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Running With Quills Group Blog Question: What Was the Biggest Surprise You Encountered While Writing Your Latest Book?

NOTE: Those of us at www.runningwithquills.com would like to say up front that we have no knowledge of how or why Miss Kitty obtained the following interview. Due to the number of Green Ghost Margaritas consumed during the process all any of us can remember is a tattooed chicken in five-inch stilettos standing on the doorstep, notebook in hand. Everything after that is extremely fuzzy...
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Suzanne Simmons:

-I'm sure you've reinvented yourself many times, Kitty dear. Especially after a few of the Green Ghosts.

Well, that's what I ended up doing in the middle of my last book: reinventing myself. I’m going in an entirely new direction with my writing, so new that I’ll be using a pen name. My hero — the most fascinating man I’ve ever created, a man I’ve been wanting to write about forever — will tell his story in NIGHT LIFE, a paranormal romance to be published by Berkley in April 2007. I’ll be announcing more details and my new name later this summer. Until then, I hope everyone is still enjoying the Sweetheart books: SWEETHEART, INDIANA and GOODNIGHT, SWEETHEART.


Stella Cameron:

Hey, Kitty, you cigar-smoking, tattooed, pierced piece of prime lush--so you want me to blab about one of my "zowie" moments. For you, anything--even though some might find what I'm about to write embarrassing.

My biggest shock came in my current release, BODY OF EVIDENCE. When the villain was revealed, a few pages before the end of the story, I was amazed. How could this be when I was sure someone else "did it?"

I suppose I should come clean. When I start writing a book, I rarely know for certain who the villain is. Sometimes I'm sure I do, then everything shifts and I literally gasp as I recognize I was mistaken. This isn't all bad. Obviously, if the revelation of the villain catches me off-guard, I've remained fresh throughout the story and I've allowed events to unfold as characters grow. The story gets bigger and fuller as it matures and it's a lot of fun for me to work this way.

Elizabeth Lowell:

My biggest surprise while writing THE WRONG HOSTAGE was that it looks so easy in the rearview mirror. Huh?Listen up....Every day I sit down and write for hours, feeling like I’m pulling teeth to put on the bloody page. Every day I reread what I did the day before, aka review mirror time. Every day I’m surprised that the pages read easy, and I mean anyone-could-do-this easy, what-are-you-whining-about easy. Why in hell couldn’t they WRITE that way?*Elizabeth slinks off to bang her head against the keyboard.*



Lori Foster:

When I first decided to write an ultimate fighter (think UFC or Pridefighting) turned movie star for the hero of my book JUDE'S LAW, I thought I'd be doing plenty of research. Ha!
This is MY sport. I watch every new competition and own all the available DVDs. I know the fighters, their styles, their strengths and weaknesses. I know their attitudes. Writing Jude Jamison, my hero, was a piece ofcake.
JUDE'S LAW doesn't contain any competition fighting scenes. But there is a big hunk of super Alpha male who *knows* he can protect what's his, and intends to do just that - even if the heroine isn't quite sure she wants his protection. Yet.

They always say to write what you know. This time, I did!
Know what else surprised me? How many readers are also fans! And how many readers have become fans since reading the book. I'm thrilled. I guess we romance readers know a great Alpha when we see one, huh? ;-)

Jayne Ann Krentz (Amanda Quick):

What surprised me the most about writing SECOND SIGHT (my latest Amanda Quick title) was what I turned up in the research. It was amazing how many ways there were to kill someone in a Victorian darkroom. To back up a little here, my heroine is a Victorian era photographer. Turns out that in the 19th century the technology of photography developed a lot like the technology of computers today -- real fast. Every year brought lots of new technological developments and lots of new professional hazards.

For example, cyanide was a staple in the average 19th century home darkroom. It was, of course, a deadly poison. Ether (highly explosive) was also commonly used in the processing of photographs, along with a number of other extremely dangerous chemicals. In addition to this, the average male Victorian photographer liked to smoke in his darkroom around all those chemicals...

The result was that 19th century photography journals were filled with obituaries for photographers who accidentally (or intentionally) killed themselves and others as well. No telling how many murders were written off as just another "photography mishap".

Great plot material. Heh, heh, heh...