ABOUT A DOG is Out Today or How Did I Get Here?

My editor: “You’re going to need to write sex scenes.”

Me: “That’s cool. I like sex.”

My editor: Blink, blink.

Me: “Aaaand that came out wrong.”

It was June of 2015. I was in NYC, shopping for a new agent. This go round I wanted to actually meet the agents under consideration. You know, make eye contact, check out the grip of their handshake, examine their office, the whole shebang. I had quit my part-time job the year before, as the writing thing was moving from hobby to career, and I felt like I needed to treat it accordingly.

While meeting and greeting agents, I also took the time to visit my editor in her lair. It was pretty cool to walk into the building, get through some intense security and arrive at the floor where my editor resided. There were a few things that were “off” however. Apparently, the latest merger was causing some serious restructuring to happen. As I walked through the offices, I noticed most of the staff were in the process of packing. Huh.

Several years prior, I had survived the personnel gutting that had happened in the city of Phoenix. I remembered what it felt like (awful) and I was beginning to have the same hinky feelings at my publisher’s office. The writers’ rumor mill had been grinding out tales of market saturation, and authors’ series being canceled, etc. and so forth for many months. I'd heard the rumors but didn’t take heed until I stood there amidst the boxes.

View from the top of the Empire State Bldg
on the same trip.

So, while enjoying the view from my editor’s window, I asked her point blank what else she felt I could write because suddenly the need to diversify felt imperative. She didn’t hesitate. She turned to her floor to ceiling bookcase and pulled five books that she then pushed across the desk at me.

“This. You can write this,” she said.

I looked at the pile. They were romantic comedies. Oh, the irony! You see my journey as an author began writing romantic comedies (one of my very favorite genres) for Harlequin back in the aughts. It hadn’t gone well. In short, I was fired. But if my editor, who at this point had been with me for thirty books, felt I could do this then…maybe? I decided to give the genre a go.

Life was happening pretty fast for me at this point. My oldest hooligan was starting high school, and I was in deep, deep denial. Writing a romantic comedy gave me an outlet for all of the feels I couldn’t dump all over him. After spending a month thinking about the plot and writing an outline, I wrote 450 pages in thirty days. Crazy, right?

My new agent, who had signed me to be a mystery writer, got a manuscript dumped on her that she had no idea was coming. Surprise! The best part of this was when she read the manuscript and declared, “You wrote a perfect book!” This confirmed my decision to hire her, which actually came about because when I stopped by her office, she’d had cupcakes made to match the cover of my last book. Yes, that tipped the scale because details matter!

Annie the day I found her.

That surprise book is ABOUT A DOG, a romantic comedy based upon my own experience of rescuing a puppy (our Annie) who I had found tossed out in an alley, except the characters are younger, prettier, funnier, and a smidgeon less neurotic than I am -- but just a smidgeon. In a nutshell, it's about going home, shenanigans, stray puppy dogs, mischievous elderly aunts, big laughs, shared tears, hot sex, and falling unexpectedly in love. 

So, that's how I got here, releasing ABOUT A DOG to the world. It's pretty exciting. It was definitely a challenge not to shove a dead body into the middle of the book but I refrained. And now, as in all writing endeavors, I have to sit back and see how this new genre fits me. Am I fraught with anxiety? Yes, but it's the good kind. In the meantime, I've been noodling around a really cool idea for a YA...

Now, how about you, Reds? Do you have any genres that are lurking just beneath the surface, looking to get out? What would you do if your publisher told you they wanted to see something different from you?

To celebrate the release of ABOUT A DOG, let's have a giveaway! Leave a comment and one lucky person will be randomly chosen to win a signed copy of the book, a tote bag, and swag!  Good Luck!

Deborah Coonts--The Hard Way

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I love the connection of two DEBS, both with a history in Dallas, both writing things that they were not "supposed" to write. (Not to mention that we come up next to each other in Google searches...:-)) But this DEB takes the cake in adventurousness. 

Here to tell you about it is the lovely DEBORAH COONTS: 

I’m not proud, I’ll admit it:  I have a problem with “shoulds.”

The moment someone said, “You really shouldn’t.”   I jumped in with an, “Oh, yes I think I will.”   

Consequently, I had to learn most important lessons in my life, the hard way. 

I’d like to think that maturity has tempered my rashness, but, in reality, probably not so much.

So, when I was a beginning novelist, and the people who ought know, those I refer to as the collective they, told me I really should only write what I know, I bet you can guess my reaction?

Why would I do that? I asked.  What I already know is boring. I want to write about something I don’t know.  I want to write about something I can imagine.

So I did.

And I had a great time.  I wrote a light, romantic mystery series set in Las Vegas—the first in the series was WANNA GET LUCKY?  At the time I wrote it, I knew very little about the hotel/casino business in Vegas.  The research was a blast—and no I won’t tell.   If I violated that whole ‘what happens in Vegas’ thing, I’d lose my Vegas card, for sure.

So, off I went…three books in the series.  Four.  Five.  Now seven, plus five novellas.  Seven!!

All that research!  And, guess what—now I’m writing what I know. 

That part of me that prods me to do stupid stuff is missing the guiding light of the unknown.  Don’t get me wrong—I love writing the Lucky stories.  And each story does teach me something new.  I will continue reporting her adventures until she stops talking to me and tells me to leave her alone.  Curiously, and I really didn’t make this connection until just now, but the latest Lucky book, the seventh, is titled…wait for it…

LUCKY THE HARD WAY.  I kid you not. 

And I didn’t plan it that way at all.

Clearly my subconscious knew what my conscious didn’t—that I need that thing I don’t know, that story that scares me, that is way outside my comfort zone.  Like Lucky was when I first started.  So, in LUCKY THE HARD WAY, I took Lucky and the gang out of Vegas and dropped them in Macau, China.

At the time, I knew nothing about Macau.  Research trip!  Fascinating place!

But, now what?

So, I started talking to fellow writers about what to do next, about how to find that divine spark of the unknown.   I bet you know what happened.

They said, “Well, to be successful, you should pick one genre and write just that.”

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.  Not that.  Not going to do that.  Not me!

Of course, their rationale was very sound, grounded in basic business principles…but, well… 

Now I bet I’m a lot like you—I read practically everything.  Across many, many genres, through different age groups.  Give me a good story and I’m in.  I don’t care if it’s this century or another, magical realism, fantasy, or real life.

So, if I read across the board, why can’t I write across the board?  They told me that of course, I could, it would just be a very hard way to build a career. 

How did the line from A League of Their Own go?  It’s the hard that makes it good?  Justifying, I know, but it’s my best thing. And, if I’m anything, it’s consistent. 

So, I wrote a contemporary romance, CRUSHED, it’s out now.  In researching it, I learned a ton about wine, and got to stay in Napa for a month.  Heaven. Next up, the sequel, BROKEN.  Artisanal cheese, Sonoma county…and horses, there have to be horses.

And then I wrote a romantic suspense, DEEP WATER, coming out in February or March, featuring  a female helicopter pilot and a Coast Guard Commander.  I already fly, but I don’t have too much time in helicopters.  And I’ve never flown over the Gulf Of Mexico and landed on an offshore oil rig.  Have now.  So incredible.

And then there’s the thriller, AFTER ME, which is up for preorder now and launches on the 27^th.  I attended a stem cell conference, talked to tons of doctors treating the tangle diseases, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS.  And I explored the nooks and crannies of Portland, OR, a city I had never been to.  And then there was the whole motorcycle angle…

Exploring the unknown!  I loved it!

I have found my stride as a writer.  I’m all over the board, learning so much new stuff, that I’m constantly energized and engaged.  Both very good things when trying to write stories that are both.

But, as I venture into this sort of schizophrenic approach to my writing career, I’m a bit worried—readers expect one thing from me, the Lucky stories.  My other stories…aren’t Lucky.  They are different in tone and voice, but they still are my stories, written in my style.

As readers, will you follow an author you like when she writes out of her normal genre?  Or do you want an author to stick with what she knows?

DEBS: I'd like to do half the research Deb has done, and I'm fascinated by her subjects and her settings. (Wine? Sonoma? Horses? And helicopters???? I love it!) But AFTER ME touches on a subject that's very personal for me--I lost both my parents to forms of dementia.  Deb, I want to know how you imagined what life seems like for your heroine, Kate.

READERS, are you willing to jump genres for an author you love? I certainly am.

More about Deborah Coonts!

 

My mother tells me I was born a very long time ago, but I’m not so sure—my mother can’t be trusted.  These things I do know:  I was raised in Texas on barbeque, Mexican food and beer.  I am the author of WANNA GET LUCKY? (A NY Times Notable Crime Novel and double RITA™ Finalist), its six sequels, LUCKY THE HARD WAY, the latest and just out, and four between-the-books novellas.  Currently I’m stretching my writer muscles working on a women’s fiction/contemporary romance series set in Napa—the first novel, CRUSHED, is out now^.  Next up is AFTER ME, a thriller incorporating cutting-edge science and a protagonist who literally can’t remember why everyone wants her dead.  In the pipeline is a romantic suspense series featuring a female helicopter pilot, as well as the next Lucky adventure—all very different projects. So, if you see me with a glass of Champagne in hand, you’ll understand.  I can usually be found at the bar, but also at www.deborahcoonts.comwww.deborahcoonts.com.

 And here's more about AFTER ME:

Kate Sawyer, a former NYPD undercover cop, injured badly in a takedown gone terribly wrong, is living in Portland, Oregon safe in the Witness Protection Program, while she undergoes experimental stem-cell treatment for a genetic case of early-onset Alzheimer’s.  Everyone thinks Kate can provide vital evidence that will lead to the recovery of twenty million dollars of diamonds that disappeared during the takedown.

If she could only remember.  

One night, Kate returns to her condo to find a dead man in her bathtub with a note stuck in his pocket.

I know what you’ve done.

Her cover blown, Kate runs, knowing the clock is ticking.  Chased by shadowy figures she can’t remember, Kate must solve the mystery before it’s too late.  People close to her are being killed.  Shadowy memories tease her.  Some she recognizes as her own.  Others don’t seem familiar at all.

Running from people she can’t remember, dogged by a past lost in the haze, Kate discovers no one is who they appear to be, perhaps not even herself.

 

A Whole New Level of Crazy

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What’s new? Ask most people, and they’ll say, “Not much, what’s new with you?” Sometimes of course, we’ll be able to say—new job, new baby, new love, new book, new recipe, new weather, new—whatever. But um, do you know Elizabeth Heiter? I can’t remember where I met her—do you Elizabeth? Oh, right, I devoured her thriller called HUNTED and it was so great! And then she--and her darling mom—came to my book signing in Ann Arbor. (How lovely is that?)

And when you meet Elizabeth, she looks very, well, like a reasonable, intelligent, charming, attractive woman. When you read her books--like her brand new VANISHED (from MIRA), you realized she’s talented.  But in truth? As she admits, she’s:

A Whole New Level of Crazy

                          By Elizabeth Heiter

1 year.  2 genres.  5 books.  And a whole lot of crazy.

Writers already have a reputation as being a little … shall we say, eccentric.  As adults, we spend our time playing make believe, creating characters, dreaming up ways to get them in and out of trouble, and then sometimes talking about the whole thing as if these are real people, and these dramatic events are actually happening.  

But if you want to make people really think writers are crazy, tell them you’re going to have five books on the shelf in one year, in two separate genres.  And, oh yeah, that you’re also going to be writing the next one while you’re at it.

In the past three weeks, my second suspense novel and my first romantic suspense book hit the shelves.  In between, I turned in the third book in my suspense series. 

While marketing those second and third books just released, I’m beginning the proposal for the seventh book (yes, that’s right, seventh…because there will be a second and third romantic suspense coming out in the next couple of months, too).  Oh, and did I mention I have a day job?  And some semblance of a personal life?

When someone new asks me about my writing, and they hear about the schedule, they look at me like I’m crazy.  Completely, utterly, lost-my-mind, fell-off-my-rocker-and-can’t-get-back-on, nuts.

They’re probably right.

This year alone, I’ll have five books in two separate genres hitting the shelves.  I’ve been dreaming of this – and working toward it – most of my life.  I wouldn’t trade it, no matter how crazy it gets.

Still, there have been (many) nights where I got by on three hours of sleep, and a whole lot of mocha lattes.  There have been (many) days where I finished my day job, ate my dinner in front of my computer doing promo for the books, immediately turned to writing the next book, went to bed for a few hours, then did it all again.

In those three hours of sleep, I still wake up, wondering if I remembered to put a book event on my calendar.  And then I wake up again, with a better idea about how to get my FBI profiler in my suspense series out of the latest mess I’ve tossed her into – quite often with a lot of glee, I might add.

And yet, what happens when I have a tiny little break?  Well, first I flop dramatically on the couch and binge watch some TV.  But after that?  When I get my energy back, instead of trying to figure out a way to calm things down just a tad, I start thinking of all the plots bouncing around in my mind.  I start thinking about the next book, and the one after that…

And then I’m off writing again.  In fact, I’m going to have to go

now, because there’s this story brewing in the back of my mind…

How about you?  Do you have a “crazy” passion?  (If it’s reading, I have some book recommendations for you! )

HANK: Ah, uh huh. Kind of feeling like a slacker....But Elizabeth, how do you organize your brain? How do you keep the stories separate? Slacker minds want to know...   What would you like to ask Elizabeth, Reds?

**********************

ELIZABETH HEITER likes her suspense to feature strong heroines, chilling villains, psychological twists, and a little bit (or a lot!) of romance. Her research has taken her into the minds of serial killers, through murder investigations, and onto the FBI Academy’s shooting range.

Elizabeth graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English Literature. Her manuscripts have been finalists in the Golden Heart®, Marlene, Daphne Du Maurier, and Golden Gateway contests and she won Suzanne Brockmann’s 2010 Haiku Contest. She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America and has volunteered for several chapters, including serving as the Greater Detroit area president.

In 2012, Elizabeth fulfilled a lifelong goal when she sold her first five novels.

www.elizabethheiter.com

www.facebook.com/elizabeth.heiter.author

 www.twitter.com/ElizabethHeiter

 VANISHED (Book 2 in The Profiler series from MIRA Books):

Sometimes, the past can haunt you...

Eighteen years ago, FBI profiler Evelyn Baine's best friend, Cassie Byers, disappeared, the third in a series of unsolved abductions. Only a macabre nursery rhyme was left at the scene, a nursery rhyme that claimed Evelyn was also an intended victim. Now, after all these years of silence, another girl has gone missing in South Carolina, and the Nursery Rhyme Killer is taking credit. But is Cassie's abductor really back, or is there a copycat at work?

Sometimes, the past is best forgotten...

Evelyn has waited eighteen years for a chance to investigate, but when she returns to Rose Bay, she finds a dark side to the seemingly idyllic town. As the place erupts in violence and the kidnapper strikes again, Evelyn knows this is her last chance. If she doesn't figure out what happened to Cassie eighteen years ago, it may be Evelyn's turn to vanish without a trace.

 DISARMING DETECTIVE (Book 1 in The Lawmen series from Harlequin Intrigue):

The case that's haunted one FBI profiler for years may have finally met its match in a sexy—and dedicated—detective… 

When FBI profiler Isabella Cortez finds a stranger outside her office, she's in trouble. Because even though Detective Logan Greer is one of the good guys, their instant attraction is a serious distraction. Ella's got one mission: to find the criminal who hurt her friend and drove her to become a profiler. But Logan's appeal isn't just chemistry. He has a case that bears an eerie resemblance to the crime Ella's been trying to solve for years. Together, they're racing to stop a killer, but the closer they get, the more dangerous the search becomes. Falling in love could be deadly…or it could be the only way to survive.