Megan, my secret-guarding novelist
This morning I went looking for the date I started on my current work-in-progress. The oldest document I found was a Scrivener project dated September of 2015 (?!). It says:
So the idea is that this book would contain three couples:
Lilith and Samael
Gabriel and Angela
Human1 and Human2
Each couple would have history that leaves them reluctant to re-engage with one another.
Lilith and Samael are charged with keeping Human1 and 2 from getting back together.
Gabriel and Angela are charged with getting Human1 and 2 back together.
The three stories play out against each other.
This, clearly, is just the kernel of an idea. I was still working on The Demon Always Wins at this point, and hadn’t even started The Demon’s in the Details, but I wanted to get the idea down on (electronic) paper before it got away.
In looking at this light-bulb moment, something that sticks out is that I was not very interested in my human couple. Although the names of the angels have since changed (to Karriel and Gibeon), my people didn’t even have names.
As the idea evolved, I decided to make the humans’ story the centerpiece of the book. The plot revolves around a writer who, as a college student, sold her soul to Satan to make the NYT Bestseller list. Her love interest is her law-student boyfriend. He unwittingly helped her negotiate the terms of the contract, then dumped her when he learned what she’d made him do. It would be a second-chance-at-love story, with all the baggage that attends such reunions plus, you know, demons.
As the story took shape, it became clear that I couldn’t handle that plot AND two other sets of arcs, so I decided to split it into two separate books.
It’s got lots of good, crunchy conflict and what I hope will be a satisfying reunion of two lovers. Megan, my heroine, had good reasons for doing what she did, but she guards her privacy so ferociously that James, my hero, doesn’t know that.
I hope to finish the first one this month (which would be good, as I’ve reserved time with my developmental editor in early March).
So what are you working on these days?
Eight Ladies Writing 
I’m getting ready to start book 2 in my series and I CAN’T WAIT! I’m so sick of working on the last one (which comes out Friday, Valentine’s Day). I am looking forwarding to digging into a new story, which I have literally not done since I started this writing gig 7 years ago. So yes, ANYTHING different will be awesome for me!
I’ll be interested to hear how the experience of writing a second book compares with your first. Easier? Faster? Fewer dead ends? Inquiring minds want to know!
Oooh, crunchy sounds good! I’m still in a rather long and nebulous phase of not actively or consciously working on anything. I’ve had a work project since the 6th that I just got rid of (er, turned in), so I didn’t have time to sit and write for me. I hope I’ll be writing again soon. I’m full of ideas, and I have just written some amazing texts and Twitter threads (lol), so I’m anxious to see what will happen after a good night’s sleep. I’ve got three WIPs that remind me they are still there (Spirit Photographer Bunny Blavatsky, Olivia and Frost God Jack, and even Porky Pie yipped up at one of Elizabeth’s Friday sprints), and then there’s a new guy in town. Frankie Noodle, a magician who goes by the stage name of Vandal the Amazing.
Did you know that Frankie Noodle is an Indian fast food that’s basically a wrap with spaghetti in it? I did not. There are a whole LINE of Frankies, but Tibb’s Frankie is the original. May come from “frankfurter”, but it sure doesn’t look like one.
Oh, yes, I’ve been a busy girl.