Veronica Mars and me
I owe my Golden Heart necklace to the TV show Veronica Mars.
No, really.
See, when I switched some years back from screenwriting to fiction, I thought I should write something literary. I have no idea why. It’s not like I read lit fic that often. But that’s what I did. I wrote what in retrospect should have been a high concept romance, but I crafted it as a slow, internal literary musing and then wondered why my then-agent kept forwarding me complimentary rejections from editors who found it too slow and internal.
Around this time, I watched the first two seasons of Veronica Mars. Devoured, more like. I loved Veronica’s sharp edges and humor, her smarts, her vulnerability, her pain. Loved the intense backstory and her need to fix what was wrong. I was especially captivated by the complex layers in her relationship with her friend-turned-enemy-turned-great-love Logan Echolls. So captivated, I did something I would never have guessed I’d do: I became involved with the fan community. I even dabbled in fanfic. And I had a blast doing it.
I didn’t know it then, but I was trying on a new voice. A snappier voice that worked better for me. A contemporary romance voice.
After that, I knew my next novel needed to be different, so I tried writing a mystery. Veronica Mars is, after all, a mystery series. The romance in that one was pretty good. The rest? Not so good. Turns out I’m not a mystery writer.
Two books, written and shelved. One career, stalled.
Late one night four years ago, I couldn’t sleep. I gave up trying around two a.m. and went downstairs. Ensconced in my armchair in the quiet heart of the night, my only light the steady glow of my laptop, I came up with a new story. The kernel of the idea was from a fic, though the characters and the situation were entirely different. He’s not a bad boy and she’s not a snarky private eye. Even the details of their relationship are different. Still, I was finally working with the right kind of material, using that initial spark in the right way.
I wrote that first draft in five weeks. I loved every minute of it.
Of course, I then rewrote the manuscript several times. It was, after all, my first romance. It turned out I had a lot to learn, despite having read romances my entire adult life. Nevertheless, I was hooked. I’d finally found a good fit.
That book was NO PEEKING, which made me a Firebird and won the Golden Heart for contemporary romance last year. My fanfic-inspired fizzy confection of a novel, who’d’a thunk?
I’ll probably never write another literary novel. They’re not as much fun, and they’re not as much me.
Thank you, Rob Thomas. You led me to my voice.
My question for you: Have you ever hooked into a book, movie, or TV show that draws you in and pushes buttons you didn’t even know you had, making you an unabashed, slightly obsessed fan? And if so, do you have any idea what it is about that particular story that makes it work so well for you?
