Quick post -- I'm still in Colorado Springs. I had some 'grownup' talk time with two fellow authors this morning - Lise Fuller who writes for Cerridwen Press, and Beth Groundwater who writes for Five Star. A little shop talk was inspirational, and to keep things moving in the writing direction, I got a release date of February 20th for my Wild Rose Press short story, Hurricane Breeze.
Hurricane Breeze started as a 'palate cleanser' after finishing my Dalton & Miri book, the spin-off of When Danger Calls. WDC was still far too fresh to edit objectively, but after a few days the writing itch was back. Being relatively lazy, my first search was through old files to see if there was any inspiration.
As I've mentioned before, I used to hang at iVillage, where a short story group had weekly writing prompts. One was to use the word "curmudgeon" in a short story.
For the story to have a chance with The Wild Rose Press, however, it had to be a romance. Since my exercise featured a reclusive, up-tight novelist dealing with his elderly neighbor (the curmudgeon of the story), there wasn't much of that.
Still, it was worth thinking about how to work a woman into the story. Since I had the framework of my male protagonist, I needed an acceptable (meaning totally opposite) female character.
With the help of my crit group, we brainstormed the 'what if's that make a story. By the time we finished, I had the major plot points worked out. In a short story, there aren't that many of them! The surprise for me as I went back and started writing was that the male protagonist insisted on being the sole POV character in the story. While Tiffany was a catalyst, she never insisted on taking center stage.
2 comments:
Love the cover! Very "Florida" :) When does it come out?
Thanks, Katie -
And congrats on your request from Red Sage!
Release date is Feb. 20 -- just a few days before my birthday.
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