.author 

Time's Enduring Love, our historical time-travel is a 

Books We Love 2014 best seller.

http://amzn.com/B00EVXABV0

Bio: 
Tia Dani is the multi-published writing team made up of good friends Christine Eaton Jones and Beverly Petrone. Together they create endearing and realistic characters, humorous dialogue, and unusual settings. And…best of all…they’re having the time of their lives.

Storytelling has been a passion for Christine (Tia) since childhood when she regularly enthralled the neighborhood children with make-believe fairy tales and wild adventures.

Always the lover of a good romance, Beverly's (Dani) goal is for you to step into the shoes of her heroine, fall head-over-heels in love with her hero, and most of all believe in the magic of love.

Tia Dani happily calls Arizona home where they play in the sunshine and dance in the twilight of the beautiful Sonoran desert.