Channeling Theodora Taylor

So, don’t make fun of me, but I recently discovered Theodora Taylor like, a week ago.

I’ve only been reading romance a little longer than I’ve been writing it, so I’m a newbie sailor on this Romancelandia ocean. I first saw her name popping up repeatedly on my mailing list survey results, where I ask my readers who their favorite authors are. And we all know how it is. We have to see a name once or twice in an unrelated context before we really SEE that name, you know what I mean. And it’s been no different with me.

So, I start with the first book in the Fairgood series and I’m hooked by the epilogue, and completely shook DADDY by chapter 1. I’m like, “okay, just found my main source of supply for like a good two years.” ‘Cause you know, when you’re writing all that romance, you sorta need to re-charge, it’s like a real need. Otherwise, you’re sitting in front of a manuscript, barely able to convincingly write a character across a room, much less professing love, or initiating a love scene, or whatever. Anything can re-charge you, anything creative, but there’s nothing like sitting back with a book, reading somebody doing it better than you, so you don’t have to worry about anything but being entertained and fed.

Well, don’t think I didn’t notice that the main character in the first book dyes her hair different colors. I have a book coming out next month (now on pre-order: go get it!) where the heroine does the same, in her 20’s. It’s a silly thing to trace back to just one story, but having been out only a year, I’ve had to get used to the author paranoia that someone is always lifting your stuff. Likewise, I never want to be accused of doing the same, although I don’t believe in changing a detail when you come across it somewhere else. And I don’t really believe in getting all in your feelings about “thought” plagiarism, because it’s so ephemoral. But it is really weird when you’re either the victim of it, or the subject.

So, a little bit further into the book, there’s a character named Josie, sometimes nicknamed “Jo Jo,” a name which plays a pretty big part in a future release later this year. Some of you who follow me on Facebook may have seen me reference “the book that must not be named,” about a black woman who falls for a former klansman. It still doesn’t have a name, but I’m narrowing it down. Well, the female character is named JoAnn, and that’s about all I want to say about it, just know that I was really taken aback to see that name in this book. I was like, “let me send out an early disclaimer, I legit have never read this book before today.”

So after I was done devouring that one, I move on to book 2, where the hero is this big blonde, blue-eyed country dude, the same profile as my hero for this future release. I’m thinkin’ that’s no big deal, that type of guy is everywhere, and this guy has amnesia, it’s not the same, it’s fine.

Guys… why does dude find out he’s a white supremacist???

Okay. Now, inwardly I know it’ll be fine, and if ever forced to defend my work, I know I could do it. I know that the similarities end with just those superficial character choices, and that that’s where the similarities end. The stories, tone, themes, and character arcs and are completely different.

But at this point, even I’m like, “yo, did I somehow lift this before reading it???” Like… what in the hell. I don’t know how I couldn’t blame anyone who reads both of us for thinking that I’m just sprinkling my stories with Theodora Taylor glitter in hopes that folks will like it. The obvious answer is that we are both probably drawing from a larger creative well of similar material subconsciously. I mean, I’m thrilled, of course, to be picking up similar wavelengths as Theodora fucking Taylor. And I don’t quite know what it means, because it’s weird out of all the authors I’ve ever read, to find that many similarities in just the first two books of one.

I’m just gonna assume that it means something really great. But right now, Ms. Taylor is legit my spirit animal.

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