SHAME ON ME - ABOUT COMMITMENTS

Well, I made a commitment to myself to post on this blog almost every day, and I blew it! Here it is the 21st, and I haven't posted anything since the 16th. Yeah, I know, things come up, other priorities, but it would be far too easy to say that and get away with it.

I have the time to read e-mails...some of them total spam; I have the time to find inconsequential things to do. So why couldn't I find the time to post for the past four days? No excuse, ma'am. I'm guilty and will try to be better in the future.

Yesterday I got the "go" signal from L&L Dreamspell for the second book, THE DEVIL'S DUE, and signed the contract. Now it's a reality. In some ways, it's sad, though. The end of something I've lived with for over fourteen years. There was always that manuscript to edit, changes to be made, errors to be discovered. From this point on, there will be a few go-arounds of the publisher's edits, reviewing the galley, and then...and then...holding both books in my hand.

Hmmm, if I had to choose between a never-ending round of rewriting and holding those books, it would be a no-brainer. Holding the books, of course. It means I can go on to other projects, knowing that I've learned so very much from the journey I started with a first-time fiction novel entitled "Dance Ballerina Dance" to the polished end result. Most of the versions exist somewhere in the stacks, file drawers, floor, and other receptacles in my office, and with each one there is a new element. A new title, a new character, a new understanding of Jen's voice, a new cruel twist...it's all there on floppy disks, CD's and DVD's. A history of how I learned to write fiction.

Along with that memory, are all of the people who had a hand in it along the way. On-line groups, conferences, writer's groups, author friends, reader friends, family...they're all there in the history of the books.

I was going to write more about how the story evolved today, but went off on a tangent again, so I guess that will be reserved for tomorrow. Today I'm just going to take the time to appreciate everyone who helped me achieve the dream of telling the story...sharing it and hopefully pulling at readers' heartstrings and their joy...their sense of protectiveness and their anger. Those are the emotions swirling around in this work. Sometimes I would be sitting at the computer crying as I wrote, because I'd gotten so into the character. When people reading the manuscript tell me they cried, too, I know I accomplished what I was aiming for.

More tomorrow, I promise.

--ARLISS ADAMS

DREAMS CAN COME TRUE

More than fourteen years ago I had the idea for a romantic suspense novel. I knew absolutely nothing about writing fiction, although I had written many magazine articles. I thought a book had to be big to be published, so I kept writing and writing---no timeline, no real plotting, just an idea that kept growing and a manuscript that was bigger than War and Peace.

Well, I'd love to say it was an instant success but then they say there's a bridge in Brooklyn for sale for a good price, too. Just Kidding!! As one of my friends who had published thrillers said, "It's too long, it is filled with cliches, doesn't ring true--sorry, I don't think it will ever get published." And, it didn't.

It was rewritten, put aside, rewritten, worked through with a web critique group, rewritten, worked through with a writer's group, rewritten. I think you get the idea. Years passed and this book kept changing and changing. Still the same premise, but I was learning how to write tight fiction.

If you follow this blog, I'll be writing about what it took to finally be offered a contract after playing with this "dream of a book" for more than fourteen years, and giving insight into how some of the characters were born. Yep. That's right. It will be out sometime next year, as a set of two books. The first one is "A Dream Lost". Nope, it's not about my dream lost, because I finally found the right combination.

I'd like to share the some of the emotions that bubbled to the top while writing this, because in using personalities and traits of people who were very close to me, in many cases they became "composite people", it was like reliving incidents in my own life. Not those in the books. They are fiction. But, what inspired me to write them? Many writers dig down to personal experiences and then mold and shape them into the scene they are after. That's what I did.

That's all for today...

Arliss