If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try Again

Kate Flora: While I was vacationing in the west last week with husband, son, and son’s girlfriend, my 27th book, Burn the Diaries and Run was published by Encircle Publications. It’s true for most authors, I think, that whether it is our first book or our fiftieth, the arrival of that carton of books is a thrilling moment.

In truth, I’ve worked on the book, off and on, for so many years that I never expected it to reach that magic moment. Back in 1998, my first stand alone suspense novel, Steal Away, was published. It was supposed to be my breakout book. To distance it from my rather mediocre track record with the Thea Kozak series, Ballantine had me change my name from Kate Flora to Katharine Clark. I got a big advance for the book. An audio book deal. A book club deal. It was a big deal. No one told me, at the time, that if you got a big advance and didn’t earn out, you were pretty much screwed for the rest of your publishing life.

But while I was still filled with joy and excitement, in the way that authors will, I immediately started in on another stand alone. This one a political thriller. I drafted about the first 75 pages and excitedly sent them to my new agent, the one who had been so excited about Steal Away.  I waited eagerly for his reaction. Did he like it? Was I on the right track. Silence. I knew from experience that agents and editors could take forever to respond, so I was patient. Finally, I called him up and asked what he thought of the book. His response was it kind of bored him and he wasn’t interested.

Ah, the ups and downs of dealing with the publishing business. I finished the book. By then, he’d decided he didn’t want to be an agent any more and wanted time to find himself. The book went into the drawer. I moved on to other projects, like the next Thea Kozak mystery. From time to time, over the years, I would take the book out and work on it. It went through numerous working titles until I landed on The Senator’s Daughter.  

I rewrote. I dropped subplots. I slimmed down the narrative, cutting out some of Jenny’s adventures. I gave it to beta readers and incorporated their feedback. I sent it to my new agent, who wasn’t interested. But after the other book that had languished in the drawer, Teach Her a Lesson, found a home with Encircle, I decided to take a chance. Back around February, I sent them The Senator’s Daughter.

And then one day in the summer, out of the blue, I got a request to sign a contract to publish the book. At long last Jenny and her story would find its way to readers. But I wasn’t happy with the title. Encircle wasn’t happy with the title, which gave too much away. So in August, I was describing the story to my visitors from Berkeley. “So her mother has been attacked, and before she lapses into a coma, she said, ‘Run, Jen. Run. Burn the Diaries and run.’ ” And everyone in the room, in one voice, said, “That’s your title.”

Here’s a quick summary of the story:

Is one young woman, however resourceful, any match for ruthless politicians? That’s the situation Jenny Cates faces when she learns that her real birth father is a Senator now running for president. Jenny’s existence is a threat to his family values campaign, and his campaign will stop at nothing to get his hands on Jenny’s mother’s diaries, and eliminate the problem of Jenny herself. His rival, a New York governor, has designs on Jenny for different reasons. He wants those diaries to blow up the senator’s campaign, and wants to parade Jenny’s striking resemblance to her father before all the news outlets. With one man willing to kill her and another to use her, her beloved mother lying in a coma after a brutal attack, Jenny goes on the run.

The politicians have staffs of ruthless men willing to do their bidding. Jenny has only herself and people along the way she persuades to help her. Some are truly helping; others are happy to betray her. But she’s running for her life. In the brief periods of quiet during her odyssey, Jenny reads her mother’s diaries, forming a connection across the years to another young woman learning to make her way in the world.

When the governor’s men close in and Jenny is trapped, she’s forced to destroy those precious diaries. The governor tries to persuade captive Jenny to help him with his campaign against the father who never acknowledge her. But she’s seen how he treats people and won’t give him anything. Finally, she escapes and makes her way back to Maine, where, in a dramatic encounter, she tries to tell her story to a reporter as gunmen make a list ditch effort to kill her. Revealing her secret defuses the governor’s plans to use her and shames her father into withdrawing, freeing Jenny so she can finally go home.

Sound intriguing? I will send the first five readers who tell me they’ve bought the book a copy of my first Thea Kozak mystery, Chosen for Death, as a thank you gift. Already read it? Let me know and I’ll find you another book.