Hi everyone —

If you follow my Facebook Page (Please do! LOL), you’ve probably seen my posts about my crazy book i’ve been writing. It started out to be a short novel, the first in a new contemporary series set in Laguna Beach, that i planned to self-publish. I started the book back in late October and thought i’d have it whipped out by the beginning of January latest. HA!

The book is the story of a twenty-five year old construction worker who holds down three jobs to help take care of people in his family. He coaches Little League in his spare time and ha been engaged three times. He doesn’t seem to be able to hold a fiancee even though he’s handsome and can be charming. Anyway, my hero meets a wildly flamboyant stylist and, as he peels back more layers of his unexamined life, begins to realize he’s gay. I planned to call the story Blow Out.

Nothing went as planned. Every time i tried to write at the pace i thought appropriate, the characters stretched it out. In order to make the scenes authentic, i needed to add detail and take my time. I wrote and wrote. 50K words. 60K. I couldn’t get to the end of the story. Until finally at 82K, they said The End. I sent the book to a beta reader afraid she would tell me it was boring. Instead she “Loved, loved, loved it!” And i must confess, i kin d of love it too.

Every author has had the experience of characters hijacking a story and going somewhere they want to go — sometimes for good and sometimes not. This was the most extreme example i’ve ever had. My story went from a sassy little light tale to a more in-depth study of a man coming out. It’s still fun, i think, and really sexy, but i hope it’s also more genuine.

Here i sit, doing final edits. The book is now called Knight of Ocean Avenue. It’s 82K and will go to my agent to see how she likes it and see if she can find a home for it. Will anyone else like my Book That Wrote Itself? The story my characters told? We’ll have to see. : )