A New Beginning

So, I've finished the revisions for Able-Bodied and have turned them into my editor. I was relieved and thrilled when she said the book was fantastic! A few changes really improved the story, and I can't wait to see the cover that the Harlequin art department creates for Ransom Bennett, my Delta Force operator. The most exciting thing about finishing the revisions is that now I can begin my next book!!

I love beginnings. My daughter and I just had this conversation about writing Chapter One. She thinks it's the worst part of writing, and says she's tempted to rush through that first chapter so she can get to the "good" parts. I told her that Chapter One should be full of "good" parts! I love writing that first chapter; I love all the possibilities the new story holds, I love laying the groundwork and introducing the characters, and hinting at what is to come. If I've managed to hook the reader in that first chapter, then I've done my job.



Anyway, my next book is a totally self-indulgent book inspired by Gerard Butler. I was thinking about his life, and how he started off as a law student in Scotland with superior grades and a promising career in front of him. So what, besides his involvement with a rock band, made him lose that path and instead led him to a life of debauchery and drinking? How did he finally find his way into acting, and why (why, why??) after all these years, is he still single?

I started playing the "what if" game. What if, a long time ago, he fell in love with a girl? What if the girl came from a different country, and what if her family was very powerful? What if she lied to him about herself, and he didn't know who her family was? What if they eloped, but her family forced them apart and annulled the marriage? What if the experience was enough to make him lose his career and send his life spiraling downward? What if he eventually turned to acting, and became a Hollywood juggernaut? And what if the marriage was never actually annulled? These are the questions that eventually led to my next book, tentatively entitled Heartthrob. I can't wait to get started!!

Here is a picture of the bookmarks I had made up to promote Overnight Sensation. Didn't they come out great? I'll distribute them at the RWA National conference in San Francisco in July, and at the New England Independent Booksellers convention in Boston in September. (Well, I tried to paste a picture of the bookmark here, but it obviously has a mind of its own and I can't get it to show up--sorry!).