You plan; fate laughs

My first two published novels were romantic suspense stories, You Belong to Me and On Fire. My plan was to eventually write for three publishers in three separate genres - romantic suspense, mystery and science fiction/fantasy. But for now, I was satisfied to build a readership with my romantic suspense. I'd hoped to grow into the other genres in the near future.

Fate must have gotten quite the belly laugh from my plans. Last week it threw me for a major loop.

My editor rejected my proposal for the second book in my Fire trilogy. Sadly, the last two installments will remain on the shelf, unless there's a demand for the stories. Instead of continuing the trilogy, my editor requested a contemporary romance.

If you take another look at the opening paragraph of this post, you'll see contemporaries weren't part of my plan. I jokingly told my husband I'd never written a story without at least one dead body. But my agent pointed out that writing contemporaries for this editor would allow me to offer my romantic suspense to another editor, moving toward my goal of writing for multiple houses. Excellent point. I've got my fingers crossed.

Although disconcerting, this experience has given me insight into how authors are able to position themselves to write for multiple houses. It's also explained why some series are cut short or never materialize. Overall, it's been a good learning experience.

I'd better get back to my contemporary manuscript. Writing stories without dead bodies isn't as easy as it may seem.

Patricia