Going Back

I’ve never been much into the past… my past, that is. I honor it, but mostly I leave it behind. Googling old acquaintances, checking lost loves on facebook, or simply looking up a childhood friend isn’t for me.

I’ve tried it. I’ve reconnected with past loves. And um, there was a reason we broke up. Old friends, while sweet encounters initially, usually resulted in the same; we may have been friends once, but the glue just isn’t there anymore. I’ve also reunited with things. I rented The Man From Uncle thinking it would bring me back to that childhood longing to be a spy. It didn’t. Sadly, I thought it was rather dumb. Books are usually different, but I’ve had some unfortunate literary reunions too.

Today I went back to the very first book I wrote, Symphony of Scent. I sold it to New Concepts Publishing. It’s part of a trilogy. I grew up reading fantasy, most of which came in threes, so I did the same. At the time, new and naive, I figured I would also sell the other two to NCP.

I wrote more books and sold those to Wild Child and Freya's Bower. I understood, after working with these fine publishers, that New Concepts wasn’t a place where I wanted any more of my books to live. Long story short, NCP is not a bad publisher; they do send my royalties. What they don’t do is communicate, at least, not with me.

I’d been thinking lately about poor book two and book three of my trilogy, The Fire Within, and Moths and Moonlight. I considered putting them all together and finding a home for them. So read SofS again and realized a couple of things. I don’t think I’m any better of a story teller, but technically I’ve improved. I winced when I read some of those paragraphs…too wordy, too “tell”, too many adjectives, etc.

But then I realized something. Some of what I cringed over wasn’t so much “bad” writing as it was old fashioned. When I started writing I modeled my style after…those fantasy trilogies I’d grown up with. Readers today want lots of action and pared down description. And so I’ve adjusted. Am I a better writer? I think so. But what I’ve improved most on, I believe, is writing to the market.

So what to do with my trilogy? Yesterday I started in on it with a vengeance. After a day of slicing and dicing, I read it over. I didn’t like it. Modern constructions just didn’t seem to work. I decided to leave it as is; three sweet, old fashioned, fantasy romances. That is what they are meant to be.

I doubt if they will ever be together in a published format. But that’s OK. Anna, Torcha, and Saya will be a part of me forever. They launched my love of writing. And I’m grateful to them.

Just like I am to all my former loves. If nothing else, a couple have made pretty good vampires. :-)