Story ideas are funny things. You start with a kernel of something. Maybe it’s a theme, a news story that sticks in your mind, a bush that looks like a demon. It could germinate for awhile, simmering in  your subconscious for weeks, months, even years. Or it could be a whole scale excavation of that little bit of whimsy you stubbed your creative toe.

The idea behind Felicity Stripped Bare was a bit of excavation. Sometimes I found myself digging in the wrong spot, sometimes I hit gold.

I knew I wanted to write a romance, and I wanted to write hot since my favorite types of romances were fairly sensuous (although not at the heat level of many of today’s erotic-romances).  That decided, I figured Harlequin’s BLAZE imprint would be a perfect fit. Besides, a short category length would be easier to write than a single title length book, I reasoned.

Can you tell just how much I had to learn?

In my home town newspaper, there was a number of articles on the homeless, Squatters, and squeegee-kids.  Having the innate knowledge of what  Harlequin editors were looking for, I immediately thought: Hey, I’ll make my heroine a squatter!

Ahem.

She would be a runaway, who several years later was still living on the streets, and her best friend, and self-appointed protector, was named Angel—a big strapping guy with wild curly shoulder-length hair and a goatee.

The hero, a contractor, would have to be the owner of the vacant house she was squatting in. He bought the house for a flip. Badda-bing, badda-boom! There’s yer conflict.

Sounding like a BLAZE yet?  Didn’t think so.  Sound like there’s enough story for a book yet? Yeah, didn’t think so.

I had a lot more excavating to do.  Both the hero and heroine had to age by about 7yrs each.  The heroine would no longer be homeless, but definitely just making ends meet at a job she was slightly embarrassed about. The cheap rent she was paying for her flat in an old wreck of a house was extremely important to her well-being.  

The very same house the hero buys a few months later, intending to flip it. He has plans to quite the family law firm and follow his dream of restoring old houses.  Plans his father isn’t happy with.  But the hero wants out of that law firm, and with a partner in the house flip depending on the potential profits, failure is not an option.

As you can see a few changes from the original, made for a completely different story. There were more changes to come—for example Angel became Robert and was now the hero’s best-friend and business partner instead of the heroine’s. And there was additional fleshing out of internal issues—the reason the heroine dropped out of school was because of her dyslexia (a condition I was very familiar with as my son has it).

All that digging and all those changes, (including a title change from the oh-so-evocative: DENIAL), plus additional secondary characters and minor subplots made for a bigger more complete story.  Did I mention it was now single title length? Just another little change….

Next week, hopefully, you’ll read the results when the book goes on sale at Samhain July 8^th. 

~*~

     High-school drop-out Felicity Cameron is newly single (by choice), with a new job, a new home, and she’s just signed up with a tutor because of her dyslexia.

So what if her hew job is waitressing at a strip club? No one has to know. And who cares if her new flat is in a ramshackle house? The rent’s cheap.

The important thing is: Felicity is finally getting her life back on track. That is, until she meets her new landlord.

The man is yummy chocolate-coated on the outside, but with a chewy moron center.

Lawyer-turned-builder Daniel Mackenzie isn’t looking for more complications in his life. But complications are what he gets when his latest purchase, slated for a flip, comes with one constantly complaining tenant.

It’s a shame they got off on the wrong foot, though, considering she’s quite a looker. Too bad all you could look at were her tonsils ‘cause her mouth was always flapping.As they try to get past that little ol’ eviction thing… Felicity strives to keep all her secrets from him, while Daniel does everything he can to pull her into his life and into his arms. But she seems determined to hold something back. And he’s afraid it’s her heart.