Up to My Ears in Audio

Debra's audio books are making progress.


Since my publisher began offering an audio version of their books, I've been literally up to my ears in listening. Editing an audio book is a bit different than editing a print book, as cadence and tone and annunciation all play a role. It's different to listen with your ears instead of looking with your eyes.

Up until now, the titles that have come through of mine have all been novellas. This past week I started listening to the first full-length novel of mine that will be offered in audio. Let me just say it's a loooong process.

First of all it's hard for me to just sit and listen. I feel like I'm not doing anything. And I'm not one for sitting around idly. I'm ALWAYS doing something. So while I listen I do try to multi-task and do things like fold laundry or prepare dinner or other rote things that don't require too much concentration. I do have to be careful which chore I choose to multi-task with, as some take away from my focus on what I'm supposed to be listening to. But overall, I think I've found a good balance of listening and being able to get other things done. If I do hear a mistake, I put aside what ever 'other' task I'm doing and focus solely on rewinding and listening and marking the spot of the error and documenting the error so it can be fixed.

Makes me realize that unless it's riding in a car on a long, I probably wouldn't do well with other audio books. Like I said, it's too much like sitting there and doing nothing. I've only given audio a try once on a road trip, and we wound up turning it off because we got caught in a raging downpour that drowned out the sound of the story. We never went back to it. We probably should give it a try again on the way to/from one of our camping adventures.

Anyway like I said, it's an interesting process to edit the audio version of a story. Yesterday I turned in notes/corrections for chapters 1-8 and was 'rewarded' with files for chapters 9-13. So my work is far from over. A full length novel is A LOT to listen to.

One thing I've discovered as I've been listening to Wild Wedding Weekend is how much I LIKE the story! It's been a while since I've 'visited' it, and I'm remembering all the reasons it was such a fun one to write, even if it hasn't been one of my biggest sellers. Maybe audio will help that. Only time will tell.

Until next time,

Happy Reading! (or listening!)

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

W is for Wild Wedding Weekend

Debra's story originally didn't have this title.

When I first submitted Abby and Noah's story, the title was "Winner Takes All". The story is based on a game show, so the title was fitting. Unfortunately (or actually fortunately as it turned out) the title was already logged into the system at TWRP for another submission. Although titles can't be copyrighted, TWRP does make sure there are no duplicate titles on its 'shelves'. So when it came time to sign the contract, I had to come up with a new title. I tried something or other, which also happened to be taken. At that point, I think my editor suggested just using "Win a Wild Wedding Weekend", which was the actual name of the game show in the story. I suggested shortening it to simply Wild Wedding Weekend, and wa la...a title was born.

Looking back now I can't imagine the book with any other title. (But I suppose if "Winner Takes All" had been available I would feel the same about that...)

All of my books have a title even before I begin writing. I even imagine the cover and start playing around with a simple blurb. For me, it makes the story feel like a 'real' book even before the writing process begins. Like that goal setting technique of visualizing it into reality.

Other than Wild Wedding Weekend, all of my books' titles have remained the same from first draft to publication. Most of the time those titles come easily to me. I did dither a bit over my series. I wanted all three books to sound like a set, so I played around with the pattern of the wording until I found something that worked for each story but still sounded similar. And I did agonize a bit about the holiday spin-off series, but in the end I went with simple and to the point.

Sometimes I've picked titles, without meaning to, that are already in use, such as This Can't Be Love, which is a song. Who knew? I guess I should have done an internet search first. I get some interesting results back from my Google Alerts sometimes. Every time a celebrity gets married, I get lots of alerts about the shenanigans that went on at their weddings under the topic "Wild Wedding Weekend"! And this time of year, I'm always getting hits for "A Christmas to Remember" that have nothing to do with my story.

How do you come up with the titles to your stories? Are they there from the beginning or do they come to you as you write? Do you ever change the title partway through a project? Do you ever wish you would have, or are you satisfied with your titles? Even though I sometimes get odd responses from Google Alerts, given the chance, I don't think I'd change any of mine. They fit the stories too perfectly.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

N is for Noah

Noah Grant is the hero in Debra's Wild Wedding Weekend.

Noah was raised in small-town Indiana and wanted nothing more than to live a big life away from his small-town roots. He's an older brother to four siblings: two sisters and two brothers. His mother and father got married because she was pregnant with him. He's never gotten over the guilt, as he feels she gave up a promising career as an artist because of him. As a photo journalist, Noah travels all over the world to beautiful, exotic places. He has no interest in settling down and starting a family and being stuck in one spot like his parents.

As Noah's character arc unfolds throughout the story, he learns a lot about life and love.

Here's a scene between him and his mom toward the end of the book:

“Are you okay, dear? You don’t seem yourself today.” His mother’s voice broke into Noah’s reverie.

He half smiled at the words. A familiar warmth washed over him at her being able to discern his mood. Which is why he’d driven to Indiana. Running his fingers through his hair, he
sighed. He hadn’t felt like himself in a long time. How could he explain that to the woman looking over at him so expectantly? He couldn’t explain it himself. “I don’t know, Mom.”

“Talk to me, Noah.” She sat down on the arm of the couch.

He turned to pace the length of the basement, passing the Foosball table he and his brothers had spent countless hours at while they were growing up. He barely noticed the assortment of photographs on the walls, but he knew every picture by heart and could almost name the dates of each of the Christmases, holidays, and family celebrations chronicled there. Over the years the family had grown, and more and more smiling faces mugged for the camera. Finally he turned to face his patiently waiting mother.

What could he say to her? That he thought he might be in love, but he wasn’t sure what that felt like, so what if he wasn’t? He could say that, but if it didn’t sound right in his head, he doubted the
words would come out any more clearly.

One of the pictures caught his eye again, and, out of the blue, words Abby had spoken that day in Grand Cayman came back to him. “May I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“If you had to choose between traveling around the world and having the whole family together, what would you pick?”

His mother sent him a reproachful look.

“I know, I know. Stupid question.” He paused. “Tell me this. Do you ever feel like you missed out on things? Because of me?” He held his breath, waiting for her answer.

She rose, coming to stand before him. “What on earth are you talking about, ‘because of you’?”

“Well, you know. Having to get married and all. Because you were pregnant. With me.” He couldn’t meet her gaze.

“Had to get married?”

“Yeah, you know. Because of me.”

“Noah, dear, I’m not sure what this is all about, but your father and I didn’t have to get married, we wanted to. From the moment I met him, I knew he was the man for me. We didn’t have to do anything.”

Her words didn’t convince him. He’d carried his guilt with him for so many years, he couldn’t let it go as easily as that. “But you could have been an artist or—”

“The only thing I wanted to be was Ed’s wife. And the mother of his children.” She reached up to lay a soft hand against his cheek. “We were thrilled when we found out we were going to have you. How could you think anything else?”

He cursed to himself at the tears that sprang to her eyes. He gathered her to him in a comforting hug. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. Inhaling, he breathed in the familiar floral scent of the perfume she always wore. It brought back countless memories of being comforted as she held him in her arms. Now he was the one who held her. “I’m sorry, Mom. Please don’t cry.”

After a moment, she pulled away, dabbing at her eyes with the hem of her apron. “Have you always felt like this?”

No use pulling punches now. “For a long time. As long as I can remember,” he admitted.

“Oh, Noah.” Her voice was anguished. “Why didn’t you ever talk to us about this? Why didn’t you tell us how you felt?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I figured if I could bring pieces of the world back to you from my travels, you wouldn’t feel like you were missing out on so much. I guess I didn’t think there was anything to talk about.”

“Well, now that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Your father and I haven’t missed out on anything. Other than maybe having you around more.”

He flinched at the slight note of recrimination in her voice, but he deserved it. Abby sure had hit the nail on the head with that one. How had she picked up on it so quickly, when he had missed it
all these years? He shook his head and smiled to himself. Because she was Abby, that’s why.

Until next time,

Happy Reading,

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

A is for Abby

Abby Walker is the heroine in Debra's Wild Wedding Weekend.

A reader will first meet Abby on the back cover blurb:

All Abby Walker ever wanted was to live a normal life in her small suburban-Chicago house. After traveling around the world in her youth, staying put in one spot is a dream come true. But when she winds up on a game show as a favor to a friend, her life takes an adventurous turn she isn’t at all prepared for.

The second line sums up her backstory in one sentence. She's the only child of a career military man. She's lived all over the world and feels she's missed out on anything resembling a 'normal' childhood. No trips to Disney World, the Wisconsin Dells, or even camping. Having no brothers or sisters, she longs for a big family and a cozy house with a white picket fence. Abby has an average, ordinary job as an office manager, and for excitement, she and her best friend, Claire, rent chick flicks and eat raw cookie dough. She'd love to find a man to share her dream (the house, the fence, the kids), but so far, no one has bought into the whole settling down ideal.

So, in Wild Wedding Weekend, I paired her (married her off actually in a marriage-of-convenience type story) with someone who has no intention of settling down, travels all over the world for business and pleasure, and has no plans or desire for a family of his own.

The story opens in Abby's point of view, and we learn a bit more about her.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” Abby Walker paced around a tangle of backstage wires, props, and technicians. Ignoring the commotion around her, she listened to the voice of her longtime friend coming from the cell phone tucked against her ear.

“Oh, come on, Abby. It’ll be fun,” Claire wheedled.

“Fun? You call humiliating myself in front of a live studio audience fun? And with some guy I barely know.”

“It won’t be that bad, I promise. Besides, you know Noah.”

“I’ve met the man three times. I’d hardly call that knowing him.”

“He’s out of town a lot. Travels for his job. It’s not my fault.” She sounded almost desperate.

“I know, I know. I don’t think this will work. They’ll find out I’m not you, and then we’ll all be in trouble.” She chewed a fingernail.

With just these few lines, the reader will see how out of her comfort zone Abby already is, and the story has barely begun. Abby soon finds herself farther out of her comfort zone than she ever thought she'd be when she winds up married to Noah, a man she barely knows. Of course, as the story progresses, she'll learn a lot about him, and about herself as well. Turns out, an adventure with the right guy isn't all bad!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Wild Wedding Weekend - from The Wild Rose Press

Snippet Sunday - A Peek at Debra's Caribbean Story

Debra is still is island mode.

We've been back a week, but my heart is still in the Caribbean, so I thought I'd share a snippet of Wild Wedding Weekend today. In this story, Abby and Noah marry because of a game show and head off on a tropical honeymoon cruise.

A festive mood greeted them when they walked out onto the deck later that night. Colorful lanterns dotted the air. A steel-drum band played rhythmic music as dancers gathered around the pool.
“Wow, this is some party,” Abby said.
“I’ll say.” Noah took her hand as a group of passengers jostled by. “How’s the ankle feeling?”
She tested by shifting her weight. Sore, but not too bad. “It’ll hold up as long a I don’t do any of that dancing.” She nodded toward the pool deck, which pulsed with a life of its own. Hundreds of people crowded on it.
“Okay, so no dancing. How about something to eat?” Noah nodded at a waiter who passed by with a tray laden with tropical fruit.
She laughed. “I bet I’ve gained fifty pounds on this cruise already.”
Noah’s eyes swept down her body.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that.” He used his index finger to trace the small strip of bare skin visible on her stomach were her shirt didn’t quite meet the waist of her skirt.
She sucked in her breath.
His eyes sought hers. “Ticklish?”
“Yes,” she lied.
Noah’s lips quirked, but didn’t quite form into a full smile. “Interesting.” He gazed at her a moment longer before breaking eye contact. “C’mon, let’s get a drink.”
She followed as he tugged on her hand. A good stiff drink sounded like just the thing. Or a dip in the pool, providing the water was ice cold. Noah’s touch on her flesh hadn’t tickled at all. It had, however, sent shivery fingers of heat radiating over her skin.
“Rum punch?” He asked as they reached a bar on the far side of the deck.
“Sure.”
She and Noah watched the festivities for the next hour and consumed decadent treats from the food stations set up along the outer edges of the deck. Sometimes they chatted, other times they fell silent.
Women who passed by the table cast covetous glances at Noah, but to Abby’s secret delight, he paid them no heed. He seemed oblivious to the parade of bikini-clad females who sauntered by, swinging their hips suggestively.
For her part, she found it difficult to keep her eyes off him. He’d left the top few buttons of his flamboyant Hawaiian shirt open, affording her tantalizing glimpses of his bare chest every time he moved. He’d been shirtless all afternoon, but somehow, this was sexier.
A warm, salty breeze blew across the Gulf. She rolled the frosty drink glass across her forehead, blaming the humid air for her rising temperature.
Although if she were honest with herself, she’d have to admit the weather wasn’t the reason for the heat permeating her body.
Noah’s eyes tracked the movement of her glass, then caught and held hers. “C’mon.” He rose from his chair and offered his hand. “We can dance to this.”
The band had switched to a slower rhythm, and couples swayed on the make-shift dance floor.
“I don’t think-”
“C’mon.” Noah tugged her from her chair. He led her to the floor, then turned and pulled her into his arms. One strong hand splayed across her back, the other cradled her palm in his. She rested her free hand on his shoulder as they shuffled their feet to the slow beat of the music. Only a few inches separated their bodies. Heat radiated from him. Heat that had nothing to do with the sultry night air.
As more couples joined those already on the deck, it became difficult to move. As they were jostled once again, Noah pulled her tighter against him. The heat flowed from his body into hers. Like a fever, the warmth raced through her, setting her afire. A slow ache spread.
Noah’s hand drifted to the small of her back. His fingers stroked the strip of bare skin there. She shifted closer to the hard contours of his body. Her arm curved around his back. Her head nestled into his shoulder, and she breathed in the crisp scent of his aftershave. She could spend the next million years listening to the steady strum of his pulse.

I is for Islands

Debra has a bad case of Spring Fever.

Three weeks from today I'll be cruisin' the southern Caribbean. Specifically we'll be spending the day in St. Kitts. Our tour will include stops at the 300 year old Brimstone Hill Fortress, Caribelle Batik Studios, and the capital city of Basseterre.

Other stops on this particular cruise are St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Tortola. The cruise is designated as a repositioning cruise, meaning we depart from Port Canaveral in Florida and return to San Juan in Puerto Rico. This caused quite a few problems with airline tickets as the itinerary was changed after we made our initial reservations, but Carnival really stepped up and offered us on-board credit for the fees we incurred while making the necessary flight adjustments. Which is fabulous, because the credit will pay for all of our shore excursions, with some left over as well.

I cannot wait to get away. Everyone around here seems to be sick, whether it's the sniffles I just can't shake, or the stomach flu, or even strep throat. I'm tired of looking at snow and ice. I am desperate need of some humid, tropical air to ease the constant dryness in my throat and of my skin.

We've been counting down since 75 days to go. Now we're at seventeen days. To say we're getting anxious and excited is an understatement.

We love exploring at all of our stops. We're not lay-around-at-the-beach-all-day people. When we're in port, we want to experience local history and culture. Vacation is not only a getaway for us, but a history lesson as well. When we took a cruise for our honeymoon, I eventually used the various ports we cruised to as the setting for Wild Wedding Weekend. Will I write another cruise story? Probably not, but perhaps I'll try a tropical island one some day. There's sure to be plenty of inspiration as we bask in the sun for an entire week.

Until then, I'm finishing up making transportation arrangements, gathering my wardrobe, and trying to be patient. I know the sooner it comes, the sooner it will be over, and I do want the anticipation and the adventure to last as long as possible.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Wild Wedding Weekend - available from The Wild Rose Press

All Abby Walker ever wanted was to live a normal life in her small suburban-Chicago house. After traveling around the world in her youth, staying put in one spot is a dream come true. But when she winds up on a game show as a favor to a friend, her life takes an adventurous turn she isn’t at all prepared for.

Noah Grant has put his small-town Indiana roots behind him. He travels all over the world, enjoying the freedom and adventure. He has no intention of settling down anytime soon, if ever. But then he finds himself married to Abby in a bizarre quirk of fate, and he realizes his life will never be the same. Their passion flares as hot as the sultry Caribbean air. But is passion enough to turn their Wild Wedding Weekend into a lifetime of love?

On Location

Debra takes Wild Wedding Weekend on location.

In addition to the warm weather and sand between my toes (which was more than welcome after our brutally long and cold winter here in the Midwest), a highlight of our recent cruise was to revisit a couple places we first toured on our honeymoon sixteen years ago. Part of the fun of being back was I'd used our first cruise stop locations as the setting for my book Wild Wedding Weekend, in which I send my hero and heroine, Noah and Abby, on a cruise of their own.

Here's the blurb:

All Abby Walker ever wanted was to live a normal life in her small suburban-Chicago house. After traveling around the world in her youth, staying put in one spot is a dream come true. But when she winds up on a game show as a favor to a friend, her life takes an adventurous turn she isn’t at all prepared for.

Noah Grant has put his small-town Indiana roots behind him. He travels all over the world, enjoying the freedom and adventure. He has no intention of settling down anytime soon, if ever. But then he finds himself married to Abby in a bizarre quirk of fate, and he realizes his life will never be the same. Their passion flares as hot as the sultry Caribbean air. But is passion enough to turn their Wild Wedding Weekend into a lifetime of love?

While visiting various places on our cruise this year, it was the perfect time for a few photo ops.

Our first port of call was Cozumel. In the story, Abby and Noah give individual interviews for the reality show they're on.

Here I am standing in front of what could be Abby and Noah's ship. (Ours is actually the one mostly hidden by the ship closest.)

And here I am by the Puerta Maya sign right outside the entrance to the port.

Our final port of call was also one that Abby and Noah visit. In the story, they visit the town of Hell and Noah sends postcards to all of his friends. They also take a walk on the famous Seven Mile Beach and sneak away for a little lovin'!

Here's me with the 'devil' in Hell right before sending our postcards.

And here's me on the beach. (It was here that I discovered a grave inaccuracy in my book. There's no way Abby and Noah could have found a secluded spot on this beach to make love. I have never seen a beach so crowded. Oh well, I guess there's always a portion of romance that involves some fantasy and suspension of belief, right?)

Now at some point all we need to do is revisit Key West and the ruins at Tulum and my photo journey through the book will be complete! Fun!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Taking My Book on the Road

...well, actually on the ocean!

Yesterday Paula posted about using places she's visited as the setting for her books. I do this with most of my books. It helps me to set the scene for my reader in a much more realistic way if I've actually seen the place I'm describing.

In Wild Wedding Weekend I took my hero and heroine on a cruise. The same cruise my hubby and I took for our honeymoon. Not only did it help me to (hopefully) lend an air of authenticity to the setting, but it helped move the plot along, as I wrote a major scene for each of the port stops. This past week, when we took another cruise for our anniversary, I thought it would be fun to bring a copy of the book along and take some photos on the ship. A cute addition to my web-site: having the book in an authentic location.



On the ship, I discovered a beautiful, but not necessarily well-stocked, library.



It had a sign posted that said something along the lines of "Take a book, leave a book." So, I left mine. I even autographed it! Glory Passengers: I hope you enjoy Noah and Abby's cruise as much as your own!



I hope that if someone grabs it to read, they will indeed put it back for someone else. After, of course, they copy down my web-site address so they can get information about my other books since they loved this one so much!

What fun!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

First Lines

It's been a busy week, so I'm going to go with an 'easy' blog today and simply share the first lines from my books. As we've discussed before at Heroines with Hearts, first lines can be oh so important for setting up the story...so here are mine:

From This Time for Always: She'd once carried this man's baby.

From Wild Wedding Weeked: "I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

From This Can't Be Love: There was a naked man in her grandfather's bathtub.

From A Christmas to Remember: Did she really expect him to be there?

From An Unexpected Blessing (Coming soon): Katy Roth refrained from kicking the ceramic turkey planter on the porch.

From "This Feels Like Home" (under consideration with TWRP): Jake Hawkins spotted the newcomer right away.

From "Family Secrets" (under consideration with Harlequin): "Why didn't you call me?"

And from "One Great Night" (WIP): "I want you to be my sex tutor."


Now it's your turn to share some of the opening lines from your stories...

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

W is for WILD WEDDING WEEKEND

Coming up with the title for your book can be tricky. Sometimes it jumps out at you right away, and other times it takes forever to come up with something just right. Sometimes you come up with something perfect and it gets changed, or the title's already been taken.


This happened to me with my second book. It started as "Winner Takes All" and even won a contest under that title. When it got contracted, there was already another book with that title at my publisher. So then I came up with "Playing For Keeps". Wouldn't you know it? As soon as my editor and I decided on that, someone just squeaked in ahead of us with the same title. Finally, based on a game show in the story called Win a Wild Wedding Weekend, she suggested Wild Wedding Weekend, and it turned out to be perfect! Now, I can't imagine it under any other title.

Other than that, I've been lucky with my chosen titles, as I've gotten to keep all of them. Some publishers rarely keep the title a mss was submitted under.

Of course another thing to be careful with when picking a title is whether there's something else out there with the same title. (Titles aren't copyrighted, so it can happen.) I learned this the hard way with This Can't Be Love and A Christmas to Remember. My Google search on these titles comes up with several hits each day, most of which have nothing to do with my book.


Sometimes titles are chosen based on a series they are part of. My first was This Time for Always followed by the second installment This Can't Be Love. "This Feels Like Home", which will complete the trilogy, is currently undergoing some fairly major rewrites. As you can see, I've gone with the theme of starting each title with "This". That coupled with similar fonts for the titles helps to tie the stories together in a visual way and provide recognition for readers.


So, how about you? What tales of titles can you share?

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Sensory Description

Well, ladies, you've done such a great job of covering this topic all week, I'm not sure what there's left for me to say. So, I thought I'd share a few examples from my work where I've managed to work the senses into a paragraph or two. I don't think I've managed to get all five senses every time, but I think most times I've been able to get three out of the five! For me, taste is the most difficult one to include.



From THIS TIME FOR ALWAYS:
As Sharlie input the requisition list, she was distracted by Logan's presence. His spicy aftershave enveloped her in intoxicating waves. The husky drawl of his voice when he asked a question skittered over her nerves. His masculinity overwhelmed her tiny office.





From WILD WEDDING WEEKEND:
Ignoring the disgruntled expressions of the people around them, Abby rested her head against Noah's shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist, loving the feel of his arms around her. She inhaled. The sexy scent of his aftershave brought back vivid memories of his skin against hers.




From THIS CAN'T BE LOVE:
Trees lined the banks of the river, providing a lush pathway as Jessica and Zach made their way along in the gently moving current. Birds circled overhead, calling softly to one antoher. A slight breeze ruffled her ponytail and provided a measure of relief from the warmth of the sunshine pouring down.


Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Guess Who.....

My main characters aren't based (trait-wise) on any real person. I do have to admit that Noah Grant in WILD WEDDING WEEKEND was based looks-wise on Brad Pitt. And Jake Hawkins in my WIP "This Feels Like Home" is based looks-wise on Matthew McConaughey. But their personalities are all their own.

I do some name dropping with people I know as minor characters. In WILD WEDDING WEEKEND I used all of my friends and their families as Noah's brothers and sisters. I didn't tell them, so it was fun to get their reactions after they read the book for the first time. They were all delighted to be immortalized in print!

So far my settings have all been based on real places. It's just so much easier for me to create a world for my characters to walk around in that I've actually seen. I've done some tweaking, like "moving" the setting to another part of the country, but most of the settings are very recognizable to those who know me. THIS TIME FOR ALWAYS features the bar where my husband and I met. I take Noah and Abby to all of the places we visited on our honeymood in WILD WEDDING WEEKEND. And Zach and Jessica fall in love in THIS CAN'T BE LOVE at one of our favorite yearly vacation spots. Even my free read MISTLETOE AND FOLLY features my neighborhood downtown area.

Lawsuits? Probably not. Inspiration? Plenty of that.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Everywhere and Nowhere

I have to say that for me, story ideas come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Just about anything can spark an idea: the lyrics of a song, a passing comment made by someone, a location. The other day I was working on a scene for my WIP and I clicked on the thesuarus tool to help with one particular word. The words that came up set a completely different tone for the scene I hadn't thought of before. Or sometimes an idea will just pop into my head and I can't really explain where it came from.

For my latest release, "Wild Wedding Weekend", that's the case. People ask me all the time where I got the idea for the story, and the best I can come up with is "It just came to me." I did use a real-life trip my husband and I took on our honeymoon for part of the setting, and that helped moved the story along, but the overall idea for the story popped out of the blue.

In my first book, "This Time for Always", I used the bar where my husband and I met for the setting. I wanted to use a somewhat country theme, and the story evolved from there. When it came time to write the sequel, "This Can't Be Love", I used another real-life setting. I knew Zach needed his own story, and as I played around with the setting, the story eventually came to me.

Okay, I guess I do see a common theme here! For me it seems, the setting comes first, and I build the story to suit it. Not always an easy task, but eventually the story gets written!

And on that note, I need to get some writing done...

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com