MUSE MONDAY
Hi Brenda! Thanks so much for having me! Since I
have a new release out, I thought I’d share a bit about how the book came to
be. WHATEVER IT TAKES is book 2 in my Morgan Family Romance series. And it took
a while to come into being. At one point, I didn’t think I’d finish it.
Becca and Jackson’s story began over eleven years
ago now. I met Becca while writing book one, Risking It All. In the original
writing of RIA, Becca loathed her ex-husband, but there was an undercurrent of
love there too she was trying not to feel. It intrigued me. I had to know…could
I make their relationship work again? In other words, this book began as a
challenge to myself. ;)
In truth, I got about five chapters into the book (then
titled…dun dun dun…Second Chances) and
quit writing. I stopped writing altogether for a period of about six years. So
the book sat, unfinished, on my hard drive. It was a bunch of little things
that all heaped on top of me at the same time. Something had to give.
About that time, I’d submitted Risking It All (under
a different title) to Harlequin. It earned me a revision request, but
ultimately got turned down. For whatever reason, this particular rejection hit
me really hard.
I also hit a snag in my personal life. Something cropped
up (which is a story in and of itself but one I won’t talk about, because it
still has the power to sink me—I’m also not sure you’d believe me *wink*) that triggered
my PTSD, and I spiraled into what I now call flashback hell. This is kind of an
aside here, but I’ve been writing a war veteran lately and I’m reminded I’m not
the only one who suffers from this disorder. One thing all those websites about
PTSD don’t (and can’t) really tell you is that PTSD takes your reality…and
skews how you view it. Flashbacks aren’t always straightforward. Imagine your
worst fear. Now imagine that fear has a voice and it’s screaming in your face. Despite
knowing it’s not real, when it hits you, you still feel the pain.
What it amounts to, though, is my writing had to
take a back seat for a while. I missed it though. In fact, part of my
motivation to get better…was to get well enough that I wanted to write again.
When I did, the first book I picked up was Risking It All (b/c it was already
written).
Whatever It Takes didn’t actually get completed
until I’d gotten the rights back on Kyle and Ceci’s story. Like RIA, I decided
one day to see if I could make something of the story. I’m glad I did, though,
because I fell in love with Jackson in the process.
The story did get a little help from my editor at
Berkley during the revision process. That scene in chapter 3 or 4, where Becca
goes back to her burned out house, was born out of a note my editor made.
The ending I’d originally written also got changed. The
changes my editor had me make meant that the ending I’d written no longer made
sense.
This whole process taught me a lot of things,
though. Namely, never give up and crap can be fixed. :) Oh, and I hate
revisions. lol
She’s been dying to hear the words…
Walking away from
her husband was the hardest thing Becca Morgan has ever done, even if it was
the only way to save her heart from being broken by a loveless marriage. Still,
when a terrible accident forces her to stay at her ex’s house, emotions she
thought she’d buried for Jackson Kade long ago start coming to the surface—and,
to her surprise, seem to be reciprocated…
…he just doesn’t know how to say.
Jackson Kade has
never known love like he knew with Becca, but his cold upbringing left him
unable to show her how deeply he feels. When Becca winds up under his roof once
more, he knows it’s his only opportunity to prove his devotion—and passion. But
old habits die hard, and even one mistake could shatter their last chance at
love…
About the author:
JM writes
passionate, heartfelt contemporary romance. She’s a wife, a mother, a
spiritualist, and lover of puppies, and happily addicted to coffee and
chocolate. She lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her husband and two
sons. She’s a hopeless romantic who believes everybody should have their
happily-ever-after and has been devouring romance novels for as long as she can
remember. Writing them has become her obsession.
Find Joanne here:
