PUBLISHED!!!! In A Way

I had some advice in July when I was in Virginia.  That advice was to publish online.  I thought about it, wondered if it would be worth the time, waffled back and forth and decided today to just go for it.  In the next week The Yankee Gentleman & His Southern Belle will be available on Kindle and Amazon.com.  I can also order copies and cannot wait.  For 3 years I've tried to get this out into the marketplace and,  all totalled, 28 years and 26 rejection letters later, I'm finally goimg to recognize my dream.  I'm so happy, and so hopeful.  Not only is this a step in the right directiom, but also the start of something even better, hopefully!

Writing More, Headaches Galore

I used to wonder if two people fell deeply in love, was it because of them getting to know each other so much that they did, or was it because they saw each other so much that they couldn't find themselves not seeing each other and thought they were in love?  Was it because the feelings of just having someone there to talk to daily, someone to laugh about, cry about, or discuss your day overwhelmed your senses and you thought you loved them because of that?  Or does it go deeper than that?  Is it because deep down you feel that pull, that bond with the other person?  Do you feel incomplete without them?  Do you know them inside and out and can tell their moods just by a word or a phrase they speak?  Can you feel their feelings, their thoughts?  Can you have that kind of connection because of how much you've talked, laughed, hung out together?  Or, do you have this connection because of a past life ya'll had?  Is it possible that you do?  Or are you just trying to find a reason to why you have a connection that's so deep and strong?  All of these questions ran through my head when I started my book a few months ago.  A man and woman meet each other through a weather forum.  They have that in common, the weather, but throughout getting to know each other, they find out they have so much more in common.  Then comes the shocking discovery that they can feel each other's moods and pick up on the other's feelings.  Calling each other when the other needs to hear from them at "just that time."  She owns a garden nursery and he's a homocide detective.  They live in different states and had never seen each other.  She had decided to go visit him and they found out they had more than the deep connection, they did have a pure deep love for each other.  Then comes a murder case, 4 murder cases, to be precise.  They look like her and he starts getting taunting phone calls.  He wants to keep her away and she wants to come to him.  He's scared he won't be able to protect her.  She goes to stay with him for a while to see if things would work out between them.  The killer goes after her and her detective finds her almost too late, but he does get her back safely.  She tells him that she's going to rent a place, a place that she's already looked at when she starts her life up there.  He's a little upset because he thinks it's an easy way for her to get out of the relationship whenever she wants.  He doesn't think she's really serious.  She packs up her stuff and heads to her new place.  She calls him up when she gets there and asks if he can go check the home out, because when she was there last, she thought she left it behind.  She hides and he goes over, and she surprises him, tells him she really bought the house, she loves him, wants to marry him, can't live her life without him, and would die if he left her or wanted her to leave him. 

This book has been really hard to write.  I've had scenario after scenario, and they always seem to not be the right mix of romance or to the deepest level that I want.  I know what I want the finished product to be, but it always seems like it's lacking just a little bit of Oooomph.  I kept thinking if I would write a little more then it would finally come together.  It's hard for me, to see something in my head, and not get it on paper, or the computer, just exactly how I'm envisioning it.  I took a 2 week break from writing, or at least tried to.  Laying on my bed one night, fan blowing on me, I finally got the inspiration for what I had been missing from a simple phrase.  "Sugar, I won't be able to live without you if you're not in my life.  Life just isn't worth living without you."  I picked up the pen I had, the pad of paper I had brought it with me before and started writing.  Before I knew it, the Oooomph had come back into the story, it was going perfectly, and most importantly, it SOUNDED perfect! 

Pretty soon, A Once In A Lifetime Love will be finished and on here.  In the meantime, also working on Mick & Callie's Story, also about a cop and his former love.  I will be finishing that soon, also, and posting both.

Goings On

Writing books has always been easy for me.  I've always been able to sit down, get my head in the right frame of mind and just start writing.  The characters have always taken their good own time writing themselves, but the story has told itself.  The characters have always changed what I had written for them, as crazy as it sounds.  In the end, though, everything always came together and was perfect UNTIL these last 2 books.  Trinity and Mick & Callie's Story.

Trinity started out when I had an idea for a lady who worked on antebellum mansions, victorian homes, restoring them.  (I always loved the idea of taking a worn out home and refurbishing it to where it looked before.  Like bringing life into it again.  Where you could hear the home saying, "Yes, this is how I was before.")  I know, sounds fanciful and you can't really hear a house talking, but, if you listen closely, and you know what you're listening for, you can.  Anyhow, she's in her office one day with her partner when she thinks she sees an old friend walk down the street.  She chases after him, but the guy shrugs her off.  She tells her partner, Paul, that she had a past with him and what it was, and he shows up at her home.  He find out she still thinks of him.  The next day in a meeting with potential clients, she finds out it's the same guy, named Cade.  On a tour of his home, although she doesn't know it's his at the time, she tells what needs to be done to the house and she gets the job.  They also explore the relationship they could've had.  That's where the story ends.  I know that in future chapters, just when they are getting close, Cade's ex comes into the picture, to make waves in Trinity's life, but I just can't move past this. 

In the meantime, I started Mick & Callie's Story.  This started because I was wondering one day, if an ex boyfriend/husband/lover came back into your life after 15 years to make amends, say he's sorry, would you listen to him?  Then I decided to expand on the story.  What would happened if you were in a small town and he tracked you down, found out that you had a child that he didn't know about or want to know about, and wanted to make amends?  Would it change anything?  What would then happen if the gentleman's ex wife came into the picture and was threatening you both?  Would you protect your daughter and ex girlfriend?  Would you try to get your ex wife to see the saner side of life?  Would you say "screw it all" and walk away from everything?  Mick is a cop.  He's never gotten over Callie.  His exwife Dina told lie after lie and he listened and believed everything she said until the lies came unravelled one long night.  Mick knows he has to find Callie, so with the help of a P.I., some court records that just came to light, and a chance glimpse of her, he find her, finds out she has a daughter that he was never told about.  Then he finds out he exwife knew a lot more than she let on.  Now, Callie's life is in danger because Dina is after her and the child too.  Mick will do everything to protect them both and that's where I'm stuck at.  I have his exwife in Callie's house, but do I let her kidnap Callie and take her somewhere to have Mick find her, or do I let him rescue Callie out of her own home?  Do I have it where Callie's is near death, or does she kill the exwife and stands trial.....sooooo many questions, and no answers to help me out. 

I do have other stories started, but these 2 are driving me absolutely insane!  Just when I think I have everything planned out, the characters decide they won't cooperate and go in a different direction.

Don't us writers sound crazy?