When Stories Grow

I just finished writing a holiday story for MLR Press called Deepest Night. It takes place in my new celtic rock band world (Bran's Visions) and, again, discovered that the more stories I write, the harder a time I have writing short.

I keep swearing to myself that *this time* I'll keep the story under control. This time I'll make sure it stays at 2K, 5K, 8K, whatever the requested or originally estimated word count is.

But I failed - again. I told my editor I thought Deepest Night would come in at 7-8K. The first draft went in at 9.2K. After my editor read it, I added a chapter so it came in at a little over 12K.

The problem?

I've had to embrace the truth - I'm very much a ROMANCE writer. I want my characters to meet, fall in love, then get it on. I read great stories where the characters manage to (believably) fall into bed asap but somehow I don't seem to be able to write them. I'm not sure if it's just against my nature or what but it always seems to trip me up.

In the case of Deepest Night, the characters have no existing history with each other. One of them has gone through a lot in the last four years and is slow to trust. The other is determined to respect boundaries and hangs back. It would not be believable for them to just have a personality transplant and fall into bed. It was hell just getting them to the point they would kiss!

Sigh. I'm very greatful that my editor tolerates me!

(Oh, and yes, I DO know there are a ton of 'band' series out there. Oh well, this band appeared in my brain and I can't let it go. The next story is a novel called Music of the Heart and I'm working on it now. You'll have to guess whose story it is!)

It's Been an Unproductive Week :)

Wow - I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last update here but when I look at what's happened in my world just since July 1st, maybe I can.

Things were already a bit hectic with getting ready for a potluck + fireworks with friends but I'd gone out with Jo (my Keeper) to IKEA on the 2nd only to get a call while we were shopping that just about floored me.

My husband leads off with "Hon, I just got off the phone with Dad and they're at Harborview...."

Now Dad is his father (mine is dead) and Harborview is Seattles Level 1 trauma (adult and pediatric center). My heart fell to the floor because I instantly thought something had happened to his mother. She's the heart of his family and it would be horrible.

No - it was, in a way, worse. My 12 year old nephew had been involved in an accident on a farm runabout he and two friends were playing on. On the afternoon of July 1st, the runabout had flipped and he'd been pinned under the rollbar. 911 was called and he was taken asap to the local ER who thought he had maybe some cracked ribs but decided to do an MRI anyway.

Damned good thing they did.

He actually had 2 cracked vertebrae, huge amounts of internal bleeding, a collapsed lung, liver and kidney damage. They couldn't even promise his parents he would make it through the first emergency surgery but they had to stop the bleeding and wanted to transport him to Harborview.

They removed his spleen and he was airlifted to Harborview the very early morning of the 2nd. He ended up having another surgery Sunday morning to remove surgical packing, add in a bunch more drains, etc. It wasn't until after this surgery that he started to improve.

He stayed in the pediatric ICU until Wednesday, when he was able to be moved to lesser care. I don't think he's in a regular room still but is back to eating on his own and sitting up, etc. I'm trying hard to not drive my husband's family crazy with requests for updates (I'm making him call for one today!).

So, as you may guess, not a lot of writing has gone on due to playing family support.

I'm actively working on Deepest Night today though. I'd like to get it done and to my editor for holiday release though. As usual, it wants to be longer than I thought. Is it tending toward "sweet" romances that makes me want more background, more emotion, more insight? I may never know but I can't seem to change from my own style to a more gritty, more casual sex, story.

Anyway, writing is now happening again!