I didn't plan on writing for Avalon Books, but I met their editor at a conference and she asked if I had any unsold books stuffed under my bed. Well, it just so happened that I had a story about a couple who got involved with a radio station's contest and were living in a truck. Whoever managed to stay in it the longest, won it. I know, you're shocked that a book that's set almost entirely in the front seat of a truck was a hard sell. LOL Well, she bought it, and three others afterwards.
It was fun writing about the radio station whose motto was,
Where Love is More than Just a Song. A friend is a local DJ and Craig Warvel (Star 104 Erie, PA) let me come out and hang out with him in the studio one morning. I went on to write the second book in the series about two disc jockeys. Then another disc jockey with an Old English Mastiff (we had one at the time, and other than a slime problem, he was a marvelous dog). The only edits my editor asked me to do on that book was to deslime it. I told her that I'd already toned down the slime...my dog slimed a lot more than I'd portrayed in the book. She told me slime wasn't romantic. Who knew? So, I deslimed it and went on to do one last book. A book that featured a bit of stand up comedy. And I said goodbye to WLVH.
I'd started writing more serious books for Harlequin. I loved pushing my writing to something other than humor, but I didn't want to stray too far from my comedy roots. So when I finished the WLVH Radio series, I pitched another series that had been languishing under the bed. This one had a Hungarian grandmother who accidentally cursed her family to bad weddings. I'd planned it as a trilogy.
When I finished the trilogy (she'd broken the curse), readers told me they missed Nana Vancy, my Hungarian grandmother. And frankly, so did I. So, I called and pitched another book. After breaking the curse, Nana Vancy was bored and wanted to try her hand at matchmaking....to the tune of
The 12 Days of Christmas. It sold. So did the fifth book, and once you had two, it was easy to come up with one more story and make it a trilogy.
This last book, Everything But a Dog, was especially fun because I put my two dogs, Ethel Merman and Ella Fitzgerald, in it. Of course, I renamed them because...wait for it...wait for it...they didn't want the
puparazzi to
hound them! Yeah, go ahead and roll your eyes. My kids do every time I say it!
I'd finished writing the book when I heard that Avalon was sold to Montlake Book. They told me they'd not only be releasing Everything But a Dog, but they'd be
rereleasing the backlist of both series as eBooks and paperbacks.
Well, I wanted to do something special for my readers. I also wanted introduce new readers to the two series that had originally been available mainly in libraries (Avalon's market). And I thought I'd give away...a short story. A story that merged the two series. So, for Christmas, I put up Nothing But Love on Amazon. I started my career writing shorts and it was fun to go back to it.
That's the story of ten books that came out from under my bed, went to a bunch of libraries, and then got a second life as eBooks and paperbacks.
And so for Valentine's, I'm offering the second short story,
Everything But Heart. It's free for Valentine's on 2/13, 2/14 and 2/15. The first book, Nothing But Love is still available as well.
So, happy Valentine's!! I hope you enjoy my 'gift' and the story of how it comes to be. And keep an eye out on St. Patrick's Day. This Irish girl might have a bit of a gift for you then, too!
Holly
4 comments:
Happy Valentine's Day, a bit early, Holly. Hope you have a nice sunny day with no snow.
Kaelee, Thank you! You, too!!
Love your dogs' names! Thanks for the free book,
look forward to reading it!
Pat C.
Pat, I hope you enjoy it! And I'm glad you enjoyed Ethel Merman's and Ella Fitzgerald's names. In the book, they're Madame Curie and Clara Barton, but other than the name changes, they're mine!!
Happy Valentine's!!
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