Counting Down to 20

So when I got to this point in my writing, I decided I wanted to write about a collection of spinsters from a small village who had no hope of ever getting married. They weren’t great beauties, they weren’t fabulously rich, or well-connected. Just ordinary girls from a village.

I could see this trio of friends so clearly: Tabitha-smart, kind and hard-working, Daphne–all full of opinions and grand aspirations, and finally, Harriet–loyal to a fault, utterly sensible and a secret romantic. Okay, maybe not so secret–but don’t tell her brothers, they would tease her to the end of her days if they knew the truth.

But for the first time in my story writing career, I couldn’t find the story for them. Nothing seemed to work. I dabbled with different ideas, I plotted this way and that, and yet nothing seemed right. Then a friend asked (most likely Laura Lee Guhrke) “What are you going to call this series?”

I didn’t even have a plot and now she wanted titles? She seemed rather cruel in the moment

Compra Amoxil Online

, but I decided to try putting together titles first. But I had about as much success there as I had with the story ideas. All the rifts on familiar things had been done. Song titles? Check. Movies? Check. TV shows? Check and double check. Jane Austen? I was not going to give her another spin in her grave for all the well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning things that have been done to her books and titles. Let that poor woman rest for goodness sake.

Then I spotted something on the very back of my bookshelf. An old copy of The Real Mother Goose. (Please don’t be fooled by imitations. This is the wonderful old edition with the beautiful illustrations

, but I digress.)

So, on a lark I opened it up and read:

Along came a spider . . .

I blinked as ideas started pouring into my brain. Not a spider. A duke! ALONG CAME A DUKE. Yes, that was it. It was one of those Eureka!!! moments. And did he frighten her away? No, quite the opposite, my smart and kind heroine would stand her ground against this imposing duke. As Tabitha’s story then unfolded before my eyes, the other titles seemed to jump off the page. AND THE MISS RAN AWAY WITH THE RAKE. Because I knew in my heart the very proper Daphne Dale would NEVER run away with a rake, so it was up to me to send her down that wayward path.

And my favorite, IF WISHES WERE EARLS. Harriet, I knew, had loved a certain earl nearly her entire life, so that was one wish this writer felt must be granted.

So there it is, the birth of my current series, Rhymes with Love. If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, you might want to catch up quickly, because these are my 16th, 17th, and 18th Avon Romances. I’ve only got one more to count until we get to #20!