Sittin' on the .doc of the bay
The absolute ridiculousness behind my new releases
That expression ‘watching paint dry’? Or what about its cousin ‘watching grass grow’? As a freelance journalist for the local paper, I wrote actual articles on both of those topics. After five years of doing these stories, my day job promoted me, and I got to drop ‘five tips from a local builder on how to choose fencing.’
The floodgates of creativity opened. I was at leisure (ha, but actually, I had a toddler by that point) to get back to my true love of writing fiction. As a notoriously speedy writer, I turned out the entire Degrees of Desire series between May 2017 and late 2018. Then I moved on to write the Inner Circle series (coming Fall 2026, subscribe for release dates).
I went on to make a huge hash of trying to publish the Inner Circle series (more to come on that). Degrees of Desire was left to languish in obscurity on my hard drive. Not because I wasn’t happy with the books. I’m thrilled with them! They’re so much fun! I’m not entirely sure why they got pushed aside, but honestly, I’m glad they did because I can bring them out for you now, when the time is right.
So, I’m the woman who sat with eight finished, completely publishable manuscripts on her hard drive for eight years. Which is poetic, I guess?
Fun facts about Degrees of Desire:
It was originally called the Cambridge Series.
The books were initially set in specific years! Only Baby, Unexpected survived this on the cutting room floor. The original series order was different, too. I swapped it around to make sure my readers are getting the tropes they crave in the order in which they crave them. The OG series order and setting years are:
Baby, Unexpected (1999); Strings Attached (2006); The Business of Us (2009); On My Side (2012); Stop Your Memory (2013); Future Perfect (2015); The Life We Chose (2017); When It Was Us (2018)
Several of the books had different working titles - Baby, Unexpected was called Chasing Ivy. The Business of Us went through a ton of titles, but landed on High Society before its published title was locked in. On My Side was called Copycats. The Life We Chose was originally Alchemy, and When It Was Us was titled Fatherly.
The last time I tried querying a tradpub agent was for Baby, Unexpected/Chasing Ivy back in 2017. A huge, noteworthy agent requested the full manuscript (omg was I pumped), but she rejected it on Valentine’s Day 2018! Of all the daaayysss to reject a romance novel. I was really upset at the time, but honestly, her rejection email that said ‘best of luck as you continue to write’ was something I found very encouraging. I’m glad in retrospect that this didn’t work out. I love publishing contemporary romance for Kindle Unlimited and being hands-on in the process.
The moral of the story is that I let EIGHT BOOKS languish for EIGHT YEARS. It’s about damn time they saw the light of day.
If you’re reading this, thanks, and please consider subscribing - you’ll get my 10k word second epilogue to When It Was Us (no spoilers and it will make sense if you haven’t read the book yet). It’s a peek into the future of Trevor and Caroline’s cozy small-town HEA, but also there is murder. Hilarious murder. Caroline, as well as Angela’s brother Brian from The Business of Us, are on the case. The story is 100% free for subscribers, and the download link will arrive in your inbox via the welcome email.