Eve Gaddy: Writing Yourself into a Corner

I’m sure you’ve heard of painting yourself into a corner. I write myself into a corner. What do I mean by that? Well, it happens especially when I’m writing a series.

Brian Kincaid’s job as a security system troubleshooter is perfect for a single guy who loves women and world travel.  But his carefree lifestyle comes to a screeching halt when he discovers he’s an instant father--the only parent of a ten-month-old son he never knew he had.

Hiring single mom Faith McLain as his son’s live-in nanny seems like the perfect solution to regaining his free-roaming life.  Except that he begins to discover the time he spends with her and the babies is more enjoyable than he’d have believed possible. Soon, he realizes he wants much more from Faith than a working relationship.

Faith knows better than to fall for a committed bachelor—especially one who happens to be her very hot boss. But how long can she resist the whispers of her heart—or the powerful desire he awakens?

The first time I did this was with my book The Christmas Baby. This book is the sixth in a seven book series. It’s about Brian Kincaid, the youngest Kincaid brother. I’d already written books about the other brothers, along with other characters in the series. And I knew it was time to write Brian’s story. Only problem was, I had no idea what his story was.

            I have this habit with characters whose books I know I’ll write but I don’t want to think about their story just yet, so I just…send them off. I made Brian a world traveler single guy with his computer troubleshooting/consulting business. That’s all I knew about him. But it was mentioned in several books so that was set in stone.

            Great. What reason could this guy have to come to a tiny town like Redfish, Texas? To visit his family, sure. But why would he live there? I had to come up with a good reason. I thought about what would be the biggest life-altering event that could happen to this guy. Brian found out he had a child he’d never known about. An orphaned child who he had to take care of. And what better place to live with a ten-month-old baby than in the town with his brothers, sister and their families?

            The next book I had this problem with, I really outdid myself.

He knows who she is...but she doesn't

PI Mitch Hardeman is an expert at finding people, so when Glenna Gallagher disappears from the ranch where she works, her brothers hire Mitch to find her. He thinks his job is done after he tracks her down, but Glenna doesn't know him, and she doesn't remember her brothers or even her real name. Mitch must earn the beautiful cowgirl's trust so he can bring her back home.

She doesn’t know who she is… but she knows who she wants

With traumatic amnesia caused by a bus accident, Glenna Gallagher knows nothing of her life before that day. She only knows she's in danger, and that Mitch offers protection and the truth about her identity. But once home in Marietta, her memories are still missing. Can she convince Mitch that she doesn’t need to remember her past to know he’s the only man she wants? And will she regain her memory in time to save herself and the man she loves from the danger that follows her?

            The Gallaghers of Montana are a family of four brothers and a sister. I didn’t know what to do with Glenna Gallagher so I did my usual. I sent her away. But did I send her off to travel the world? And know nothing else? Why no, that would have been too easy. I sent her to Argentina to manage a cattle ranch.

Why Argentina, you ask? That was my friend Julia Justiss’s fault. I was trying to figure out what this cowgirl could be doing some place other than in Montana and Julia said, “Send her to Argentina. There are lots of ranches there.”

            Argentina? Right, sounds good. So I did. But that wasn’t all. When I wrote each of the other four books, I added things about Glenna. When it came time to write Glenna’s story, I had all sorts of complexities about her and her situation in already published books. Trying to figure out her story given all the things I’d already mentioned was…difficult. Just ask my friends who endured my frantic calls and emails. And yes, Julia is one of them. Serves her right for sending Glenna to Argentina in the first place!

            Glenna disappeared from the ranch where she worked in Argentina in the second book of the series. I dribbled in bits and pieces of her story in the rest of the books too. You’d think I’ve have had a good idea by then of what Glenna’s story was.

            Not so much. By the time I wrote Glenna’s book, I had to include all sorts of things because they’d been in previous books. You’d think I’d have learned from other situations, but no. In fact, figuring out Glenna’s book was even harder. But I did think of the PI her brothers sent to track her down, and he wound up being the hero of her story. Thank goodness I’d said very little about him, at least.:) Not that he was easy…

            Return of the Cowgirl is up for pre-order at most outlets. It’s due to come out August 17, 2017. All the books in the Gallagher series can be read as stand-alone, but I think you’ll enjoy reading about the whole family and their friends.

Happy Reading!

Eve

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