Reunited (And It Feels So Good)

I love having the next blog day after Maia. She always gives me good ideas. Thanks, Maia!

I too have a free holiday short story release coming from Samhain Publishing. “Custom Christmas” will be available for free download on December 26. If you miss it there (I don’t know why you might be busy), I’ll put it on my website and on my live journal. “Custom Christmas” is a follow-up to my first release with Samhain, a short story called Custom Ride. I’ve never met a word count I couldn’t immediately exceed so in order to make it fit under the fifteen-thousand-words submission guideline, I had to cut a lot. I’ve gotten emails asking me what happened with the characters, and I hope this short story works as a standalone, and ties things up for others.

As Maia said, it was fun to go back and hang out with old characters. Even if you write a book in which your old characters have walk-ons or secondary parts, it’s not the same as when you live in a character’s point of view. And although people say you can never go back, it sure feels good to try.

I guess that’s why I love a reunion romance story. It’s my favorite romantic convention, which you may have noticed if you’ve read some of my books. I’m working on one right now, but in this one, the characters were much more broken than in Diving In Deep. The characters in this book have some serious issues to work through. And a killer to find. (Oh no, she’s trying to write an external plot! Somebody stop her!)

I did get reunited with Noah and Cameron from Diving In Deep in writing Collision Course which came out yesterday. Excuse me while I do my Happy Release Day dance. Okay, I’m back. Be very glad there’s no webcam. But having Noah and Cameron around wasn’t the same as actually living in their heads. I know that I really miss Joey and Aaron, and I’m sure I won’t be able to completely leave them alone. Not only do I miss them, but there’s a character in Collision Course who wants his own book. I’m looking forward to a reunion with that world of characters.

I’d fling some more excerpts or prequels for Collision Course at you, but I’ve already done that to the point where I’m sure some people are glad it’s out so I’ll just shut up about it. Yeah, about me and that word count thing again…well, you can always check out my website or live journal if you missed them.

So what do you guys think of reunion romances, or even just being reunited with characters who feel like old friends?