The Joy and Headache of Creating A Brand New Series

LOVE WITH AN IMPERFECT COWBOY

The following is the story line for Love With An Imperfect Cowboy, Book One of my new Lone Star Dynasty series that will be published in April:

He’s a decorated soldier/rancher with a tragic past. She’s a runaway bride. How was she to know that seeking refuge in the wrong bar after getting lost in a Texas storm could be so dangerous…or so sexy?

So—how did this story come to be?

I guess the most-frequently-asked question writers get is where do you get your ideas? I’ll start there.

For me ideas are sort of like pieces in a quilt. A writer has a lot of ideas that don’t seem to logically fit together until she starts playing with them and forming them into a new emotional pattern.

I grew up playing cowboys and Indians with my little brother. I rode horses with my cousins and performed in rodeos when I went to camp. My husband is an ex-vet, who was wounded in Viet Nam. I talked to the son of one of my friends who served as a colonel in the army in the Middle East.

Two of my cousins live on ranches and are always sharing stories about their cantankerous horses and the mischief they get up to. I have a friend who lives in the Upper West Side of New York, and she’s always telling me about the different neighborhoods near her.

I live in South Texas and frequently go to a large, legendary ranch to write. While there I hang out with cattle, migrating birds, rattlesnakes, deer, raccoons, killer bees, buzzards, javelina and all sorts of amazing wildlife.

The ranch is situated in a spot about ninety miles north of Mexico where lots of undocumented immigrants travel north to avoid the major highway, and I’ve come across these people on my walks. On the ranch and in the nearby town, everybody knows everybody on a first name basis.

When I began this story, I meant to write a 10,000 word Christmas short story, but the story kept getting more complicated and Christmas came and went. While writing it, I stopped and wrote two thirds of the heroine’s sister’s story, which will be book two. Then I came back and started writing on book one again. I actually wrote book four first. Then I wrote two thirds of book three. Then I began book one and dived into book two, and have just now completed book one. So—writing the series has been a messy process.

I fell in love with the characters of this book and very much wanted them to find happiness together.

Ann

                 

     LOVE WITH AN IMPERFECT COWBOY