Saturday we {finally} had the cover reveal for "Protecting the Poor."
Today starts a whole new series of a blog tour!! I'm thrilled and excited to welcome thirteen amazing bloggers that I'll be hanging out with next month:
We're going to have about three posts each week, so keep visiting back here (or just go and follow all of them!) and I'll link to each blog on the day they post. Every post is different--this week, for instance, we have an inspirational post, a book review, and an "about-the-process" lined up. I'm super excited about it and give a hearty thank-you to these lovely bloggers for letting me invade their space.
Let's start at the very beginning...
If you’ve hung around me long enough, you might already know
the “story behind the story.” So just skim if you’re that person. But hey… maybe you’re new (hi!!) and love
behind-the-scenes just as much as I do!
It’s always interesting to think back to how a series began—or,
in this case, just one short story (cue a sheepish grin). My sisters and I were
watching a movie and during a commercial break, the random question popped in
my mind (because we really weren’t watching anything “Beauty and the Beast”
related): “What if the beast was Belle’s father?” I jotted the question down on
my phone’s notes app (anyone else do that?). This was end of June/beginning of July
2016.
Well, one of my friend’s birthdays was coming up late July.
So, like any sane person, I thought, “Why not write a short story for her for a
gift?” And like any sane writer, I knew I could pull it off.
Not.
I did write a short story (about 7,000 words) and it only
took me one weekend. But I soon realized that my story idea morphed into
something far greater than a mere short story could handle. As I edited, it
grew to over twice its original length, landing it in the questionable short
story/novella range (so yeah, I just called it a novella). No, I didn’t meet my
friend’s birthday. She still received it as a gift—albeit a few months late (it
released September 30, 2016).
End of story.
Until…
I wasn’t seriously thinking about making a series out of “Befriending
the Beast,” but I mentioned to my friend how I had the fleeting thought of
attempting a Cinderella retelling, but the only idea I had was modern. A few
days later, she messaged, “Since you made the beast the father, I thought you
might like to toss around the idea of making Prince Charming the father too.”
Thanks, A.M. Heath. I stayed up half the night spinning an idea for a
now-book-two of a series-I-wasn’t-going-to-write.
Once “The Secret Slipper” was in the works, I knew I had to
create a trilogy (because three is just better than two), so as soon as
characters were created, I began to toss around who could have their own story
for a third retelling. Now, my reader friends, we have “Protecting the Poor”
hinting at a Robin Hood retelling!
And there you have it… how my novella trilogy spun from one
single question.
Have you ever had an idea that began simple and expanded
every time you thought about it? If you’re a writer, what is the craziest way
one of your stories began?
