Guest Blogger: The Incomparable Marsha Canham
Sherri and I have known Marsha since we were first published–babies, really–and she told us the (then frightening) story of how she outlined a book. When her editor asked her for one (and in all fairness, they ask us all…we ALL have to do them), Marsha informed her she didn't outline books. When they insisted, she put a book on a piece of paper, traced the outline, and sent it in. She won. She's the USA Today bestselling author of some fabulously spicy historical adventures, and she has recently entered the world of self-publishing. Welcome Marsha!
Eight years ago I thought my head was going to explode. I had been writing and published since the early 80's, and pretty much figured I knew what I was good at, how long it took me to write a book, what kind of book my readers had come to want and expect. I had just come off an extremely wonderful high after having The Iron Rose voted one of the seven best fiction books of the year by Publishers Weekly. It was well received, it sold well, and because I had set it up nicely for a sequel, and because the editor who had hired me was enthusiastic about pirate books, I thought I had it made in the shade.
The devil scoffs at those who think that way *snort*
The editor who hired me was no longer there. A new young thing took her place and when she found out I was planning the sequel, she wagged her little finger and said no, no, no. No one is interested in a pirate book. They're old fashioned and today we want vampires! We want ghouls! We want zombies! We want you to write one like THAT.
This devil scoffed.
It took another month of back and forth before I compromised and agreed to write another medieval…no ghouls in site…but honestly, my heart wasn't in it. They didn't accept my title, wanted me to "tone down" the violence, thought it was too long, thought it was too graphic and ended by saying: the next book you write "will" be a Regency because that's what's selling and that's what the readers want.
This devil refused and went on hiatus.
Fast forward eight years to the ebook revolution. Thanks to Julie Ortolon, I was nudged, pushed, shoved into taking a second look at a couple of backlist books that were collecting dust. A bit of revising, polishing, dusting and I reissued them as ebooks via Amazon and Smashwords. After seeing that they actually DID sell, and that self publishing could be a successful way to re-enter the world I loved and had hated to give up years ago, I quickly dashed off letters to former publishers and got the rights back to all but three of my backlist books, including Across A Moonlit Sea and The Iron Rose, the unfinished trilogy.
Thanks to Kindles and Nooks and iPads, the wave kept rolling and building and a lot of other authors climbed on board and started reissuing their backlist and being discovered by a whole new generation of readers. More than that, some of us began to think about wading into even deeper waters by writing and publishing original books straight to digital, thus bypassing the 20-something editors who had ghoul fetishes.
While all of this was going on, the sequel to The Iron Rose had still been rolling around in the back of my mind. It was Gabriel Dante's story and I wanted to tell it in my way, in my style, and that's just what I did.
The Following Sea was released as an ebook this week. I will admit to a lot of stress and nerves, mainly because I *have* been out of the game for the past eight years rolling around in the garden with my grandchildren. I've edited and revised and edited again hoping the muse hasn't slacked off. I had it read by two women who don't normally read romances, and a man who had NEVER read a romance before, wanting opinions, suggestions, corrections from all of them before I took a deep breath and pushed the "upload" button. Honestly, it's like writing that first book all over again, with all the doubts, the nerves, the anxiety, the excitement, the fun, the thrill, the hopes, the anticipation…
But I'm back and hoping to stay for a while. I still have Jonas Dante's story to write, and then there is that forest back in Medieval England, and an assassin looking for the hidden son of the Lost Princess of Brittany…the man who should be king….
The Following Sea is available at Amazon and Smashwords
Do you love a good pirate romance? Or do you prefer vampires and ghouls? Errol Flynn or Johnny Depp? Are you a natural born rebel, or do you prefer to follow the rules?
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