The first book you wrote
When Trish was here, somehow the subject of my first book came up over dinner. My husband impressed the heck out of Trish by recalling a lot of details about this book. Here’s the thing – I don’t think he read it. I think I just talked about it that much.
My first book (that I finished) ended up being over 600 pages. It had three heroines and three heroes. The first heroine was Kelly, and she moved to a small town to help her grandmother repair her home after it had been left standing while the grandmother was in the hospital. So of course she hired a local carpenter, Luke, the second oldest of a family of four boys, and the responsible one (think George Bailey). So he had the responsibility of his family’s dairy farm (his mother was deaf and his father died during the course of the book) and Kelly had the responsibility of looking after her grandmother, and that was my conflict.
The second heroine Maddy returned to town in disgrace, pregnant with another man’s child. She faced – guess what – parental disapproval but had no place else to go. She fell in love with Luke’s older brother Stu, who was a DPS officer. I loved writing their wedding (I don’t write a lot of wedding scenes.)
The third heroine was Sara, who was a former barrel racer who married her high school sweetheart and grew bored (even though Trey was the best looking of the heroes). She had an affair with the father of one of her riding students and left town, then returned.
Kind of a lot going on, and it was fun writing the women’s relationships with each other as well as with the men. Even the grandmother softened up and looked out for all of them.
I did write the best epilogue ever, set at the volunteer fire department’s barbecue. All the characters were together, and yes, most were pregnant or had babies, but it was still good. I think I might go back and reread that story, just for me.
This is a good representation of Luke, though he wasn't who I pictured when I wrote it.
So what was your first book like? Tell me here, or on your blog and I'll come visit!
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13 comments:
My first book? I actually rewrote the proposal this year, but it was titled MY WILD IRISH ROGUE and it had a hunky Irish chieftain and a spitfire Norman bride. He put her in a crumbling ruin of a castle to live in and she joined with the villagers in rebuilding it. It had too much external conflict, but I still love the story.
Oh geez that was well over ten mauscripts ago. I was trying category at the time and it was called Struck By Lightning and featured a young woman who moved back to her home town after inheriting her grandmother's house and how she clashed with the new multimillionaire (the guy owned a software company) who had also just moved to town.
Great post, Mary! It's fun to think about that first book and how far we've all undoubtedly come since writing it. My first book was targeted to Love & Laughter and was about a reporter who wins a date with a famous yet reclusive radio shrink. Oh, and did I mention it was AWFUL?
Oh, fun topic. Now I have something to blog about today. :) My first was a historical, and I've not written a historical since.
My first book was and is the newly titled Her Sanctuary LOL. However I have removed subplots of a third romance, I removed the first 50 pages of her attack and then her escape from NY and traveling all the way across North America.
It was far too complicated!!!
What fun to think back! I wrote my first novel when I was about ten years old... about a horse-crazy teenaged girl.
I took alonger trip down memory lane on my blog... thanks for the memories!
Very cool that you resurrected your first book, Michelle! I'd love to do the same thing, and I bet it wouldn't be hard getting back into these characters!
Bonnie, wow, that sounds kinda similar to mine! Way cool!
Tracy, I'm sure it wasn't awful! I don't think mine was - ust plot free ;)
Trish, you know, I really would think you'd write historicals because of your interest in history. Of course, they'd be westerns....
Very cool that you sold your first book, Toni!
Good luck finishing your first book, Nikki!
Stacy, that sounds like a book I'd love to read!
Marianne, I wrote a book way back when that was a combination of Grease and the movie One on One with Robbie Benson. I don't even remember the plot, but my mom pointed out that kids in high school don't line up to go to lunch like 5th graders do!
OMIGAWD. My first book was about a schoolteacher supply store owner whose house was used as a stakeout by the police to perform surveillance on her next door neighbor. She and the hunky cop fell in love, and of course he had to save her when the drug dealer next door figured out what was going on. It was really an awful book. But I loved doing it. It was the first book I finished, and I was so innocent about it back then.
Joanna
Mary - great blog prompt...my first book was terrible and I started it five years ago. About a swarthy Scottish kilted golf coach called Max MacGregor and a mad ditsy London city girl called Steph. The partial fooled a publisher it was worth reading...chapt four onwards was weaker than bad tea... but it was all worth it for the kilted hero! I really should rewrite it soon. Jude D (alias Jess Denny writing name)
JoAnn, I completely agree about our innocence early in the game. I was blithely submitting because I thought I was GOOOOOD. And that was the story before the one I finished!
Jude, welcome!!! Sounds like you really loved that hero. I hope you do rework it - it sounds fun!
A cowgirl and an artist *sigh* I even rewrote it last year. HOping to edit it (again) sometime this year. Yeah, I still have hopes for it despite how bad the first version was *g*
That sounds like a fun book, Cece!!
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