Kenya Wright: A daytime writer and nighttime thief

Kenya Wright, author of No Ordinary Love, joins HEA to share how she "steals" from the world around her to create her stories and make them stronger.

Kenya: When I steal, inspiration sparks my senses and a character is born.

My creation process happens many ways. A song hits my ears and I hear a new story between the melody and the hard-hitting drum. Some bloody scene from a film plays, and I'm inspired to write an alternate moment, where the characters fall in love, and maybe everything works out according to plan.

I bite into a tiny cake filled with warm chocolate, and am transported into a sugary world, where lollipop nymphs battle against licorice soldiers.

I walk into an art gallery. Celebrated paintings hang before my eyes, and I am no longer in this world. I am flying high, a cool breeze rushing through my hair, and there's a large castle up ahead, where a prince with dark eyes and a wounded heart rests. He's all alone, and my new heroine is wondering how she can heal him.

The inspiration to write my current novel happened just like that.

Cruising YouTube, I stumbled onto an old Calvin Klein ad that presented this gorgeous Japanese soccer play, sporting designer underwear. There the man stood, surrounded by flashing cameras and adoring fans. It could've just been me, but he didn't look overjoyed. Instead, he looked scared. Fear showed in his eyes, and in the way he flexed his fingers in and out.

I wondered to myself, what could be going on in his head? Was there some major life decision that he had to solve during the photo shoot? Was he guilty of something, and scared others smelled his shame? Or was he battling a broken heart?

Now, to be fair, this is a writer thing.

Authors overanalyze, when it's really simple. We fill our heads with fantastical possibilities for any given situation, when there's a basic logic to most day-to-day decisions.

Still, I fantasized about this handsome Japanese model. In my mind, I followed him after the photo shoot. It was raining. He wore a long jacket, and I tiptoed after him, while holding an umbrella. Every step he took, I remained right behind him, in the shadows.

We walked all over Tokyo, and to help me add to my daydream's details, I bought tons of books on the city. I read about the culture and customs of that area. I subscribed to Tokyo Street fashion blogs, followed famous Japanese actors' Instagram pages and even rented lots of the country's top-selling movies. On Facebook, I asked my friends if anyone had been to Tokyo, found several, Skyped them at different times and interviewed them all about their stay.

I absorbed everything on the city, people and culture, stole as much as I could, and then returned to my gorgeous hero, and began to write his story.

I'm a writer who loves to steal.

My cousin's childhood battle with her father served as a muse for both of my main characters' backstories. Non-fiction books on social influence and emotional intelligence gave me great ideas for intimate scenes. A sad song inspired a breakup moment. A funny joke gave me ideas for the snappy dialogue between the hero and heroine.

During the day, I typed away my hero's story.

At night, I traveled through shadows and burglarized the world. I read celebrated books on intriguing topics, listened to experimental music, prepared an exotic recipe and even drew what I wanted my characters to look like. With each activity and theft, I shifted deep into my world, at times needing to be slapped by a hard hand, in order to come back to reality.

The world inspired me, from everyday friends to popular trends. Everything was up for grabs and triggered a new detail for my plotline.

I consumed it all, broke the things down into tiny pieces, reshaped their ideas, re-theorized the themes and then redefined my stolen items to fit the story that I wanted to tell.

Here's the blurb about No Ordinary Love (courtesy of Swoon Romance):

Debt-ridden author Nyomi must complete her book on Tokyo's underground sex industry in order to revive her stalled career. But first, she needs to get permission from Kenji, head of the Japanese mafia who controls the red light district under his father's watchful eyes. With one meeting, Kenji traps Nyomi in his gaze and locks her into a deal—spend time with him during her three-week stay, and she will earn the access she needs in order to make her book a best seller.

But Kenji's plans for Nyomi not only include allowing her a look around, but also a first-hand taste of the kinds of things that go on behind closed doors. And if Nyomi isn't careful, she just might find herself falling for Kenji, a man with many demons and a passion so dark, it could change everything you think you know about love.

No Ordinary Love is a dark erotic romance from bestselling erotica author Kenya Wright.

Find out more about Kenya and her books at www.kenyawright.com.