The Birth of The Seven Deadly Sins

I don't consider myself a very religious person, yet the idea of the Seven Deadly Sins always was a source of fascination for me. A series I enjoy goes into these sins greatly and I always love reading it, so one day while I was daydreaming and flirting with my editor I thought of a single phrase. This phrase compounded into an idea for a book, which then turned into an idea for a series. I can honestly say this is the first time I had a title before I had a plot!

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The phrase that had come to mind was "Children of Sin," which had me thinking, what would make a group of children considered such? I couldn't get it off my mind. The 'title,' as I started to consider it, was distracting me from my homework, my daily life, and invading my sleep.

Finally, I started to form a plot. These children weren't "Sin" because of what they have done, it's because of what they make other people do. They are Sin, in the most literal sense of the word. These unfortunate children, who's only fault was being born, cause those around them to become overwhelmed with the Sin that they represent (Wrath, Envy, Greed, Lust, etc.) and, more or less, go raving mad and act unlike they would normally. It's been a source of entertainment between my editor and myself as I have developed and outlined this idea (with the threat that if I fail to write it I will be very much dead) and I am eagerly working on it when I can.

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As I was in the process of outlining Children of Sin I saw an opportunity to not only make it easier on myself in the writing process, but prolong my enjoyment as well. There are seven sins, so why not write it in a series? Instead of calling the book Children of Sin it could be the name of the series. The title of each book would be the Sin who's story I was telling. So I threw this idea at my editor who decided that I was an idiot for not thinking of this sooner. That is when I drafted the outline for the first book, Wrath.

-M. Hendrix
2012.2.25