Ripped from the headlines – Drug Cartels, Walls, Tunnels and Nike’s Wings
I started writing Nike’s Wings with an image in my mind of a woman with a tattoo of wings on her back. As a pantser – someone who writes from the seat of her pants – I had no idea what her story was. I just knew I wanted to know why she had had the tattoo, especially since a tattoo that size would have been pretty painful to apply.
When you write by the seat of your pants it does help if you have a pretty wide range of knowledge since you never know where a story will take you. I certainly didn’t expect it to take me on the edges of the fight with the drug cartels.
One thing I did know from my reading – walls never work, they rarely keep the people you want either out or in, and haven’t since time immemorial. The Great Wall of China didn’t keep out the people it was intended to keep out, despite attempts to extend it. In WWII prisoner of war camps, tunnels were dug. During the years of the Berlin Wall there were folks who also dug tunnels, flew balloons, etc.
The same is true of the border wall between the US and Mexico that was meant to deter drug trafficking and illegal immigration. There have been reports of tunnels built under the walls, of ultralights carrying drugs over the walls, etc. The drug cartels like Sinaloa have been digging tunnels to transport marijuana and other drugs for years, something I knew from reading newspapers. So why was it a surprise when a drug lord escaped from prison through one?
Nike’s Wings
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GHE94K
Valerie Douglas is a prolific writer and genre-crosser, much to the delight of her fans. She reads and writes classic fantasy, romance, suspense, and as 
