Deborah Coonts--Lucky Break

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  Fellow native-Texan Deborah Coonts describes her Lucky O'Toole series as "Sex and the City meets Elmore Leonard in Vegas kind of thing." Just that makes me laugh out loud and that's only a peek at what makes her Lucky books such fun. Like romantic mysteries with laugh-out-loud moments (and a little bit of sex)? These are for you. I adore the opening line from the first Lucky book--and admire the determination that brought Lucky to the page.  Here's Deb Coonts to tell us more: 

DEBORAH COONTS: When I was a bit younger and much more impressionable, I wrote what I thought was a stand-alone.  Here’s the first sentence: 

As her final act on this earth, Lyda Sue Stalnaker plummeted out of a Las Vegas helicopter and landed smack in the middle of the Pirate’s Lagoon in front of the Treasure Island Hotel, disrupting the 8:30 p.m. pirate show. (Wanna Get Lucky? By Yours Truly.)

That sentence hid in the hard drive of a computer for five years.  In fact, I had to search through the detritus in the corners of the garage to find the computer so I could find that sentence.  But I knew—that sentence was gold.

Yeah, well, I always was a dreamer.  Still am.

But, that sentence, and the story that followed, did gain an agent and a contract with a Big 5   So, I was stoked.

publisher.

Until my editor called and wanted to see the sequel.

To be honest, I thought the idea for Wanna Get Lucky? was the only good idea I would ever have.  And, well, I had given the protagonist an HEA and so, exactly how could there be a sequel?

Funny what panic can do.

So, five books later, I find myself in the middle of a series.  HEAs aren’t necessarily forever you know.  I’m living proof.

But, back to the story.  After Wanna Get Lucky? the amount I knew about writing a series you could put in your eye and not impair your vision.

So, I went to the Oracle.

I watched numerous interviews with Janet Evanovich, whose books I loved and whose laugh-out-loud moments I wanted for my own work.  Janet stated in one interview that her approach to the Stephanie Plum series was to keep the main characters static and let the action happen around them.

After noodling on that, and after consulting with my characters, we all decided (yes, this was before the therapy that I eventually decided against) that wasn’t going to work.

Lucky, my protagonist, wanted to learn some things, to grow as her story unfolded.

Of course she did.  My real world is populated with complex, interesting, often difficult folks.  Why would I think my imaginary world would be any different?

Yes, we write what we are.

And the people who surround us are the ones we attract.  That works in the imaginary world as well.

To be honest, I mean really… it took Stephanie Plum a loooong time to learn to use her gun.  With my son’s help, I accomplished competence in multiple firearms one afternoon at an indoor firing range in Vegas.  So, if I can do it, I want to read about folks who can, too.

Anyway, I didn’t have time to get the counseling necessary and still meet my deadline, so I decided to roll with this whole character growth thing.   And now I was faced with the difficult task of creating a series arc as well as an arc for each character in each story. 

(Is there an App for that?  Because my SO is getting tired of the office being wallpapered in sticky notes.)

So, on the home front things might be a bit dicey decorating-wise, but, as a storyteller, how has that worked?  Well, besides feeling like plotting is akin to regression analysis with three variables and a slide rule, and besides the Champagne habit, I’ve emerged relatively unscathed—or so delusional I imagine my own functionality.  It turns out the character arcs are what intrigue me.  The mysteries are an excuse for Lucky to run around the Vegas I know and love, finding the magic and the mischief.

But it’s the people and their troubles who capture me.

At the beginning of each book, I know what I want Lucky to explore and hopefully learn.  The other characters as well, but their growth is a bit ancillary.

Sometimes I get to the end of a story and I don’t even realize that I had a particular theme—like absent fathers or difficult mothers or the importance of girlfriends or the frustration on men (an ongoing theme I have yet to resolve.)  My subconscious is my best writer tool, apparently.

And I do ascribe to the truism that if I as the writer am not sucked into the drama, then the readers won’t be as well.

Apparently it takes a lot to keep me interestedJ 

My mother and the Detention Hall proctors at school could’ve told you that, though.

So, I sustain my interest as a writer by analyzing the growth or allowing it to happen in various characters.  Somehow real life becomes more clear in the analysis.  Yes, for me writing is cathartic.

Life is in the adventure.

So, what about you?  As a writer and/or a reader, do you like to see growth and change in series characters?  Or would you rather just know who they are and be entertained by what happens to them and what they do?

My sixth book in the Lucky series, LUCKY BREAK, is launching TODAY!  I’m giving away five free digital copies, the winners to be chosen among those who comment below.  Here’s the jacket copy.  Hope you find it irresistible.

 

With Christmas a few days away, Lucky O’Toole, Vice President of Customer Relations for the Babylon, Las Vegas’s premier Strip casino resort, is in a festive mood. The upcoming wedding of her assistant to the Beautiful Jeremy Whitlock and her own engagement to her delish French Chef, Jean-Charles Bouclet have Lucky in full holiday cheer.

And even bigger celebrations are afoot. The national media is focused on the grand opening of Jean-Charles’s restaurant atop Lucky’s very own slice-of-heaven hotel. The opening gets a boost when Holt Box, a retired country-western singing legend lends a hand in the kitchen, adding mega-watt celebrity buzz.

Lucky’s life is humming.

The only sour note is her former lover, Teddie.

Teddie claims Lucky’s father, the Big Boss, has put an end to his return to the Las Vegas stage by handing that stage to Holt Box. Box is returning from retirement, a comeback of epic magnitude that will give the Babylon—and Lucky's career—an incredible boost.

Taken by surprise, Lucky takes the high road. Or rather, she does what she always does when life overwhelms…  She ignores it.

Until she finds Teddie and her father, bloodied and angry, standing over the lifeless body of Holt Box, a dagger in Teddie’s fist.

The media sharks are circling.  A Macau heavy-hitter in town, flying under the radar but making his presence felt.  An old nemesis of Lucky’s is out of prison and salivating for revenge.  Lucky’s mother is ramping up her political campaign while juggling her new twins, who still don’t have names.   And Christmas is racing toward a crescendo.

Time is short as Lucky must discover whether Teddie is a killer.

And why she still cares.

DEBS: READERS,  How lucky do you feel? Lucky enough to win one of FIVE digital copies of LUCKY BREAK?  Tell us how you feel about static characters in the comments!

REDS ALERT: Kathy Reel is the winner of Will North's Too Clever By Half. You know the drill, Kathy:-)!