…so little time. What we need is 72-hour days – or the ability to write much, much faster.
We don’t know about you, but it takes us about seven months to complete a novel. It can take longer, depending on the piece, but a full-length tome is rarely any less than a seven month project. As we prep our latest book baby (nine months) to go out the door, we realize we have a line-up of projects that we desperately want to finish. We have three sequels we’d love to complete, a romance that we’ve outlined, and one of our acquaintances has just told us that horror porn is HUGE right now.
No, no, we don’t intend to write horror porn, are you nuts? But we clearly need some time off to read the stuff, in the interest of market research and such. (Our fellow writer tells us that buyers love sexy stories that involve tentacles. The images that come to mind are hard to forget.)
The novel on our furthest back burner? Dead Sparrow. Yes, we know the title isn’t a winner but, once Renee gets an idea in her head, there’s no shifting it. Our basic storyline goes something like this: Our heroine, Catherine (Kit) Charbonneau, is an assistant on Danger Falls, an afternoon soap opera that’s struggling to survive. Since its inception in 1963, the show had enjoyed strong audience support until Dark Shadows premiered. Shadows influence has sent the Danger Falls producer chasing ratings, with a new head writer, a new emphasis on the supernatural, and a new star. The star, Derek Zarrowski…rebranded as Dan Sparrow…is moody, hot, sexy, and a complete jerk, with a large circle of girlfriends, former girlfriends, and one ex-wife.
The story is to be told from Kit’s point-of-view. In her early thirties, she’s a little too old to be a show assistant. She’s not cute enough, dumb enough, or obsequious enough to find favor. Her father, a disgraced ex-cop (bribes, and he took them gladly) pulled in a favor to get her the job. Self-doubting but ambitious and dedicated, Kit thinks she can fix the show, if someone would only listen to her. One of the first things she’d do is fire Dan Sparrow, especially after he threatens to quit the show and blames her for his meltdown.
Shortly thereafter, an on-air accident removes Sparrow from the call sheet permanently. As in, he's one Dead Sparrow. When a network executive (her father’s friend) lets it slip that the show is at risk of cancellation, Kit quietly starts a new job hunt. She quickly gets an offer of an interview from the ultra-handsome, ultra-rich…oh, but we share too much. Just know that Sparrow’s accident wasn’t, that Zarrowski’s ghost will soon appear in Kit’s bedroom, demanding she solve his murder, and that a lighthearted supernatural romance will ensue.
Someday. Maybe. If some sweet someone will only invent a 72-hour day for our use.
Until then, Renee has gone ahead and created a cover for our not-novel. We hope you like it.
We don’t know about you, but it takes us about seven months to complete a novel. It can take longer, depending on the piece, but a full-length tome is rarely any less than a seven month project. As we prep our latest book baby (nine months) to go out the door, we realize we have a line-up of projects that we desperately want to finish. We have three sequels we’d love to complete, a romance that we’ve outlined, and one of our acquaintances has just told us that horror porn is HUGE right now.
No, no, we don’t intend to write horror porn, are you nuts? But we clearly need some time off to read the stuff, in the interest of market research and such. (Our fellow writer tells us that buyers love sexy stories that involve tentacles. The images that come to mind are hard to forget.)
The novel on our furthest back burner? Dead Sparrow. Yes, we know the title isn’t a winner but, once Renee gets an idea in her head, there’s no shifting it. Our basic storyline goes something like this: Our heroine, Catherine (Kit) Charbonneau, is an assistant on Danger Falls, an afternoon soap opera that’s struggling to survive. Since its inception in 1963, the show had enjoyed strong audience support until Dark Shadows premiered. Shadows influence has sent the Danger Falls producer chasing ratings, with a new head writer, a new emphasis on the supernatural, and a new star. The star, Derek Zarrowski…rebranded as Dan Sparrow…is moody, hot, sexy, and a complete jerk, with a large circle of girlfriends, former girlfriends, and one ex-wife.
The story is to be told from Kit’s point-of-view. In her early thirties, she’s a little too old to be a show assistant. She’s not cute enough, dumb enough, or obsequious enough to find favor. Her father, a disgraced ex-cop (bribes, and he took them gladly) pulled in a favor to get her the job. Self-doubting but ambitious and dedicated, Kit thinks she can fix the show, if someone would only listen to her. One of the first things she’d do is fire Dan Sparrow, especially after he threatens to quit the show and blames her for his meltdown.
Shortly thereafter, an on-air accident removes Sparrow from the call sheet permanently. As in, he's one Dead Sparrow. When a network executive (her father’s friend) lets it slip that the show is at risk of cancellation, Kit quietly starts a new job hunt. She quickly gets an offer of an interview from the ultra-handsome, ultra-rich…oh, but we share too much. Just know that Sparrow’s accident wasn’t, that Zarrowski’s ghost will soon appear in Kit’s bedroom, demanding she solve his murder, and that a lighthearted supernatural romance will ensue.
Someday. Maybe. If some sweet someone will only invent a 72-hour day for our use.
Until then, Renee has gone ahead and created a cover for our not-novel. We hope you like it.
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