Sasscer Hill
This author believes that properly staging each scene of a novel is vital, and the first scene the most critical of all. Imagine you are watching the opening of a play. The stage is dim, a wind is blowing, a female figure walks alone on a deserted street, she appears worried—you know immediately this is not a comedy, probably not a cozy. THE SEA HORSE TRADE is a novel about human trafficking, and though it is not without humor, I wanted to set the mood and the stage in the first paragraph.