I’m not ashamed to admit that the hot drama on HBO—True Blood—changed me forever. It impacted my vision of the kind of paranormal world I wanted to create when I started writing Wild Point Island. I became instantly addicted to this love story of a vampire and small town waitress, and then I let my imagination fly as I began to write my own drama—a romance set on a mythical island off the coast of North Carolina, connected to the mainland by a bridge that only the residents of the island could see. I loved that concept. And it’s amazing how photos helped me conceptualize my story.
For example, my book cover reflected the idea of the bridge so beautifully. The artist put little stars around the bridge.
Wild Point Island was cut off from the rest of civilization. Victorian in architecture, it was fun to imagine the quaint details of the houses.
The building pictured on my cover is the Blue Dolphin Restaurant. The restaurant is owned by the residents of the island and used as a kind of safe house to get on and off the island without the humans who live on the mainland ever suspecting.
The Blue Dolphin Restaurant sits near a dock.
Here is an interior shot:
And here is the house that my heroine Ella Pattenson and her sister Lily returned to when they came back to Wild Point Island. I love the look of this house. In the story, Ella and Lily were banished from the island twenty years ago and now they’re returning to their childhood home, a very dangerous place, to rescue their father. You can’t see the old stables in the back of the house, but they’re there.
Creating the Victorian look of the island was easy. What was more difficult was coming up with a plausible reason why my characters were on an island and why they were confined to an island for over 400 years. I hooked the backstory for Wild Point Island on a real historical event—The Lost Colony of Roanoke—and I used the disappearance of these 95 American colonists as the springboard for my story. What if the colonists didn’t die, as most historians thought, but instead relocated to another island? What if, in their struggle to survive, they ate a local plant, which transformed them physiologically into another life form—a revenant—granting them immortality, but at a price? They must remain on the island forever.
I liked using a real life event as backstory. I even took the names of my characters from the original manifest of the boat that sailed from England in the 1590’s and settled on Roanoke Island. I liked also that my hero, Simon Viccars, would be confined to the island, because he wouldn’t be apart of the modern world. He’d be a bit old-fashioned and more courtly in his manners.
Because my hero, Simon Viccars, is a revenant he can assume human form for only part of the time. Like a vampire, he is sensitive to the sun, but it’s the heat more than the light. During the day he is in a spirit form and confined to the walls of his house, recharging. After 4:00, he can assume human form, and he is all man. Simon’s been married, but the death of his wife is what drives him to get off the island. When he meets the heroine, he hasn’t had real feelings for a woman in close to 100 years.
Wild Point Island is not a graphic novel, but in some ways I wish it could have been. The photo to the right shows the gravesite of Simon’s wife. He visits it one day to tell her that he’s finally found someone new.
When I wrote Wild Point Island, I had this secret wish to include a cadre of photos. Whenever I read a novel, I like to pretend that the story is real. It would have been nice to show Ella and Simon together. To show Ella and Lily strolling along the beach. To show Uncle Teddy in his stately mansion.
Someday I predict a writer will do that and that novel will be a sensation.
I’m still toying with the idea of coming up with a kind of companion picture book for Wild Point Island. What do you think??
Wild Point Island Contest
Sponsored by Kate Lutter
As a newly published author, I’m looking to expand my Email list. (This list is never given or sold to anyone else. I use it only to announce release information of my books.) So, if you’re willing to share your name and email address and answer the contest question, you could win a free copy
of Wild Point Island!
First /Last Name _____________________________________
Email Address _______________________________________
Contest Question: What’s the name of your favorite novel? Explain why in 25 words or less.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
(For me, Wuthering Heights. I love the hauntingly intense aspect of the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine.)
Wild Point Island
By Kate Lutter
Banished from Wild Point Island as a child, Ella Pattenson, a half human-half revenant, has managed to hide her true identity as a descendent of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Thought to have perished, the settlers survived but were transformed into revenants--immortal beings who live forever as long as they remain on the island.
Now, Ella must return to the place of her birth to rescue her father from imprisonment and a soon to be unspeakable death. Her only hope is to trust a seductive revenant who seems to have ties to the corrupt High Council. Simon Viccars is sexy and like no man she’s ever met. But he’s been trapped on the island for 400 years and is willing to do almost anything for his freedom.
With the forces of the island conspiring against her, Ella must risk her father, her heart, and her life on love.
Amazon paperback Amazon Kindle Barnes and Noble Paperback
Amazon paperback Amazon Kindle Barnes and Noble Paperback
About the Author
Kate Lutter believes she was born to write. She wrote her first novel when she was in eighth grade, but then almost burned her house down when she tried to incinerate her story in the garbage can because she couldn’t get the plot to turn out right. Now, many years later, she lives in NJ with her husband and five cats (no matches in sight) and spends her days writing contemporary paranormal romances, traveling the world, and hanging out with her four wild sisters. She is happy to report that her debut novel, Wild Point Island, the first in a series, has just been published by Crescent Moon Press. She is busy writing the sequel and her weekly travel blog entitled Hot Blogging with Chuck, which features her very snarky and rascally almost famous cat.
Website: www.katelutter.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/katelutternovelist
Twitter: www.twitter.com/katelutter
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