The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

1. What is the working title of your book?  Love & Devotion – It’s more than a working title since it’s officially on the cover. Of course, the book hasn’t gone to the printer yet. It’s in that middle stage where all the pieces are coming together. Expect to see it mid-2013 from Bold Strokes Books.
2. Where did the idea come from for the book? Oh, gosh, this is not a short story (but they rarely are when I’m involved. I tend to babble, ya know.). A few years ago, Sacchi (she’s an editor as well as a writer) posted a call for submissions for her new anthology. At the time I had a song on high rotation on my playlist that was about a woman who found out her husband was having an affair with a younger woman. I started playing with that idea. What would happen if the woman, after finding out about the affair, went to her own much younger lover for comfort? And what if that lover just happened to be a woman? Yep, I liked that idea very much. So I wrote the short story and, lucky me, Sacchi included it in the anthology, Lesbian Lust. But that just wasn’t enough. The story kept niggling at me. So I expanded it and told the story of their affair. The novel has a much different tone than the short story, but I’m pretty pleased with the results.
3. What genre does your book fall under?  Romance? I think. It’s definitely not a traditional romance, but I think that’s where it will end up being slotted. Maybe erotic romance?
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Gonna skip this question.
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? KC Hall trips her way through life, stumbling into an affair with a married bombshell twice her age. Thankfully,
   her best friend, Emma Reynolds, is there to show her the true meaning of Love and Devotion. 
6. What is the longer synopsis of your book?KC Hall loves her family, her small East Texas town, and her best friend, Emma Reynolds. All of that takes a back seat when her lover beckons. Lonnie is blonde, beautiful, and willing. She’s also married and a lifelong friend of KC’s mama.KC knows the affair is a bad idea, but she just can’t help herself. When presented with the lush landscape of Lonnie’s body, KC subscribes to the philosophy of “orgasm first, think later.” Unfortunately, a secret that big is impossible to keep in a close-knit community where everybody knows everybody else’s business. The scandal would hurt her entire family.

   Emma is KC’s exception, the one woman she loves enough to not have sex with. When Emma confesses that she’s loved KC since high school, KC is terrified. One wrong move and she could lose Emma completely.

   Is she willing to let her family pay the price for her good time? Or will she turn to Emma to discover the true meaning of Love and Devotion?

7. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
 All my novels have been published by Bold Strokes Books. Love and Devotion continues that tradition.
8. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
 Ummmm…I started mid-September and finished early November. That included doing rewrites as I went. I’m not really capable of writing start to finish without going back to clean previous work up. I’ve heard other folks do this, but I can’t conceive of it.
9. Who or What inspired you to write this book? A song, a call for submission, an idea that refused to leave me alone.
10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
 It’s set in Texas and that’s always a fabulous backdrop for life. Oh! It has some crazy, hot sex scenes. People like sex, so that might pique all sorts of things.

Thus concludes my episode of The Next Big Thing. As is beholding with tradition, I’m going to tag a couple of folks.

• First, my good friend, RG Senechal. RG writes young adult and is the reason I started writing in the first place. Seriously. Check out her work HERE. And HERE.
• Second, my new friend, Karis Walsh. Karis also writes romance and is a part of the Bold Strokes Books family. We met recently at an event and I decided then that Karis is a keeper. Visit Karis HERE. Or HERE. Or HERE.