by Karen Rose
I’m always asked: Where do you get your inspiration? In my newest book, NO ONE LEFT TO TELL, the inspiration for my heroine came to me as I watched TV as a small child.
In the city where I grew up, a martial arts master advertised his studio with a jingle that everyone I knew could sing, word for word. It ended with two cute kids saying: “Nobody bothers me. Nobody bothers me either.” In another TV ad, the master is walking through a dark parking lot when several thugs attack! He fights them off all by himself and the thugs run away.
Here's the TV ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7PEMGuA6tw
As a geeky kid who was frequently bullied, I wished I could be like the martial artist! But the analytical (and maybe cynical?) side of my brain wondered what would happen if a black belt were truly attacked by real thugs who didn’t politely wait for their turn to fight. Years later I heard that the instructor had been attacked by real thugs and seriously injured. Yet I can find no documentation for this incident in any newspaper archive, so it’s likely an urban myth.
Nonetheless, it made me wonder how he’d feel, lying in a hospital, his body broken. Would he be angry? Ashamed? His confidence shaken? What would happen the next time he walked across a parking lot? Could he face his students? What would it take for him to regain his confidence?
NO ONE LEFT TO TELL’s heroine, Paige Holden, holds a black belt in karate. Paige has had a long string of unsuccessful dating relationships. She’d given up on finding Mr. Right, focusing instead on her work. She taught self-defense to women until the night that changed her life, nine months in the past. On that night, Paige and her friend were attacked, but rather than defending the two of them, Paige is critically injured and her friend is murdered before her eyes.
Paige starts NO ONE LEFT TO TELL physically healed, but psychologically damaged. She must not only fight the villain, but also her own lack of confidence – the loss of what she calls her “tiger within.” Paige’s character - her mental state at the beginning of the story and her journey to reclaim herself - was inspired by a TV jingle that I can still sing, word for word.