Jeannie Lin – Guest Blog – Mashups and Crossovers

When I was fast drafting Butterfly Swords, I tried a suggestion I got from author Candace Havens about making a collage for the story with images to help you visualize the characters and setting. You put the collage up over your desk so you can look up at anytime and keep your alive in your head.


I found the exercise of finding images very helpful and when I thought of trying to explain the “mashup” elements of Butterfly Swords, the pictures tell a thousand words. Here are the two collages, I created for my heroine, Ai Li, and my hero, Ryam.

When I look back, a lot went into Butterfly Swords. There are elements of martial arts movies, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings – all the best of everything I loved. The story of my heart. And from the beginning, I was convinced that the one thing that would tie it all together was romance.


I had tried writing the story once before as a straight fantasy, but found it just didn’t work until I brought in the core love story to tie it all together. There are very few stories that don’t have some element of romance within it. The central romance of is what brings the characters to life and gives a reason behind all the action and adventure.


Jeannie Lin writes historical romantic adventures set in Tang Dynasty China. Her short story, The Taming of Mei Lin from Harlequin Historical Undone is available September 1. Her Golden Heart award-winning novel, Butterfly Swords, was released October 1 from Harlequin Historical and received 4-stars from Romantic Times Reviews—“The action never stops, the love story is strong and the historical backdrop is fascinating.”

Join the launch celebration at http://www.butterfly-swords.com for giveaways and special features. Visit Jeannie online at: http://www.jeannielin.com