Some Random Facts About Writing Sleeping Handsome and Happily Ever After?

Interesting blog posts are so hard. Lists are easy though. Hopefully, these two are somewhat interesting…

Sleeping Handsome

• The main goal was always to show how two people could fall in love while one was ‘asleep’. Everything else was secondary, realistic or not.
• The moment I came up with it, I always planned for Sleeping Handsome to be a free book. And it will probably always remain so. (Wisdom has taught me to never say never.)
• Paige was more of a snot in the first drafts. After a beta reader couldn’t stand her, I toned her down somewhat. But I always wanted her to be abrasive. Bigger change in character equaled better to me.
• If you’ve ever seen the sitcom Fraser, Meredith was the inspiration for Amanda. There was never an actor for the Meredith, they only talked about her, but she was definitely a character in the sitcom.
• Zach’s fascination with classics originally stemmed from the fact that ‘classics’ have lost their copyright, so I could quote them without repercussions. Later I realized how well this worked and just went with it.
• I was obsessively nervous that Zach wouldn’t come across as a real person. This more than anything else was my biggest fear.
• Zach’s journal entries didn’t change much from the first draft with one major exception. I reduced the amount of profanity.
• I had no intention of addressing bullying. It just evolved. With two mean girls, I guess that isn’t surprising.
• I never expected to write a sweet contemporary story. Short or not. I’m so not sweet. When writing the end, I thought really? Did this come from my fingertips?  But it worked and…well…I liked it. So maybe I’m sweeter than I thought. Probably not.

Happily Ever After?

• The main goal was to show that HEA doesn’t exist in fairy tale terms. Relationships take work. People aren’t perfect. We all carry baggage. Trust me. I’ve been married for many years. In love for over twenty. For the most part happily…
• I fell in love with Drake while writing this story. If there’s ever another sequel, it will be about him. (I did write if.)
• I had to cut some of Zach’s profanity again.
• I wanted a written element. Thus, Zach and Paige correspond through email.
• Though you get to ‘see’ Amanda, she’s still a caricature for petty, empty people.
• Bullying is still a main theme and a source of conflict in this story. Long term effects of being bullied include: difficulty trusting people, interpersonal difficulties, avoidance of new social situations, overly sensitive and thin-skinned, and self-esteem problems to name a few. Paige is still dealing with these effects.
• A beta reader suggested I add another chapter with Paige and Zach at the premiere. I wrote a page or so but it just seemed over the top to me and more of what was already there. So I nixed it.
• The poem in the story is the third I’ve ever written in my life and the only one with a meter. If I did it right, it has a meter of eight then five syllabus every other line with an ending of ness on every fourth line. My other two poems include one for a sixth grade assignment, something with clouds. The second was for my sister-in-law about my nephew who died of SIDS at the age of four months.

I could continue to ramble but less is probably better here…

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