Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Though the situation with The Ideal Gentleman is a bit fluid. Will update as soon as I know anything for sure.

Heather,

Wow, that’s high praise indeed. Please tell Samatha Gail that I’m blushing.

And thank you for all your support. I truly appreciate it.

As I adore her, I count that as high praise and will add my own (by now well-known) Sherry-worship to the stew. You rock, girl, keep making the magic. I’ll put the pending release on my site! YIPPIE!!!!!!

Heather
http://www.blazeofbeauty..com
candles and books and contests…oh my!

I’m a junkie too. I loved, loved to be moved to tears when I read a romance novel. I love that ache in my chest. I’m looking forward to NQAH like nobody’s business. Champing at the proverbial bit. I know I would have loved the original version and I know I’ll love, love the final.

Now you need to hurry up with The Ideal Gentlemen.

Bev

Lord, even your blogs are written with eloquence.

I am not going to alternate b/t historicals and contemporaries. Cuz I have only one (half actually) contemp that I’ve written for fun on the side–as a break from the historicals.

If someone asks me to write more contemps I’d totally have no idea what to write about. So my hope is just that my publisher would throw me a few bucks for this particular one on my next historical contract and put it out as a pity project.

Although I like both genres, it’s always sad when good historical romance writers totally leave the genre. Judith McNaught wrote some great historicals, but has said that she has nothing new to add to the genre. She now concentrates on contemporaries. Hopefully, you will do both.

Courtney,

I hope your editor loves it as much as you do. I’m intrigued by your choice of hero.

Kaley,

LOL, from your lips to God’s ears. I truly do not want to disappoint, but with only 2 books under my belt, my track record isn’t quite established yet.

Kim,

I actually don’t have much problem polishing scenes, it is the story structure–i.e., big picture–that gives me trouble sometimes. (Which totally sucks for me, as story structure problems require wholesale dumping.)

P.S. After a while, he didn’t seem like a Remus to me either.

Beth,

I can’t even remember very much what was in the first turn-in version of Delicious. But boy, am I glad that Bantam didn’t just take it and put into print.

Stephanie,

Wow, you know about Painted Veil as inspiration for NQAH? You must have read the Italian interview then. Can’t remember I ever spoke about that publicly elsewhere.

I have to say however that it was not the book but the movie that served as my inspiration. I wiki-ed the book Painted Veil and had a WTF moment reading the very end of the plot. The movie, on the other hand, sooooooo good. And so devastating. My little romance reading soul was totally unprepared for what happened to poor Walter.

P.I.,

Thanks. I’m planning to do a in-depth story-behind-the-story for NQAH as I did for DELICIOUS in the coming weeks, so that would be extra info for you.

M,

I saw 12 Monkeys, and Brad Pitt was stupendous. Have you seen 7 Years in Tibet, btw? Great acting job, AND he looked fine.

Anon,

There had been a secondary romance, but it just didn’t sparkle. It also didn’t really relate to the primary plot except the characters were related by blood. And it was only half-finished by the time the big rewrite order came down. On the spot I decided to chuck it, if only for time concerns. 3 weeks just wasn’t enough to fix both the primary and the secondary.

The account of writing DELISH Kim referred to is on my website, in the page for Delicious, under “Story behind the Story.” I posted the original proposal for DELISH, and something of the writing journey, and bits of research info. But now I’m thinking there are stuff I left out, such as why I wanted to write about a cook in the first place.

Oh well, will fill in later.

Janine,

Bless you. And yes, we certainly are suckers for the same wrenching stuff.

Jill,

Yep, flattened. That was me.

But I really don’t think I have any extraordinary talent except a willingness to pitch everything out and start again.

Writers get attached to their stories–that’s the way it should be. But I think more often our attachment is not to the story itself, but the way it is told. And that’s where we can use a little non-attachment and say, okay, how can I tell this story better while still preserving the core of the story?

Hope your revisions are coming along swimmingly.

What you just described with Not Quite is the same feeling I had with my latest manuscript. I was so deeply moved by the story, I couldn’t see its flaws. I literally wept when the hero and heroine got back together. My editor–didn’t. She thought the whole thing was terrible. I was shellshocked, just like you said. Utterly flattened.

Your story gives me hope. If an extraordinary talent like you struggles with revisions from time to time, so can I.

And I’m so excited for your next release! I love a tearjerker.

Thanks.

No secondary romance! Ack! I really, really like your secondary romances so far. But the premise of NQaH is so intriguing that I’ll cross my fingers the primary romance is enough.