Several of you have heard me talk over the last few years of my Roadtrip Romances I'm writing. A trilogy that follows three girls on different roadtrips where they also find romance, of course. Well, I had written the first one a while back, tackled the second one last November, and planned to write the third this summer (still hoping for that). With so much already done and figured out, I went ahead and sent a proposal in, hoping to line these up to start releasing next year.
I have good news and bad news.
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As I posted back before February, I was given a challenge to basically do another Nanowrimo in February, when people weren't as busy. I accepted, but told myself I wouldn't be upset if I didn't "win" like I normally do (aka over 50,000 words in a month), especially since February has fewer days.
Well, I had an idea for a story set in college, and as of February 23rd, I finished the first draft at almost 68,000 words. It was even better than I expected. I know it will need editing, but it was such a joy to write. As the words flowed out, I discovered even more depths and lessons that my characters needed to learn. I got to learn about different majors than I had myself in school. And I created a school that included quite a few things I love from several schools in real life. Today, we welcome my fellow Scrivenings author, Deborah Sprinkle. I've gotten to know her a bit over the last year through zoom calls, and she's a delight to chat with. I hope you enjoy getting to know her just as much.
Deborah, congratulations on the recent publication of your second novel. As someone who majored in Chemistry and taught for a long time, what made you decide to write murder mysteries? I've been an avid reader of mysteries since I was young, beginning with Agatha Christie. So when I retired from teaching chemistry and felt the desire to write, I naturally gravitated to the mystery/suspense genre. What's ironic is that my very first book was a patriotic devotional that I co-wrote with a friend! It was published in 2013 and it was another six years before my debut romantic suspense novel came out. Are there any people in your past who have inspired or been a big help in your path to publication? I started going to the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers' Conference in 2011. There I met so many great people who would later become friends. One in particular has mentored me for many years now. That's DiAnn Mills. She's an award winning romantic suspense author who's written over 40 books that have sold over one million copies. Yet she believes in helping other authors, like me, get started and be successful. That's what I love about the Christian writing world. I know you've lived several different places. Did you base the town in your books on any town from your past or bits and pieces of several? Yes. For many years, we lived on a 30 acre lake in northern Indiana much like the one I describe in my first book. It was near a community that was smaller than Pleasant Valley, and not within an hour of a big city like Cincinnati, but the house and the lake are very similar to ours. I'm not sure why I chose southern Ohio as the location. I just knew I wanted Pleasant Valley close enough to a big city to give myself options for future stories. |
This is a place for me to tell you about what I'm writing, talk about the process or where some of my ideas came from, or even have other authors come in and talk about their books.
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