Where did the idea for Web of Echoes come from?

Where did the idea for Web of Echoes come from?

I'm always asked where the ideas for my stories come from. And there is no one answer - every book is different. Sometimes it's a song (like in my book, Betrayed written under my RM Alexander pen name), sometimes it's a dream (the Shadows series, again under the Alexander pen name). Sometimes it's a combination of a song oand a random idea that seemed to melt together just right (the Strategies of the Heart series, Alexander), and sometimes, I have NO idea. 

But Web of Echoes was none of those. 

The Beginning

So a few years ago (2018, I think), I knew I wanted to try something a little different from the romantically-driven suspense that I'd been writing under my original pen name of RM Alexander. I LOVED the genre and didn't want to give it up completely, but I also needed something new. A different kind of challenge. Something to freshen up my imagination so I didn't get stuck in one place and keep writing the same story over and over again. Creatively, that wasn't what I was after. 

I KNEW I wanted it to be an adventure of some kind. Something kind of Indiana Jones-y or Tomb Raider-y (I love the game when I get a chance to play), where I could take my character into different countries, ancient ruins, something with danger and, sure, maybe some romance but only as a very minor sub-plot and in no way the driving force of the story. 

About the same time, an author services company sent out some feelers to me and asked if I might be interested in submitting a story into a time-travel themed anthology they were putting together. And that sounded like a whole lot of fun. 

Where to go from there

I contacted one of my author friends who I sometimes bounce ideas off of and told her about the anthology. I wanted to participate but didn't have anything on my desk that I thought would work. Until I mentioned the Tomb Raider-y type character that I wanted to play with. It was in the following half hour of brainstorming that Web of Echoes started to take shape. 

From there, Caitlin Benoit came into focus pretty quickly. Headstrong and somewhat set in her ways, she was intelligent, sassy, and strong right of the gate. I LOVED her. From there, it was trying to figure out all the ins and outs and rules of her time traveling world. I admit the goal has changed a time or two in the early stagges, the antagonists changed a time or two, but it was immediately clear  story that would be submitted to the company was in no way, shape, or form a short story. It wasn't even a single novel. 
And that's when I realized the Web of Echoes would be the LARGEST single series I had ever undertaken at eight (!) books. 

So that's it. The story behind Web of Echoes and Caitlin Benoit. I wanted something different, an adventure, and this series has definitely given that. 

Hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. 

See you next week!
Back to blog