Summer before last, I co-authored a book with one of my writer buds. I always said I'd never co-author a book because I know me too well. I'm too controlling and I want what I want but somehow I found myself accepting the challenge. Big Mike (M. W. Davis) wrote the initial plot and then basically bowed to all my suggested changes. Wow. He's a plotter and I'm not. I go with my gut as the story progresses so it was quite a challenge to blend our two thought processes into one. Anyway, with the exception of one or two scenes, he wrote from the hero's perspective and I wrote from the heroine's perspective. The outcome proved a success.
The hardest thing about this was the genre. I don't typically write romantic suspense or maybe I do. I know I try to insert a bit of mystery or suspense in all my books but not to the point that it's the main focus. I surprised myself with this one. When we began, it was supposed to be the beginning of a series but due to time constraints, I had to bow out of project two. Big Mike is taking the reins solo on the sequel but I can tell he's most excited about it.
Here's the blurb:
After years struggling to succeed as an artist, Lilah Randal
accomplishes here dream, only to return from her first sold out exhibition to
find her husband and his mistress in bed, murdered. For a year she’s persecuted
by the cops and media, accused of killing the Senator, her husband. With no
proof, only suspicious, the police give up, but not the news hounds, nor the
discomforting phone calls or late night attempted intrusions into her home.
Reluctantly, Lilah stalls her career, assumes a different identify and begins
fresh, hiding in a small town far away from the attention of DC. Her days are filled
with new vigor as the serenity of the Cherokee Valley surrounding Watauga Lake
feeds her creative muse under a fake alias, Carmen. Yet her nights remain
hollow, like her marriage to the Senator, until she becomes obsessed by the
allure of a stranger that glides by her cabin in his sailboat. Both his male
form and solemn expression bleed into every painting, every midnight fantasy,
until her new dream becomes reality. Lilah learns her future will remain
corrupted by the past until she solves the secret behind her husband’s murder
and explores her attraction to the mysterious sailor.
