Friday Guest: Denise Eagan and writing historical Series

Writing Series Romance

When I started writing many years ago, I never intended upon writing romantic series. My first real completed manuscript, The Wild Half, was always meant to be a stand-alone book.  Granted, it has two romances in it and had I written it with a typical series mentality, I would have been broken into two books. Over the years many people suggested I do that. I tried, but it never would work; the romances are too entwined, the characters too connected.  

My writing process is as much a collaboration with the characters as actual creation, and these characters refused to be separated, no matter which way I turned it.  Having failed at separating those romances, I expected that I’d never write a series.  I sort of felt bad for Nick in The Wild Half because he was left out in the cold, but other characters called to me. I went on to those stories instead.

Then came The Wild One.  It came out of the blue while I was trying to revise another story: two characters, Jess and Lee, whom I’d never even created, suddenly started having conversations in my mind, playing and replaying a couple of scenes like a movie stuck on automatic rewind.  Finally I realized I had to write those scenes if I ever wanted to get the revisions on that manuscript done. Unfortunately once they were on paper, other scenes followed, all out of order and just as insistent. The revisions were forgotten. I was typing as fast as the words came, hoping to God it could all be strung together into something resembling a book. 

And then, suddenly, I was in the middle of Colorado. Jess and Lee were riding into the Bar M the ranch from The Wild Half, meeting up with those characters 9 years after that book had ended.

I was shocked.  Confused.  I don’t write series, and this wasn’t really even that—it wasn’t like they were bringing along a love interest for Nick.  This was just new characters hanging out with those old characters. Apparently, Lee had once tried his hand at being a cowboy at the Bar M, and failed when he discovered he hated cows. The McGraws were his friends, he and Jess needed help, and I, the writer, had no choice in the matter.  It was their story, and my job was just to put it on paper.

And it was fun.  It was a lot of fun.  I’d wondered from time to time about what happened to the characters after I wrote “ the end” to The Wild Half.  Here was the answer and what was more, it felt right.  Lee was visiting his old friends—and so was I!

I remember a reader friend of mine once told me that she loved romantic series because she felt like the characters were all old friends.  I never really got that until I was writing it myself, but that is exactly how it feels to a writer.  We love our characters.  We spend a lot of time with them.  We know them well, sometimes better than ourselves, and so it seems only natural to bring them together, just as we would throw a party to bring together our real-life friends.  The difference is we can’t fix our real-life friends lives, and we can’t really send them off on adventures.  In fiction we can, and it’s a joy.

And so my friends Lee and Jess went and played with my friends Rick and Lilah.  And  Jim and Melinda (I got to meet their children—cool!) and Nick.  Before I finished The Wild One, I also met Lee’s father in a scene where they joked about his rocky romance with Lee’s mother, and I had a prequel, Wicked Woman.  

By the time I’d finished that and gone on to another book, I had the bug, like it or not.  My new characters wanted to meet my old characters and soon “people” were coming out of the woodwork, yelling “hey, I’m in this one, too!”  Rick Winchester, from The Wild Half, is the loudest of all—a big, confident alpha hero, who has a lot to say and seriously enjoys meddling in other people’s lives.  It only makes sense that his and Lilah’s story comes out next.  God knows they’ve waited long enough.

So here’s the first meeting scene from The Wild Half, due out at the end of January.  They’re both sitting on the front steps of the ranch house. Lilah’s just started working at the Bar M.  She’s a hunted woman, with dark, dangerous secrets that she’s desperate to keep hidden. Rick is a curious, and secretly grieving cowboy, in need of a mission.  Their needs are about to collide:

            Up close the man radiated a kind of restless energy, which belied his casual smile and the dimples that framed a carved, masculine mouth. Faded blue denim pants gripped long, muscular legs and a tired, blue cotton shirt spread over those wide shoulders.  His hair was light brown shot with sun-bleached gold and his rugged, square-shaped face was slightly lined. She judged him to be in his late twenties, older than most cowboys.

            His eyes caught hers. The lamp light glittered in the crystalline blue depths and nervous excitement snaked through her belly until, sucking in her breath, Lilah jerked free of his gaze. What the hell?

            He chuckled. "Not much for talkin' are you?" he asked, sitting next to her. The step creaked under his weight as he held out his hand. "Name's Rick Winchester."       

            He had a deep voice marbled by a soft southern drawl, which somehow felt like home.  Fear melted away as it slid over her nerves, numbing her senses and promising unknown pleasures.

            Home? Damn it, she thought, jerking herself back to reality.  She had no home! Swallowing, she set her jaw and focused on the valley again.     

            He dropped his hand. "Okay, then you aren't very friendly, either.  But ya might as well lend me your name 'cuz I'll get it from the McGraws anyhow. Lessn' you're one of them rustlers Jim left me to fend off?  Or a thief?  Mebbe I oughtta send Mack for the sheriff?"

            Her heart jumped as the threat shot home.  "I'm called Lilah Martin.” 

            "Int'resting. . .  called Lilah Martin.  But that ain't your name, is it?"

                Her head snapped around.  She’d used the phrase for years. No one had ever challenged it before.  He was staring down at her, laughter lighting his eyes which for some ungodly reason made her heart flutter.  Damn him.

                She redirected her attention to the yard.

                “Not that it matters,” he continued.  “I just wonder why you don’t use your real name.”

            "My private life,” she said, bathing her voice in ice water, “is no concern of yours."

            "Is that so?  Since when is a person’s name part of his private life?"

            She wouldn’t answer.  Her chest felt tight, her nerves on edge as she noted that he’d started the conversation with the diction of a barely literate cowboy but in the blink of an eye it had changed to that of an educated man.  Moreover, in town he’d been dressed like a typical non-threatening cowboy, with vest and boots and spurs. Tonight he wore  moccasins.  No thump or jingling to warn of his approach, no vest to hold tobacco.  In fact, he smelled of pleasantly of leather and soap.

             Damn, but who was he? Rick. . .Winchester. Oh good Lord, he was Barbara's silent-stepping cowboy.  And not just a cowboy but the McGraw’s foreman.

            His clothes made a scratching sound along the wall as leaned against it, his body turned towards her.  Out of the corner of her eye she saw his shirt stretch tight across that hard, powerful chest as his eyes appraised her.  Her skin tingled in anticipation, but of what she couldn’t name.

            "You're Monty’s Frost Queen,” he observed. “And the McGraw’s new housekeeper.  Lady, you sure don't look like a housekeeper."

            She refused to answer that as well, and for a time the silence between them stretched, tight, tight, until it seemed ready to snap.  "You don't like me much, do you?” he asked finally.   “Now I wonder why, seeing as how I'm such a nice friendly fella and all.”

            Sure, as friendly as a rattlesnake.  "When are you leaving?" she asked, turning to freeze him with her coldest stare.    

            His eyebrows rose, his lips twitched with amusement.  “And you’re just as uncivil as Monty said. Now in general that wouldn’t make me think twice, but you’ve got traces of a southern accent.  New Orleans, if I’m not mistaken, and from a good family, too.  Now I know Southern women are never rude, except maybe to Yankees.  But I'm no Yank, so you’ve no call to be rude to me."

            Damn, he was too observant by far.  But how to put him off track?  Not with a lie—honesty was the only virtue she could still afford.  "And how do I know that you aren't a rustler or a thief?"

                "Easy.  I'm not wearing a gun."

Saturday Excerpt

Have you checked out Slip into Something Victorian for our weekly excerpt? No? What are you waiting for? Bunch of authors, different books every week, giveaways! What more do you need?

This week Denise Eagan will be posting. Check her out. She's worth it!

Saturday Excerpt

Today's excerpt at Slip into Something Victorian is by Denise Eagan

And stay tuned for an upcoming giveaway bonanza!

Friday Guest: Denise Eagan

It’s been almost a year since you last stopped by, how’s the writing going?

It’s been a tough year, with a death in the family and my youngest son applying for college and then leaving home. Lots of emotional changes, which can get in the way of writing romance. Romance novels, almost by definition, require a writer to pour emotion onto every page, and that’s pretty difficult if you’re already emotionally exhausted.

But these things are passing now and I’m starting to get back into writing again. One of the wonderful things about taking a forced sabbatical, is that while the words aren’t getting on the page, the creative process is never truly quiet. I’ve continued to plot, and I’ve built up this enormous back log of writing energy. It’s really starting to flow now.

What are your 2011 goals? If you have any!
I have goals but please, oh please, don’t call ‘em resolutions! Goals are something you plan to do, resolutions are things you have to do, and I’ve got a terrible rebellious streak in me. As soon as I hear “must” I think “why?” So yeah, goals. Definitely goals. And I’ve got a ton of ‘em, the typical lose 10 lbs, exercise more, eat healthier, yada, yada, yada. I have serious doubts about those.

I haven’t done it before, why believe I’ll do it now?

On the other hand, I have some pretty concrete writing goals. Having taken that little sabbatical I now have two books I want to finish this year, and I’ve only really just started them. I’ve got another that I’d like to do a substantial re-write as well, and one more that I want to do some serious plotting on. All of that, of course, requires research. And I’d like to become more publicly involved. I love Victorian history, and I really would like to share more of it. I think a lot of people have a misconception about the era, and I’d like to help change that a little. So I’ve gotten on twitter (after a lot of hand wringing because it’s more technology to learn!) and I’m trying to set things straight with 140 characters a day.

Twitter isn't bad, Dee, once you get used to it. @ladyisabel Dee's Twitter: @DLEagan

How do you overcome life-interference when it comes to your writing?

Chocolate? Okay, that doesn’t overcome it, but it sure helps with the depressing parts of that interference. I guess the best way I overcome it is to keep my brain working no matter what.

Lots of days my fingers don’t get to the keyboard. I can, though, always think about my stories, and I keep a pad of paper in my purse to write down random ideas that occur to me while shopping or driving or whatever. Eventually I get them all in a file on the computer. I also put myself to sleep pretty much every night “listening” to my characters. I starting a scene in my mind—dialogue, thought, some description—and continue to construct it until I fall asleep. That way when I do get a chance to write, a lot of the words are already there.

No, they aren’t exact. Sometimes they’re worse, sometimes better, but one way or another I’ve always got a story going. As I said, life’s challenges can interfere with the writing, but it rarely stops the creative process.

What are you working on now and what are your plans for this story?

As I said, I’m working on two stories. One is a contemporary, with a screenwriter heroine. In 30 years of writing I’ve only written one contemporary, so it’s a stretch for me. But I like challenges in writing and once I got over the initial “can I do this? Do I have the voice for it?” it wasn’t as difficult as I thought. The second one is in Victorian America 1870’s ish. Both have light paranormal elements as in psychic connections and spirits, which move me away, again, from what I’ve traditionally written.

While the characters in the contemporary are fairly light, which is where my writing over the last years has gravitated, the hero in the historical is pretty dark. That, too, is a bit of a challenge, but fun. The biggest challenge is writing two entirely different stories at the same time. Lots of characters and plot twists to keep track of. It’s requiring a lot of organization.

Of course both stories have my traditional murder element, because I just love how throwing that into the mix alters relationships. For me, that’s what's most fun about writing romance: creating characters, putting them together and watching how they work things out. It’s the discovery process that is such a kick! And not just the relationship between hero and heroine, it’s the other characters in the story and how the developing romance affects them.

As for plans, no special plans other than to finish them and submit them. We’ll see what happens after that.

Thanks for stopping by, Dee! And good luck with your goals-not-resolutions. Any time you want to visit, feel free to do so.



Both Wicked Woman and The Wild One is available in paperback ad e-book form.

Friday Guest: Denise Eagan

Denise is the force behind the Scandalous Victorians. Without her, I wouldn't know my fellow Vics, wouldn't have set my Druids series in the Victorian Era, and probably wouldn't be writting what I am now without the group. I have a lot to thank her for.

Without further ado, Denise--who named her photo on her site 'shit'. How can you not love someone like that?

What made you decide to write Wicked Woman and The Wild One?

This may sound strange, but I didn’t really decide to write either one of those. They just came to me. I think it was November 2002, I was trying to get a completely different manuscript in quick shape to send out the door. The economy was bad and my husband and I were thinking it might be good for me to get some temp work or a part time job. So there I was working on the manuscript between checking out jobs on the internet, and this scene came to me. Out of the blue. Two people talking. I saw them as clear as day, knew their personalities, their relationship, everything.

I tried very, very hard not to write it—I didn’t have time!—but it kept nagging at me. After a couple days I thought maybe if I just put it in a file quick-like, I could get back to the two things I really needed to focus on. But as soon as I wrote that scene, two more popped into my head. So I quick-like wrote those. . .long story short, three weeks later I had the first complete draft of The Wild One.

It came so fast and furious and I was just so insane getting it all down, that my husband was bringing me dinner at the computer. At one point he and my two sons lined up behind me. I asked what they wanted, and they said “We just wanted to see what you look like. We’d forgotten.”

Anyway, when I was close to finished with The Wild One, another scene popped into my head with the father of the main character in that book. By the second week in January, I had the first draft of Wicked Woman too. The holidays that year are a complete blur.

Needless to say I never did get that job.

What else are you working on?

Well I’m back to getting that original manuscript in working shape! It’s tentatively named Heart and Soul, but I’m not particularly happy with that title. It’s historical, with a serial killer in a small-town farm setting, complete with a telepathic relationship between a very tortured hero (who is suspected to be the killer) and a sort of off-kilter heroine. I’m also working on a western which has characters from The Wild One in it and leads to your next question...

What’s your dream story? The one that becomes a New York Times runaway bestseller, the one you hope to one day write?

The book I’m writing now, Westwind, it’s one of my favorite of all my books. I’ve finished it several times, but I just can’t let it go. It was written when I was working on The Wild One and it seemed natural to take those characters, who were already in Colorado, and send them on down to a ranch that I’d already created, with “people” I already “knew”. It was a blast learning how they turned out 10 years later! Now, though, I really want their story known.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Yes—I love the American Victorian Period—19th century America. I just really love how the country and society (women’s movement, slavery and the end of it, agricultural to industrial society and more) changed and I wish, wish, that we could get more books out about it. So much change, which creates so much great conflict!

Wicked Woman is now out of print, but it’s still available in the kindle edition, and used copies are being sold on E-bay, at Amazon and Barnes and Nobel. The Wild One is in print and available new at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and several other sites, as well as in the kindle form.

Wednesday Reviews: The Wild One

Even though my fellow Victorians have written plenty of stories, all of which I've read, I think that to review all of their books would take me through April. And there are so many stories out there to read! This is Denise Eagan's 2nd novel, The Wild One, her sequel to Wicked Woman. Booklist reviewed it, and while I can't seem to find that review, I remember reading it. Not too shabby!

But what do I think of it? I think it's seeped in history, the research was utterly fantastic and believable. Makes me want to set a book along the Barbary Coast the red-light district in San Francisco that is, not Morocco though that does sound interesting now that I say it. :)

So Jessica is an everyday woman trying to make her way quietly through life when that track is derailed by Lee Montgomery. Lee is a sexy rogue, all darkly mysterious and aggressive. Yum. She resists, he advances, and it's a wonderful, sensuous dance between them.

Reformed (or reforming) rakes who finally fall in love are a favorite of mine. Do you think chocolate will bribe her to tell a couple supporting characters' stories? A girl can hope, right?