The Story Behind the Story -- Remembrance

This is The Book That I Thought Would Never Sell. Hannibal had an easier time getting the elephants over the Alps than my agent and I had selling this book.

Like Second Sight, Remembrance was a story that I worked on for years, on and off, and like Second Sight, I started writing Remembrance while I was in college. I did a lot of theater in college, one act plays, Nora in The Doll House. I even did musical reviews, but since I have a voice like Lucy Ricardo I was always in the chorus.

Remembrance has a theatrical background, but it's way, way in the background. Fundamentally this is ghost story. Here's the book description:

Cathy Martin doesn't believe in ghosts -- until she arrives at her famous grandmother's home on Martha's Vineyard to coauthor the actress's memoirs. Eight writers have already fled the island, and soon Cathy, too, is questioning the strange goings on -- and the motives of Fin McGraw.

Fin, the embodiment of her late grandfather as a young man, has become the constant companion of Cathy's very eccentric and very rich grandmother. He claims to be a struggling actor, yet his story rings false.

Cathy is suspicious even as she craves his touch, his scorching kisses. Does Fin have love or larceny on his mind?

I used a scene from Remembrance as as assignment in my creative writing course, the scene where Cathy, her grandmother Cat, and Had the gardener all puff like crazy on fat black cigars provided by Cat's major domo, Helmut, to chase away Cat's very selfish and very allergic daughter, Patsy. Everyone in the class laughed when I read it aloud.

When I finished, the professor said that the story might someday make a "very nice little romance novel." That was the first I'd ever heard of romance novels, so I didn't understand his condescending tone. When I figured it out later, and when Remembrance was nominated for a RITA, the Oscar of romance writing from the Romance Writers of America, I thought about looking him up and giving him the raspberry.

Remembrance was my first book for Harlequin. Before Temptation bought it, my agent had sent the book to every romance publisher in New York. For a year and a half Remembrance made the rounds. The editors that read the proposal loved it, but passed on buying the book because they couldn't categorize it. The book is a romance, but it's also a ghost story with a strong reincarnation theme. In those days most publishers were not interested in paranormal stories. Remembrance was a square peg book looking for a home in a world of round hole publishers.

I was bummed, so was my agent, but we'd given it our best shot. I sighed and tucked Remembrance away in a drawer.

About a year later I attended a romance writers conference. Susan Shepherd was then an editor at Temptation. In her workshop she said she was looking for unusual stories, stories that didn't fit the norm of romance. That was Remembrance. I called my agent and told her what Susan had said.

What the heck, we decided. The book was just collecting dust so we brushed it off and sent it to Temptation in Toronto. Since we'd had no takers in New York, neither one of us expected much -- I think that's why we forgot about it. Yep, that's not a typo. We forgot about it.

Almost a year to the day later my agent called, so excited she could hardly talk. Susan Shepherd had called her and wanted to buy Remembrance. I was flabbergasted -- and thrilled.

I dedicated the book to Judy and Marie, members of my critique group, and two of the books toughest critics. They loved Remembrance but told me flat out that the first chapter stunk. Thirty-four times it stunk. I finally got it right on the thirty-fifth draft. That's not a typo, either -- I rewrote the first chapter thirty-five times.

This story has two lessons. One, never give up on a book that you love, and two, keep rewriting till you get it right.

Remembrance is available on Kindle, Nook, and at All Romance Ebooks.

The Story Behind the Story -- Second Sight

Finally PubIt!, the ebook platform at Barnes & Noble, has published the updated file of Second Sight. I have no idea what the hold up was, other than I think the PubIt! customer service department is located on the dark side of the moon. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I hate it when I can't get my hands on a book I want to read so I waited for the book to go live. Sorry for the delay. Don't think I'll do it again. Anyway...

I told you about my easy-peasy sales, now we're getting into the tough ones with Second Sight. This is one of my most favorite books. I love everything about it, so much that I've thought about rewriting the book just so I could play with the characters again.

The first character to introduce herself to me was the heroine, Susan Cade, in a scene when she was thirteen, sitting on the backend of a horse trailer on a two-bit racetrack in Oklahoma. I was a junior in college at the time, struggling through Advanced Rhetoric, one of the toughest courses I ever took. I swear the professor stayed up late combing arcane dictionaries for the most obscure words he could find to bamboozle us with the next day. I was so glad when Susan showed up. Writing about her was way more fun than studying written forms of argument.

I survived Advanced Rhetoric with a B. I didn't understand a single word the professor said, barely passed the exams with D's, but I aced the papers -- and I kept writing about Susan. I followed her from Oklahoma to Foxglove Farm in Virginia, where she met Richard Parker-Harris, her cousin Meredith's stepbrother. For Susan it was love at first sight; for Richard it was instant loathing. His nickname for Susan was Troglodyte. She was the bane of Richard's life at Foxglove, especially after she broke his nose with a riding crop.

I wrote other books, other stories, but I always came back to Susan and Richard. By the time I'd sold my second book to Harlequin I'd written close to 500 pages about Susan adoring Richard, and Richard avoiding her like the plague. Until he came home to the States from England, saw Susan for the first time in eight years and fell instantly in lust with her.

The Patriot, that second book for Temptation, was such an easy sale that I naively thought I had a golden touch. That's embarrassing to admit but it's the truth. This was the perfect time, I decided, to send my editor a proposal for Susan and Richard's story. I named it Gift Horse and popped it in the mail.

I was positive my editor would love the book but she didn't -- she hated it. Most of all she hated Richard. She utterly despised him. She called me and spent ten minutes trashing him and the story I loved. She didn't have one nice word to say. Ouch. I was stunned. Susan was devastated.

About a week later I got the proposal back from my editor with her very detailed notes. I read them and gritted my teeth; read them again and had to take an Excedrin. I was so ticked off. How dare she! What did she know anyway? I had a royal, three-day hissy fit and then I realized, damn it -- she was right.

Richard was a complete jerk. He was not the least bit likable or sympathetic. He had good reasons for behaving like an ass. He drank too much to deaden his emotional pain, but I failed to show that to the reader. I knew better, but I was so enamored with the story and yes, I admit it, my own brilliance (cough) that I blew it.

What do writers do when we blow it? We rewrite.

I rethought the story -- especially the beginning -- and I rethought how I'd portrayed Richard. Then I called my editor. I told her she was right, that I'd rewritten the proposal and asked her if she'd read it again. Fortunately, she said yes. I sent the revised proposal, she read it, she liked it, and she bought Second Sight. Though I still like the title Gift Horse better.

Susan was over the moon. I was happy, and humbled. Here's the moral to this story: sometimes the editor is right.

Gift Horse -- I mean, Second Sight -- is available on Kindle, at All Romance ebooks and finally on Nook.

The Story Behind the Story -- Aftershock

This is the sequel to The Patriot, which was part of the Rebels & Rogues 12-month mini-series from Temptation. Aftershock was part of Passion's Quest. This series was only 4 books, one for each of the four elements. The tagline for the series was "Earth, Wind, Fire and Water...the four elements -- but nothing is more elemental than passion."

Earth is the element I chose to write about in Aftershock, basically because the other three were already taken. Here's the blurb:

Rockie Wexler's father has created a device that predicts earthquakes. Unfortunately it can also cause them, and now both Dr. Wexler and the TAQ box have disappeared. Gutsy and brilliant Rockie knows she needs help to rescue her father from the bad guys. Help arrives in the form of Leslie Sheridan. The hard-edged, self-described pain in the butt turns her world upside down. And Sheridan has his own reasons for hating anyone with the name of Wexler.

The TAQ box, short for Tremor and Quake Warning Device, is a figment of my imagination. A couple nights ago I heard a snatch of a radio program about Nikola Tesla, the great 19th-century inventor. He was tinkering with a machine something like the TAQ box. According to the snippet I heard, when the cops and the fire department showed up outside his lab one night after he'd tested the device, he took a hammer to the machine and smashed it to bits.

I hadn't heard that story when I wrote the Prologue for Aftershock, so that was kind of freaky. So was the research I did on earthquakes. I started noticing rock formations and land features as I was out driving around and ended up scaring myself when I realized how many earthquakes had likely occurred around here over the eons.

Aftershock was one of the easiest books I've ever written. It pretty much wrote itself, and that worried me. Easy and effortless isn't a guarantee of good. I kept wondering if I'd screwed up someplace. I fretted that the book was awful, that readers would hate it, but when Aftershock came out I got a ton of letters from readers saying how much they'd loved it. Whew!

My artist friend Judy Johnson designed the cover for the ebook of Aftershock. I love Judy's cover because it depicts an actual scene from the book, one of Rockie's escapes from the bad guys. The primary bad guy is Conan from The Patriot. I had the best time bringing Conan back, and Maxwell, too.

Aftershock has one of the best last lines I think I've ever written in a book: "I love you, Bullwinkle." My other best last line is in Remembrance.

Aftershock is available for Kindle and Nook. And I'm glad to tell Nook readers that The Patriot is finally available in the Nook Store. Yay!

See this link for more on Nikola Tesla. A truly remarkable man.

The Story Behind the Story -- The Patriot

Since today is the Fourth of July it seemed the perfect time to tell you the story behind The Patriot. This is the last of the easiest-sales-I-ever-made.

The Patriot was part of the Rebels & Rogues mini-series from Temptation. The name Rebels & Rogues pretty much tells you what the editors wanted, a bad boy who was really a hero in disguise.

Here's the Reader Note I wrote for The Patriot:

Like the best emeralds, the most interesting heroes have flaws. It's their imperfections that make them alluring -- for the writer as well as the reader. These defects catch your eye and your breath, add depth and dimension to the story.

When I first envisioned The Patriot, I thought Nevin Maxwell was the hero. But when the phone rang at the beginning of chapter one, Ellison Quade answered. He talked and I listened. He told me about himself, about the Admiral and Max, but mostly he told me about Hallie. "Just get me on a plane for L.A.," he said. "I'll take care of the rest."

Which he did. Up to a point. The most important part of the story he left to Hallie. Making Quade lovable wasn't a problem -- what woman in her right mind wouldn't fall for a sexy gray-eyed Scorpio with hidden, unplumbed depths -- the challenge was making him believe he was lovable. Flaws and all. It took her a while, but Hallie convinced him, Admirably.

And irrevocably.

I really and truly thought Max was going to be the hero of The Patriot. Shows what I know. It's a rare gift when a character like Quade jumps off your fingertips, though Max is no slouch. I still receive emails and letters from readers asking if I'm ever going to write a book about Max and a book about Conan. I will, if I can come up with an idea worthy of them.

When I finished the first three chapters of The Patriot, I called my editor and read her a scene from Chapter Two. In the scene Hallie comes home from work, realizes that Quade has been in her house and rushes to check the security system. Here's the part I read to my editor over the phone:

The security system was on -- it had beeped when she'd let herself in -- but she raced to the walk-in closet in the living room to check it, anyway. It was still on. Damn smart cookie. Hallie doubled her fist on the wall beside the control panel and leaned her head against it. She was shaking.

"Tough guy, huh?" the smart cookie said from behind her.

"Tough girl." Hallie snapped her head around and saw him standing in the closet doorway. "It's hard to tell, I know, but take my word for it."

"Not that hard," he replied, leaning one shoulder against the door frame. "Your system isn't worth beans. Take my word for it."

"It's top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art."

He folded his arms and smiled at her with all the warmth of a glacier. "So am I."

When I finished reading, my editor said, "Hurry up and send me that book so I can buy it." I did and she bought it.

The Patriot is the last book I wrote on my first computer, an Epson QX-10 that cost me $2500 in 1985. Eppie worked on 2 floppy disk drives. The monitor and printer were extra, and not cheap, either, but Eppie sure beat a typewriter, even with her tiny, 8-inch monitor.

Eppie got me through 5 books. The sixth was The Patriot. One day I noticed that the air blowing out of her vents was really warm. The hard plastic case was hot to the touch. I knew that couldn't be good, but I didn't have time to take her in for repair -- the book was due in two weeks. I called my computer guy. He told me to keep Eppie cool, finish the book as fast as I could and bring her in.

I wrote the last 3 chapters in the middle of November with three box fans placed on the seats of three chairs ringed behind mine, and a small oscillating fan on the desk beside my keyboard -- all aimed at and blowing full tilt on Eppie.

I finished the book in ten days, mailed it to my editor and lugged Eppie into the shop. Her power supply was totally fried. My computer guy said I was damn lucky Eppie hadn't blown up or set the house on fire.

Inspiration can come from the strangest places. Did worrying that Eppie might burst into flames give me the idea to blow up Shark Island?

I don't know, but I still wonder.

The First Daylily of Summer

Isn't she a beaut? A big, 6-inch lemon yellow bloom -- the first one to pop in my daylily bed on the west side of the house.

What's the name of this daylily? Uh, I think it's "Big Bird", but I wouldn't take any bets. A serious gardener would know the variety name. A serious gardener would have written the name in permanent ink on a plant stake and stuck it in the dirt.

Do I own plant stakes? Yes. Do I own a Sharpie? Yes. Did I intend to label this daylily? Yes, but somehow I never got to around to it.

I used to do the same thing with photographs. I always meant to label them, to write names and dates on the back, but I never got around to that, either. Drove my husband Michael crazy. Digital cameras solved the photo problem, but my flowerbeds are still a guessing game.

I have a really odd looking daylily that's budded out, but not blooming yet. All the buds are on one central stalk. I don't recall ever seeing a daylily like this, and of course, I didn't label it when I planted it.

I'll post a photo when it blooms. Maybe one of you can tell me the name. If so I promise I'll dig out my plant stakes and my Sharpie.

My Big Fat Greek Decision

No, I'm not Greek. That was just to get your attention.

Okay, here's my decision -- Now that my husband Michael is well I'm going to start writing again, but I'm not going to write for a commercial publishing house. I'm not going to write what an editor wants or what my agent thinks an editor wants. I'm going to write what I want to write, and hopefully what you want to read.

How am I going to do this? By epublishing my books myself. I can do that now, thanks to Kindle, Nook and the other reading devices out there. I don't know them all; I'm still learning about epublishing so feel free to educate me.

When I realized I could do this, that I didn't have to twist myself into a pretzel to give Editor A what she wants, or what my agent thinks she wants, that all I have to do is write the book and hit publish, I got so light-headed I had to lie down.

Until I finish a new book I'm publishing my backlist titles that I have the rights to on Kindle. Here are the titles I've put up so far on Amazon:

Captain Rakehell
The Duke's Downfall
Nightwing
Molly and the Phantom
Second Sight
Remembrance

Captain Rakehell and The Duke's Downfall are Regencies I wrote for Fawcett as Jane Lynson. Molly and the Phantom, Second Sight and Remembrance are paranormals I wrote for Harlequin Temptation and Nightwing, also a Temptation, is a vampire romance.

I'm having a blast doing this. It takes time to learn the conversion process, to come up with covers and blurbs, but it's fun. The best part of epublishing is that I'm in control -- I'm in charge of everything. I'm the author, the editor, the copy editor, and the cover designer. Note that I didn't say artist. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler.

Captain of my own ship. Mistress of my own destiny at last. Woo! I'm feeling light-headed again.