No, I don't mean literally - and no Nina is not Mama_Rah, In recent times I have found myself adrift and all at sea. I needed an anchor and I needed earthing and one of the things that has helped is - in those few minutes when I have some time _ I have returned to writing and not just blogging. Nina represents a current work in progress and I have shared fragments of what I have written before, but with new impetus I have now tapped into Nina on an emotional level - rather than reporting her story as a news event (which is not what an author is there to do) and she has really taken off with the novel which has undergone some rewriting and restructuring including the insertion of a new chapter.
Additionally while still very much a work in progress (and there is about half to write) I have moreorless come up with the cover design I want and tentatively have two choices of back blurb.
The cover.
Blurb 1:
Nina thought she was heading home.
Instead, she vanished.
Abducted without warning and swept into a criminal network that spans borders and seas, Nina finds herself trapped alongside a group of young women whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As familiar landmarks disappear behind hoods, locked doors and endless stretches of dark water, hope becomes a fragile commodity. Yet in the midst of fear, unexpected friendships begin to form. Oriana's innocent persistence, Valentina's stubborn optimism and the shared determination of the other girls offer Nina something she thought she had already lost:
A reason to keep going.
But survival carries a cost, and every new stage of their journey strips away another piece of the world they once knew.
Alone, frightened and far from home, Nina must decide what kind of person she will become when everything else is taken away.
A haunting story of loss, resilience and the extraordinary human need for connection in the darkest of circumstances.
Blurb 2:
The first thing they took was her freedom.
The second was her name.
When Nina is abducted and smuggled across borders, she quickly learns that escape is impossible and trust is dangerous. Trapped among a group of equally terrified young women, she is forced into a world ruled by fear, silence and obedience.
Yet even in captivity, human connections survive.
As bonds form between Nina and the girls around her, small acts of kindness begin to challenge the darkness closing in around them.
But hope can be as dangerous as despair.
And in a world where lives are bought, sold and discarded, every friendship has a price.
A gripping and emotionally charged novel about survival, courage and the stubborn refusal of the human spirit to be broken.
Both of them might be a bit over long. What do you think?
Stay safe and well as always my friends.
