A Long Time Coming
by Eve Gaddy
Some books are a long time coming.
I had the original idea for Cry Love in 1999. I found the file not too long ago. It was a one line description that I had saved in my idea file, many computers ago. But it was a very different idea and at the time I was writing for Harlequin. There was no way this book would fit what they wanted. Since I am one of those writers who does best in total immersion, I filed the idea and kept writing other things.
I am also one of those writers who periodically experiences burnout. I think it has something to do with being so obsessive. (What, me obsessive?)
Anyway, every once in a while, especially when I was feeling burned out and battered by the business, I would pull the idea out and play with it. I went to see the movie Hurricane and found it and Denzel Washington, who plays Hurricane Carter, very inspiring. My husband and I were the only people in the theatre and it seemed as if it was playing just for me.
Several years ago, maybe around 2003 or 2004, I wrote the first scene. I was at a conference and laid down to rest and the scene came to me. A year or so later, I worked on the plot during an endless drive back from Savannah to Tyler with my daughter. Then I put it aside again.
I couldn’t get going on it. I would write random scenes occasionally but what I had in no way resembled a book. I went on that way until I quit writing for about two years due to burnout, family death, twin grandbabies<g>, and life in general. I played with my grandbabies, did a lot of needlework and didn’t write a word of fiction. I decided if I never wrote anything else that was okay. I’d published sixteen books and that was enough.
Then I talked to Debra Dixon, President of Belle Books, and a friend I’d known for many years. The self-publishing boom had hit. Although I thought I had retired, almost all my friends are writers and I was still a member of many writing communities. I had the rights back to eight books and was toying with publishing them myself. But I couldn’t figure out a number of things. Formatting for one. At the time I wrote in Word Perfect. Everything now requires Word, which I loathe and use only when I absolutely must.
So I asked for help on one of my writers loops and Debra Dixon gave me some great advice. She also mentioned I didn’t have to do this all on my own. “I don’t?” I asked. She said Belle Books was interested in reissuing my backlist. I knew about Belle Books, of course. I had always wanted to write for them, in fact. But I hadn’t realized they had branched out from publishing only original southern fiction to more genres as well as reissues. I was in heaven. Belle Books bought my backlist in January 2011. My first reissue, On Thin Ice, came out with Bell Bridge Books in August of 2011. I love those books and it is such a pleasure to know they have a new life. I not only have a new publisher but I’m lucky enough to have a publisher and editors who are a dream to work with.
In one of our discussions about my backlist, Deb asked me if I had plans to write anything new. She knew all about what had been going on with me and that I had mentioned retiring, but she let me know Belle Books would be interested in an original from me. I said, “Well, I do have an idea for a book that’s unlike anything I’ve ever written.
That was what it took. Not too long after I talked to Deb, I sent a synopsis of my new book to Belle Books. It was very vague and very short since I still had no idea exactly what I was doing, or even what exactly I was writing. We decided I’d write the whole book and submit it.
Except I couldn’t write. I had the synopsis but the book was so complex I couldn’t figure out how to write the thing. I contacted the fabulous April Kihlstrom, published author and writing coach extraordinaire. With her help I was able to begin seriously working on my book. April was a lifesaver. I truly doubt I’d have been able to write again without her help and encouragement.
My friends, many of whom I list in the acknowledgements, were essential to writing my Book of the Heart. I can’t tell you how many talks we had on every subject under the sun. Or how many times I’d call one of them up to try to hammer out a scene. Or email someone with a problem I couldn’t figure out. I’m pretty sure my friends were almost as glad as I was when I finished Cry Love. For that matter, so was my family. I might be just a tiny bit hard to live with when I’m writing.
Finally, nearly a year after I started writing it seriously, I typed THE END on Cry Love. Thirteen years after the original idea occurred to me, I finished the book. To call Cry Love a book of my heart doesn’t even approach how I feel about it. This book was wrenched, sometimes agonizingly, from deep within my heart and soul. I love this book. I hope you will too.
