Jan
25
2012
She needed his help to find her son – no matter what the cost!
Surgeon Emma Garrett had made sacrifices to follow her dream of becoming a doctor – and yet none was as painful as turning down Gray McKenzie. But not even the threat of losing her greatest love could stop Emma from fulfilling her dream of repairing the bodies of damaged children.
Now widowed with a thriving Seattle practice and an eighteen-year-old son, Emma is suddenly plunged into the wilderness when her son and his friend disappear on a kayaking trip. She desperately needs the help of an expert who knows the territory – and nobody knows the Pacific Ocean’s north coast wilderness like Gray McKenzie.
But when Emma arrives on Gray’s remote doorstep unannounced and determined that Gray will rescue her son, she soon realizes that reawakening her past may cost far more than she’d imagined.
Available from Amazon USA and Amazon UK
I’m thrilled to be able to announce that If You Loved Me is now available. The story of children’s surgeon Emma and wilderness photographer Gray McKenzie is one of my favourite, and the first of four books I wrote for Kensington Books a few years ago.
If You Loved Me is now available in Kindle edition. A sample chapter is also available at Amazon USA and Amazon UK
The new print edition will be out in February.
Have a great day!
Vanessa
Jan
6
2012
(This post also appeared at PenWarriors.com)
It’s January and I’m plotting my life in 2012. As with most tales, there’s a backstory:
- SETTING: Vanessa’s newly remodelled study. Fresh paint, new carpet, several years of hoarding cleared out. Time: mid-December
- GREMLIN (Vanessa’s internal critic): Here it is 2012 and you’ve got a todo list the size of the Grand Canyon. Get organized, woman!
- VANESSA: I visited the grand canyon back in 2011 and I KNOW it’s a mile deep. Maybe I can sort this mess into a stack of smaller piles.
- GREMLIN: You need a system.
- VANESSA (sorting):
- GREMLIN: Look at that heap of TODOs! I suppose you think you’re Superwoman now?
- VANESSA: Shut up. I’m setting goals.
- GREMLIN: Hah! You cleaned out your office last month, now you’re going for world’s worst task hoarder!
- VANESSA (looking for lethal weapon): Kill the gremlin … kill the gremlin.
- GREMLIN: You need a syst–No! No! Don’t shoot! You– (GREMLIN slinks out of room, slamming door and leaving blood behind on new carpet)
- VANESSA (Locks door behind GREMLIN, then starts looking for a system…)
- CRITIC (whispers through door): I told you so!
Obviously, this story is never going to hit the bestseller lists, but thankfully as December rolled towards January, I embarked on a search for a … (okay, GREMLIN, you win) a system for managing my Grand Canyon sized TODO list. Back in October (see Necessary Lies, Stephen Covey, and This Writer), I resolved to follow Stephen Covey’s suggestion of focusing on those important but not urgent tasks that build towards future goals (Quadrant II goals). I succeeded in putting First Things First for ten days and spent the first part of each day on my novel, NECESSARY LIES. On the eleventh day, unfortunately, NECESSARY LIES got buried by a pile of important AND urgent tasks, and GREMLIN woke up.
- GREMLIN: How can you call yourself a writer, if you’re not writing? You’ll never finish that book.
- VANESSA: Yes, I will, but other things are important too! I just need a system that keeps the most important things in front of me.
- GREMLIN: System, smystem. You gotta USE your system. Every day. Like brushing your teeth.
- VANESSA: Well … yeah.
Gremlin isn’t supposed to win arguments … or sneak through locked doors.
So I went looking for a system that would help me focus on important goals while keeping my life under control. My requirements were:
- keep Quadrant II goals in front of me each day
- remind me of urgent-but-not-important commitments (Quadrant I)
- give me a way to record (and remember) time-sensitive commitments
- allow me to access both urgent and non-urgent goals and tasks on my iPhone, iPad, and any computer I use.
At least one of my goals had been achieved – with my wonderful husband’s help, we’d transformed my study from a hoarder’s hell into an inviting study. Now it was time to organize my goals and my life. Over Christmas, I tried out a few ideas:
- I read the Michael Hyatt article, “Is that task important or merely urgent?” which mentioned using Priority Matrix to emulate the Covey 4-sector organizer. I downloaded Priority Matrix (for Mac, iPad, and iPhone). I installed the software and put my TODO list into Priority Matrix sectors. Here’s a simplified version of what I did:
- Priority Matrix + Covey trial: I found Priority Matrix flexible, and definitely easy to work with using Covey’s 4-quadrant model on my Mac, and I was pleased to find that the Apps for the iPhone and iPad synchronized well. (I also learned that Priority Matrix is in alpha development for Windows.) By Christmas I had realized that while I loved the 4-sector view and synchronization features of Priority Matrix, for the system to be effective, I needed to visit it every day. The best way too make sure I did that was to use the same application for appointments, other time sensitive commitments, and goals. Priority matrix didn’t have the scheduling and reporting features I needed.
- Getting Things Done + Remember the Milk - Over Christmas I talked with my son about his experience using David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system with Remember the Milk, a Web/Android/iPhone app. GTD sounded too high-maintenance for me, but if you’re a GTD fan, check out Advanced GTD with Remember The Milk, and also take a look at the simplified version described in Monk to Done.
- Covey + Remember the Milk - If Remember the Milk could work with GTD, maybe I could make it work with Covey’s First Things First model. I decided to try out the free version of Remember the Milk (RTM) and soon realized that this friendly, flexible application could:
- be used on in all common Web browsers, Android phones, iPhones, and iPad
- synchronize across all installations, i.e. phone, tablet, Web (daily sync is free, more frequent sync requires upgrading to the pro version)
- have separate lists for different category tasks (achieved by setting task “category” and adding your own lists and/or modifying RTM’s default lists. Some of my categories are WRITING, RESEARCH, PROMOTION, BUSINESS TASKS, PERSONAL) Tasks can be viewed by category, or in a big list of “All Tasks”
- optionally set due date and time, specify repeating intervals for regular tasks, plus time commitment for tasks (I’ve set Quadrant II goals I want to visit every day to “repeat: every 1 day”)
- prioritize (priority 1, 2, or 3), categorize, and tag tasks
- create saved searches using lists (I Googled “rtm + Covey” and found links to a number of posts on RTM’s website (the Google search gave me better results than RTM’s own internal site search)
- send a daily list of tasks, and also a 15 minute reminder of individual tasks, to my phone.
- It would be wonderful if RTM allowed me to choose either its Priority 1, 2, 3 system or a Covey quadrant model of priorities, but many RTM users have found ways to make Covey’s First Things First and RTM work together.
- Result = RTM + Covey. I tried using RTM’s priorities, but I couldn’t get the result I wanted. When I read Using the “First Things First” Paradigm with RTM and got the idea of simplifying the author’s system and tagging items as “important” to flag them for my Quadrant II list, then using the Due Date to determine urgency. I then created 2 saved searches based on Due Date and “important” tag status, and named them Q1 and Q2. I’ll probably refine the searches over time. I can see from what others have done that there’s lots of room for tweaking the system.
The beginning of a New Year is a great time to be playing with plotting the year ahead, and I’m pretty happy with how my new system is shaping up. I’ve been using Remember the Milk for about a week now. I spent the first day getting enough tasks and appointments into the system to allow me to experiment with searching, tested that the syncing was working well across my iPhone, iPad, and computer (Web). Then upgraded to the Pro version to allow unlimited synchronizing.
Alright, Gremlin. I’ve got a system I like and I’m USING it. It’s even got a name I like - Remember the Milk has a friendly casual sound. I’ve got my January appointments recorded and RTM sends my iPhone reminders of important-to-me, time-sensitive things like my daughter’s birthday dinner yesterday, while giving me a way to track less urgent, but still important items like this blog and a commitment to myself to write every day (tag: important and repeat:every 1 day) .
So there, Gremlin! I can too do this.
Vanessa
Check out my new release: Storm – the Author’s Cut
Dec
29
2011
Click the picture for your free copy of STORM!
As a special year-end thank you to my readers, on December 30 and 31st, I’ll be giving away one of my favourite novels, my recently released novel STORM.
Storm is the first of three novels I wrote which were set on the Pacific Northwest islands of Haida Gwaii and it’s always been one of my personal favourites. Earlier this year, I decided to release STORM, but in the editing process, I realized that to give the full flavour of the Haida Gwaii islands where the story is set, I needed to bring the story forward into the present (See my December 26th blog, where I talk about my decision to prepare this “Author’s Cut” of Storm.
When I first wrote Storm, I was very new to the business of publishing, and unprepared to learn that my title, “Storm Warning,” had been used by someone else. The idea for the book had grown out of my personal life experiences on the remote north coast of British Columbia. While living on an isolated British Columbia lighthouse, I’d followed a number of life-and-death searches for vessels in trouble, and one lengthy search for a downed Coast Guard helicopter. Many of these emergencies were triggered by the stormy weather, and my search memories are punctuated with marine Storm Warnings issued by Prince Rupert Marine-Air Radio, as it was then called. Later, I sailed the islands of Haida Gwaii with my family, and visited Hot Spring Island (Gandla’kin) one wonderful summer. This island, now part of Gwaii Haanas National Park, has to be the most romantic, isolated coastal treasure I’ve ever visited. Sitting in that hot spring at the top of the world, looking out over the islands of South Moresby – I won’t describe it here, because I’ve already done that in the book 
Check out Hot Spring Island - the setting for a one of STORM’s pivotal, romantic scenes. Just collecting these 2 links to the Islands makes me yearn to return to that magical place.
But back to titles. After I’d floundered for a while, coming up with half-baked titles, my editor suggested that we simply call the book STORM.
Perfect! And thank you, Elizabeth, for seeing the obvious and perfect title, when I couldn’t
I was pleased that the book’s original cover evoked the stormy night I’d envisioned, but a few months ago when I engaged Angie of AngieOCreations to do the cover for this Author’s Cut of the story, I realized I’d stepped into author paradise. After years wishing I had a voice on covers, I was overjoyed to work with an artist eager to share my vision of the book. Yes, this is exactly what I wanted! Thank you, Angie! You’re a joy to work with.
Enough rambling about the author. Click on Storm – the Author’s Cut – Free for 2 days: Dec 30 and 31
Other Vanessa Grant books set on the magic islands of Haida Gwaii
- Jenny’s Turn
(Stray Lady, the sequel to Jenny’s Turn,
is set partially on remote Green Island Lighthouse, where I once lived)
- Stranded Heart
(set in various Haida Gwaii locations, including Queen Charlotte City – which has approximately 948 residents! The heroine of Stranded Heart is a pilot flying for QC Air, the fictitious charter company owned by the hero of Storm)
I hope you enjoy the Islands, and have a wonderful year in 2012!
Vanessa Grant
Dec
26
2011
I expected to have this new edition of one of my favourite romances up back in September, but when I started editing the manuscript in preparation for the new release, I couldn’t resist making a few small changes – then one thing led to another, and here it is, almost the end of December.
Storm is my second novel, the story of Luke and Laurie falling in love on the magical islands of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia. Luke and Laurie have always had a special place in my heart, and the storm that drew them together symbolized many coastal adventures I’ve shared with my husband.
When I wrote Storm, I set the story on the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia, islands originally named after the wife of the British King George III without regard to the fact that the indigenous First Nations had already named their islands. In 2009 the province of British Columbia signed a historic reconciliation agreement with the Haida Nation, and the islands were renamed Haida Gwaii. Because the romance in Storm is so much a part of the heritage of Haida Gwaii, I wanted to bring the story forward into the 21st Century.
In bringing the islands forward to the present day, I’ve taken artistic license with regard to logging on Lyell Island. A few years after the book was originally published, a national park was established and the Gwaii Trust was given the task of managing the forests. Because logging itself is not central to the story, I’ve taken the artistic license of leaving the logging camp on Lyell Island.
Check out Storm – the Author’s Cut
… and coming soon – a new print edition of Storm – The Author’s Cut
Enjoy, and to everyone, have a wonderful, fulfilling year in 2012!
Vanessa
Storm – the Author’s Cut
Oct
16
2011
This afternoon I followed an EC Sheedy tweet to Leo Babauta’s blog about an effortless life. I’m sceptical of effortless, but I could handle easier, and when EC posts words of wisdom I generally check it out because she’s – well, wise.
I was entranced by Babauta’s blog, and impressed by the power of synchronicity. Last week I posted a blog entitled Necessary Lies, Steven Covey, and this writer here and on PenWarriors.com, discussing my recent productivity struggles, which mirrored a pattern described in Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. As I mentioned in the blog, I felt an immediate change in energy and productivity when I tried applying Covey’s Habit 3: “First Things First”
After a productive week applying First-Things-First I’m looking around for wisdom on how to keep my new #1 task free of other members of the numbers tribe (2, 3, 4, 5 … to 3,458 of my should-do’s)
Enter EC Sheedy –> Leo Babauta
Babauta’s post announces that he’s about to publish a new book, The Effortless Life, but while I’m waiting for the book, he has a few tips.
The first tip is beautiful in its simplicity – Babauta describes it as counterintuitive: Do Less
Less = More? Maybe this is the new math that I missed being punished with – I was too early and my kids too late for that educational debacle.
Babauta explains: “I … believe in doing the important things. Do less, and you’ll force yourself to choose between what’s just busywork, and what really matters. Life then becomes effortless, as you accomplish big things while being less busy.”
My writer’s logic likes this a lot. I know that when I have a word limit on a story and I’m forced to write shorter, I usually feel the result is more powerful than the longer version. I get where Babauta is coming from. I don’t know if I’m going to act on his tip #1, but I’m certainly going to think about it.
If my mental (or, lately, written) to-do list has half a dozen urgent things on it – what if I cut that down to 2 and forbid myself from doing the others?
I get twitchy just thinking about it, but maybe “getting twitchy” is a signal that I should think about it. Or maybe, as Star Treck’s Bones once said about Spock, “(S)He’s not firing on all thrusters.”
Babauta’s seven tips are definitely worth reading. the author says his book should be out soon and I’ll be watching for it. I want to read more about Babauta’s Zen-ish take on productivity through simplicity.
I don’t have much practice with simplicity. When a new idea or project wanders across my path, I tend to behave like one of my miniature Australian Shepherds, sniffing after the shiny new thing and failing to resist the urge to herd it!
Oct
10
2011
This blog first appeared at PenWarriors.com
The novel I’m now working on – Truth to Tell (TTT) – has surpassed all my other books by having the longest gestation period on record. I conceived of the idea over two years ago when I wrote a couple of scenes, then stalled and put it aside to work on other priorities. Months later I picked the project up again and realized that I had a good character, but the story needed work.
I brainstormed TTT at a Red Door retreat with with the PenWarriors, and came up with a story that seemed fine–but I didn’t touch it again for months. When I did finally return to TTT, I realized my heroine needed a completely different story – and finally the story caught fire for me.
OK, now we’re cooking!
Part of the problem has been that in my other life as a university faculty member, I’d become involved in a long-term project that took most of my writing energy. A continuing stream of time-sensitive tasks had exhausted my creative energy.
On August 1st I started a 1-year research and program development sabbatical, which should mean that I have time for both R&D AND writing. My husband and I decided to take this chance to tour some parts of North America we’ve wanted to see, complete with my books and computer but away from my telephone so that I can focus on both the R&D and my writing.
It worked pretty well during August. I finished and published a new short story, The Broken Gate, and formulated a plan for the last few chapters of TTT. September I devoted to R&D tasks and getting started on our trip. October–
Hmm. October wasn’t looking so good last Friday when I tried to set some goals for the next week. They looked something like this:
- Read and critique a story for a writer friend
- Write four modules for the course under development
- Write this blog
- Get back to TTT
Once again, I realized, my writing had fallen to the back of the queue. When would I get time to finish TTT?
The horrifying thing was that back in mid-August when I was working on the book, I came up with a new title that was a much better fit – and I’d forgotten what it was!
I feared TTT would never get the attention it needed, but items 1, 2, and 3 were time-sensitive commitments that mattered. There was ALWAYS something urgent to get in the way.
Staring at the list I’d written, I could see that I’d fallen into the time management mess Steven Covey talked about in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, where long-term projects of importance get pushed to the back of the queue because they are not as urgent as more short term and often less important tasks.
The trouble was, back when I read 7 Habits, I didn’t have a time management problem, but I certainly do now! I get a lot done, but things that are very important to me get neglected – like TTT, the book whose new name I can’t remember
First things first, says Covey’s 3rd Habit. If I don’t put long-term-core-value things that reflect my purpose and values first, they’ll never get done.
The solution: turn the task upside down. So, last Friday I rewrote the list of this week’s goals:
- Every day, first spend half an hour on TTT. Use a timer.
- Read and critique the story
- Complete one module for the university program each day
- Write the blog for Monday
Almost magically, my task list became manageable.
When would I get TTT written? First thing every day.
I’m on day 4 now and I’m amazed – it’s working! I get up early and walk the dogs with my husband, then happily settle in to work on TTT (this is my time!) – which, my Scrivener file tells me, is now tentatively retitled Necessary Lies. I give myself an hour, because 30 minutes felt too rushed. Then I make a cup of coffee and start working on R&D – I’ve completed two modules in four days, slower than my goal, but I should be able to get the targeted 4 done this week.
I read and critiqued the story Friday evening – great story. I enjoyed it. Now here I am Monday doing the blog. I just realized I’m one day late on that, because this is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and I got Sunday and Monday mixed up.
I’m in touch with my book, I’m getting other tasks done, and afternoons and evenings I still have time for some sightseeing and other odds and ends – like posting character name searches from my 60,000 name database to my Twitter feed. A habit doesn’t get formed in only four days, but I’m committed – and not to a mental institution!
First things first. This week the system works for me.
I’ve got my A-I-C (a-ah-butt in chair) and it’s fun. Necessary Lies is alive for me and I don’t feel guilty about the other stuff. I realize that my time management has been suffering from “first things last” for a long time. This feels like a miracle!
Vanessa
Check out the free sample of my short story, The Broken Gate
from Amazon.com
This story will also be appearing in the upcoming PenWarriors anthology of short stories, It Happens at Midnight
Oct
2
2011
One minute George was sailing single-handed down Canada’s west coast, willing the salt breezes to show her how to go on living without her husband. The next she was being pulled from the waves by lighthouse keeper Lyle Stevens and drawn into a magic existence with him and his daughter. Lyle offered George love and the home she’d never known – but did she have the courage to gamble on love again?
Book 2 of the Jenny and Georgina series
… about writing Stray Lady
“I got the idea for Stray Lady while I was writing my fifth romance novel, Jenny’s Turn. Jenny was miserable in love with a hero who never seemed to notice her, and I needed someone to shake Jenny out of her hopeless love and get her far enough away for the hero to realize how much she meant to him. I reached for inspiration and Jenny’s phone rang. When she picked it up, there was her cousin George. Like the hero of Jenny’s Turn, I didn’t realize at first that George was a woman. As a matter of fact, George and her guitar caused me quite a bit of trouble while I was writing Stray Lady. Here’s a woman sailing around the world and afraid to stop because she’s running from her grief. George’s story unfolded for me as I wrote Jenny’s Turn and I had to take a firm hand with this restless woman to stop her from taking over her cousin’s romance. “Just step back,” I told her firmly. “This is Jenny’s story, not yours. I’ll do you next, I promise.” Once Jenny’s Turn had been shipped off to my publisher, I was finally free to let George loose and as soon as I put her on the page of her own book she started causing trouble for me again. How on earth could I get her to stay in one place long enough to fall in love? I hope you enjoy reading Stray Lady as much as I enjoyed writing it.” Vanessa Grant
Originally published in hardcover by Mills and Boon Limited.
Now available as an eBook through the following retailers:
Kindle eBook – Stray Lady (Jenny and Georgina)
Apple’s iBookstore (type the author or title name in the search box)
Smashwords (Multi Formats including Kindle, Sony, ePub, PDF, Palm PDB)
Oct
1
2011
Laura Tobias’ Mars, Venus, and the Rejection at the PenWarriors.com blog is a humorous reflection on the impact rejections make on a writer.
Of course writers aren’t alone – everyone experiences rejection at one time or another. Those of us who put our personal creations out to the world – whether they be stories, songs, dances, or paintings – are inevitably going to be judged on those creations. That judgment may be harsh, approving, or indifferent. I’ve sold 29 novels to major publishers, and one book on writing. I’ve also received my share of rejections. Some rejections haven’t had much of an impact while others have been devastating. A couple of times I’ve had works that I thought were my best rejected, and those rejections hit harder than others.
Usually I’ve been able to learn something from the rejections, sometimes a valuable lesson in craft or marketing. One rejection that came marked the beginning of a period when I had a lot of trouble believing in myself as a writer. I realize now that the rejection probably hit harder because it came shortly after my mother’s death, although I didn’t make the connection at the time.
Every human being gets rejected and it’s difficult for us to avoid taking the “no” as a denial of personal worth. The thing about rejection is that it’s often out of our control. No story will please every reader, and we can’t control the realities of publisher’s balance sheets, marketing research, and editorial opinions. All we can do is tell the best story we can, in the best way we can, and get it out there for people to read.
I’ve gathered a collection of tools to deal with my own crises of confidence. Here are the things that work best for me:
- Sharing: My first instinct is to keep the rejection and my reaction inside, but I’ve learned how important it is to share it with trusted people. My husband is a great help because he believes in me when my own confidence falters. I know my PenWarrior.com friends will offer support and realistic advice, and they’ll usually share some of their own experiences, which helps me remember I’m not alone.
- I treasure these books:
- Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
by Anne Lamott. This little book of essays is a treasure filled with humor and wisdom!
- The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression
by Eric Maisel. Amazing wisdom and excellent advice based on the experience of many other creative people, and Maisel who is a great creativity coach. Maisel has a number of other books that give practical, inspiring advice to empower yourself and your creativity.
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Steven Covey. One of the most valuable things I learned in this book is to focus on my circle of influence, not my circle of concern. Basically, this means to put my energies where I have power, not on the things that are out of my power. I can’t control what a publisher does, but I can make sure I write the best book I know how, work on my skills, and get my stories out there where people can read them.
- Remind myself that many excellent authors have had amazing, great stories rejected, then later famously published
- Stephen King nailed all the rejections he got for Carrie (his famous first novel) to a spike in his bedroom. One of those letters read: “We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.”
- J. K. Rawlings’ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (laterSorceror’s) Stone was rejected by 12 publishers before the daughter of Bloomsbury’s CEO begged her father to publish it.
- Read about these and other rejections of famous, successful authors
Now, if I can just remember all this the next time I get a rejection!
Vanessa
Sep
25
2011
Telling Lies for Fun & Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I read Telling Lies for Fun and Profit in the early 1980s, a couple of years after I’d decided to put aside my attempts to write a publishable fiction novel for a while.
I knew I wasn’t done with writing and that I would give it another try sometime, but it wasn’t until I picked up Block’s book of essays about writing that I decided it was time to write again. In friendly conversational style, Block gave me glimpses into a writer’s world that seemed accessible and answered many of my questions before I’d even asked them. Can you name real places in a novel? What about using a pseudonym? With practical musings on a host of subjects, Block’s ramble through the territory of writing gave me an inside view that told me it was time to pick up my dream of being a novelist and dust it off. The result was my first published novel, Pacific Disturbance.
Thanks, Lawrence Block, for giving writers a hand!
Spider, Spin Me a Web: A Handbook for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A great book for writers and anyone thinking about being a writer! This book continues the collection of gems from Lawrence Block’s 10 years as a columnist for Writer’s Digest.
Block’s style is friendly and casual, often irreverent – and filled with gems for the creator. Definitely a keeper for the writer’s bookshelf, and a great read for anyone who is curious about writers and how they do (or don’t do) it. I read this book years ago, and often return to it.
Check out the last two books in the “Lies” series: “The Liar’s Companion” and “The Liar’s Bible”
View all my reviews
Sep
21
2011
Yesterday I received the almost-ready-to-publish-as-an-ebook file of If You Loved Me
, a novel of mine originally published by Zebra Bouquet (Kensington Books). I love this story and I’m so pumped to know it will soon be available once again!
Originally I wrote it for Mills and Boon Harlequin, but my editor there wanted me to
- make the heroine younger (she was in her late thirties), and
- change the father of her son to someone else
The whole story was based on the premise that Emma’s son had gone kayaking in the wilderness with a friend, and was now missing. Changing Emma’s age would have made her either a child-mother, or a negligent one for letting her pre-adolescent son head into the wilderness without an adult. In addition, it was unlikely she would have achieved prominence as an orthopaedic surgeon at the ripe old age of twenty-something.
My editor was reasonable about Emma’s age because of the negligent mother issue, but wouldn’t budge on the identity of her son’s father. I decided not to change the identity of the father of Emma’s son, because that would change a crucial decision Emma had made in the past – and my plot would make no sense at all. So I withdrew the novel and went on to write several other books for Harlequin.
A few years later I learned that one of the Kensington editors was looking for 70,000 word stories for their new Bouquet imprint. I decided to submit If You Loved Me. I would need to add an extra 10-15,000 words, but that would be a pleasure as I’d been challenged to fit it into M&B’s 55-60,000 word limit when I first wrote the novel. I sent off an email query and received a phone call from Kensington within a few days. If You Loved Me became the first of four novels I wrote for Kensington, and I enjoyed the scope the extra length gave me.
I laughed when my new Kensington editor told me that one of the things she loved about the book was the boy’s parentage – the exact thing that had caused me to withdraw the book from M&B. Go figure!
Last year I applied to get the rights back to my four Kensington novels, and when I received the reversion documents I was thrilled because I could have all four novels available as eBooks for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks before the end of 2011.
So here I am with the “e” equivalent of galleys, ready to start the final edit. Unlike the world of print books, I have the opportunity to make any changes I like before the book goes out to the world – and I get to work with my own cover artist on a design! Kensington does great cover art and I liked the covers of my four Bouquets, but being in on the creation with a cover designer like Angela is a real joy.
So while my husband and I continue east on our road trip across the North American continent, I’ll be enjoying a final read through If You Loved Me before it goes to e-press on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks!
