I decided to revamp my NNWM 2006 plot after musing on the general feel of the story. I sort of felt that it was going towards the very idealistic romantic sort of tale that you’d find in romance novels.

(Never mind that I’ve been reading heaps of those of lately. :S )

Inspired by the current crisis in the Middle East, I sort of felt that it would be interesting to place my couple in a war-torn country. A Romeo-Juliet kind of love between two individuals who met under the worst of conditions. But instead of making my Romeo, a…well, Romeo and Juliet, a typical Juliet, I’ve decided to engineer a twist to both characters – so to speak.

My Romeo is someone who:

• Is a dedicated and loyal Israeli intelligence soldier
• Has grandparents who survived the Holocaust
• Has a father who is involved in Israeli politics
• Despises Arabs yet desires some form of peace to come to his people

My Juliet is someone who:

• The daughter of a Hezbollah follower
• Betrothed to the son of a powerful leader in Southern Lebanon
• Is secretly practising Christianity
• Despises the Israelis for beginning the war yet desires peace through diplomacy

The two will met in the oddest of circumstances when my Romeo attempts to inflitrate the Hezbollah organization. They will fall in love despite all odds and through each other, discover a world beyond this one. However, their love will come at a price.

My Romeo will be forced to choose between love and allegiance to his country and in the heat of the moment, he will choose his country. My Juliet, betrayed, will reveal him to her people and put together a plan that will kill their love and all around them. Their love will be forgotten, replaced by hatred for each other, and this will consume them forever.

I’ll be looking at how racism never ceases to exist, how peace and love are fragile things in today’s world, and how sometimes, love just isn’t enough.

Themes: Suicide bombing, racism, religious freedom, tolerance, war & suffering, politics.