Tessa Dare

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

Genesis 1, RSV

Ok, so “Goddess of Romance” I’m not. Because somewhere last week (after many more than six days), I sat back and realized I’d finished drafting my novel. And, behold it was …

Welllll…. Not horrible.

But certainly not as good as it could be.

So we’re into revisions. Ideally, this is where I would set the whole mess aside for about a month and goof around with researching and outlining my next book (tentatively titled Goddess of Beauty, or perhaps Siren of the Sea. Dunno. GOB and SOTS are both fun acronyms.) and then come back to my manuscript with fresh eyes and a ruthless red pen. But I can’t take a month off.

It’s at about 105K now, which means I’m playing a zero-sum game. If I add somewhere, I have to subtract an equal amount somewhere else. There’s plenty of fat to be trimmed, but I also need to write two extra scenes and finish the epilogue.

My motto these days: Ack.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a week. I’m just writing as much as I can. I’m at the 102K mark, but the little wordcount widget site seems to have crashed. Just a few scenes to go, and then I’m into revisions. Yay!

And RitaSV – OMG, it was so exciting to see your comment! Please, please – send me an email from my website. I wanted to PM you from HG, but you know what’s going on there.

Okay, so last night I was supposed to sit down at the computer and write my book’s “black moment” – or, as I am calling it in this relatively light romance, the “gray chapter.”

Instead, what I did was mess around surfing the internet for a few hours. Then I went to bed.

It’s like I just don’t want to go there. I don’t want to put my characters through despair, and I don’t want to feel it with them. (And I’m being completely overdramatic, because as I said, their black moment is really more of a dark gray.) Intellectually, I know that letting them suffer makes for a more emotionally-satisfying ending. Still, I have this – I don’t know, I suppose the word for it is fear – about actually writing it.

Why is this so hard? Those of you who have gotten to this point before and written through it, what advice can you give?

Well, I have officially changed my target word count to 105K words – because there is no way my book is getting wrapped up in the next 4,000. I’ll eventually have to cut some stuff to make it fit 105K, I’m sure.

And even when I reach that 105K mark – oh, I am so far from finished. I have to go back and revise several early chapters to layer in backstory that I only figured out halfway through the book. Those are the major revisions. Then there’s the subtle tweaking of the whole thing – tightening loose sentences, weeding out lame adverbs, layering in description.

The end of February is my goal. I started November 1st. Writing a novel from scratch in 4 months isn’t bad, right? I feel pretty good about that.

Thanks you guys, for tracking my progress and holding my hand through it all.

So I was just over on Romance By the Blog, and the guest-blogger today is a professional love-letter writer. And I got to thinking about how I owe Mr. Dare an amazing love letter.

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and so is our 5th anniversary – and he has been so good to me this year, supporting my writing and just supporting me.

So, give me some suggestions. Tell me about the best love letters you’ve received or written. Any ideas for thoughtful little touches or gifts to accompany it?

Or, are any of you writing books that include love letters? I wish I could work one into my book, but the h/h are almost always together. Are there some great examples of love letters in romance novels I should read for “research”? Of course, loyal Janeite that I am, I think instantly of those wonderful letters from P&P and Persuasion.

“You pierce my soul.” Siiiiiiigh.

(Blame Kelly.)

Contemporary, Historical, or Paranormal?
Historical, almost exclusively.

Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
A bit of everything

Heyer or Austen?
Ha ha. Like anyone reading this blog needs to ask. Let me just say, my son’s middle name isn’t “Heyer.”

Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
Both

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Borders, usually. I once worked at a B&N and haven’t quite recovered.

Woodiwiss or Lindsay?
OK, here’s where you all get to find out what a huge fraud I am. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book by either one.

First romance novel you ever remember reading?
I don’t remember, honestly. I remember reading some of the Julie Garwood Scottish romances in high school, so probably one of those.

Alphabetize by author, Alphabetize by title or random?
I’m a librarian – and I keep work at work. At home, it’s complete chaos.

Keep, Throw Away or Sell?
Keep until destroyed by child or pet.

Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Remove it. (Or take it to work and get it covered in shiny library plastic!)

Sookie Stackhouse or Anita Blake?
Once again, I’m a poser. Neither.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
When I get bored, I start skimming. I often read romances completely out of order. If I make it more than 50 pages in without flipping to the last chapter, it’s the mark of a really captivating read. (Even if I skip to the end, I do usually go back. I just want to make sure the HEA is worth the investment.)

It was a dark and stormy night or Once upon a time?
Neither. It is a truth universally acknowledged.

Crusie or SEP?
Here comes the chorus – Neither.

Buy or Borrow?
Both.

Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?
All.

Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Tidy ending

Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?
As the title of this blog indicates, I don’t really recognize those distinctions anymore. It’s all just Sometime.

Series or standalone?
Either.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Kati in Italy by Astrid Lindgren.
On second thought – that is probably the first romance I ever read.

Gee. I really wish I could tell you why in 25 words or less. I have to work on that.

You see, the problem is, I’m not even sure of all the reasons yet.
But do I know there are many reasons!

Jeremy, the hero of GotH, is a bit of an enigma. When I started the book, his character was not very fully formed. His body … always been nicely formed. But his character has taken quite a bit of work. It’s basically taking me just as long to figure him out as it takes Lucy. She may even be a step ahead of me at times.

Part of my problem is that I have trouble shoving him into one of those hero categories.

• He’s titled, wealthy, in control, hard to crack – but he’s not a total alpha jerk.
• His childhood was marked by tragedy – but he’s not really tortured. (Unless Lucy pestering him counts as torture, in which case he’s very tortured.)
• He’s had his share of women – but he’s not a jaded rake.
• He’s (gasp!) a decent guy at heart – so he has some beta leanings.

The fact that he refuses to be neatly labeled doesn’t bother me so much – it means he’s complex. Lucy deserves more than a label, anyway. But it does worry me in terms of marketing and pitching my book. I suppose I should sell him as an alpha, because alpha heroes sell, right? And he definitely has his alpha moments. Here’s one:

(Before you read this, you should know that Lucy has recently forced him to take her
ribbon shopping.)

Jeremy raised his gun to his shoulder, took aim at a distant tree stump, and fired. Chips of rotten wood exploded into the air. Henry, Toby, and Felix stopped in their tracks and stared at him as though he had suddenly burst into song.

“There was a pheasant,” Jeremy said.

Three heads swiveled in unison to regard the cratered tree stump, then turned back to face him. Henry opened his mouth to speak, but Jeremy silenced him with a look.

The Look.

There were few aspects of his father’s demeanor Jeremy found worth imitating, but The Look was one of those few. He had inherited his father’s ice-blue eyes and heavy brow. With a bit of practice, giving someone The Look came as easily as flexing a muscle.

The Look meant different things at different times, depending on the recipient and the occasion. It could mean, “Hold your tongue.” It could mean, “Lift your skirts.” On one particularly memorable occasion, it had meant, “Put down the damned candlestick before you embarrass us both.”

But whatever The Look meant, it conveyed authority. The Look said, without equivocation, I lead, and you follow.

There was only one person in Jeremy’s acquaintance who remained utterly impervious to The Look. And damn, if she wasn’t leading him around by a satin ribbon.

The candlestick thing is pure FanLit. I can’t resist. The whole book is riddled with FanLit references. I’m sure I’ll end up editing many out – and that one’s a prime candidate – but many will stay. And when (note the optimism) it is published, I’ll run a contest to see who can find the most.

But do you see what I mean? He sounds pretty alpha there, right? Even if he isn’t purely alpha, should I sell him that way, for simplicity’s sake? What do you think?

EDIT:
Okay, so sometimes just writing this stuff out really helps. I realized I forgot to answer the original question: Why are you going to love him?

And there’s a simple answer to that question: Because of all the women he could have, he’s smart enough to want Lucy. And not only want her, but care for her. Sure, the “smart” parts of him aren’t exactly the ones making the decisions for most of the book, but …