How did I come up with ‘The Trafficking Consortium?’
Coming up with the idea for my novel ‘The Trafficking Consortium’ occurred quite by accident. In the summer of 2016, I suffered a severe concussion which lay laid me for months. After a trip to the hospital, I started seeing doctors and therapists four to five days a week. In the beginning, I didn’t care. They helped me get better.
About three months after my injury, I realized that I was missing something in my brain, that being the creative stream of images and ideas that flow through my mind every hour and every day of my conscious life. Frankly, I was getting scared. Would it ever return? Would I have to live my life without my favorite friend in my mind? After another two months, I was still wondering.
As a change of pace and to get out of the house, I accompanied my girlfriend when she needed to attend a conference in Washington DC area with her daughter. After arriving, while she was out for the day, I stayed behind and pulled out my drawing tablet and pencils. For three days straight, I drew. Not from imagery in my mind but from photographs and what I saw out the window of my hotel room. All well and good, and it was a change of pace that I needed. Still, though, the creative stream remained elusive.
Voilà
A couple of weeks after I returned home, I found myself sitting in yet another doctor’s office waiting to be called in for an assessment. As I sat there, I watched people come up to the check-in window, hand over their personal information, and sit down to wait. Some of the people I saw were quite attractive, decked out in outfits that emphasized their bodies designed to appeal to potential lovers and bedmates.
Watching them, I suddenly had a thought. “What if?” I asked myself.
- “What if the secretary handed over my personal information to those whose agendas were unrelated to the doctor’s business?”
- “What could happen?” “Do I really want to share my personal information?”
- “Can I trust them?”
- “What can I do if I can’t trust them?”
And for a brief time, my mind ran rampant with the possibilities. On that day and in that instant, a story idea exploded in my mind and consumed me. I had to write it down. In about five weeks, I had written the first draft of ‘The Trafficking Consortium.’ After that, I began the refinement process and six months later, the story was published to outstanding reviews.
Oh my, poor Avril!
Poor Avril Gillios, the heroine in this story. I wrapped her story around the people I observed while waiting to see my doctor. To no fault of her own, she was tagged, kidnapped, and sold into bondage half a world away. Fighting for her life, she never gave up looking for an opportunity to escape. More horrifying, is that she was not alone. Hundreds of people; men and women alike; are taken by the Consortium each year. Most are dead within months. All of them become objects of Consortium members depraved desires. Have you ever wondered how many adults go missing over the years, you should
Her story is one of determination to survive and to return to her old life. Along the way, something buried inside her awakens, and she discovers that despite her disgust towards the organization, she finds that her new owner and master isn’t so bad after all. She struggles with the paradox that she can’t seem to resolve. Her Surviving her ordeal and keeping her soul unstained; drives her work within the system, determined to escape and return to her old life.
In the coming weeks, I’ll talk more about Avril and the Consortium. How I came up with her character, as well as those exposed to her. I’ll write about the motivations of those behind the counter and their private agendas. In the meantime, you can discover for yourself, some of what drives Avril on her webpage at my site.
[https://richardverry.com/stories/consortium/trafficking-consortium/who_is_avril_gillios/]
You can also read the book ‘The Trafficking Consortium’ for yourself. Get it on
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