Unearthing Old Treasures

So I said I wasn’t going to write another book, at least, not this year. 2013 was supposed to be my phase for ‘chilling’, and doing all the other enjoyable things normal people do: Not staying up all night writing a story, then carrying a headache the whole of the next day. My resolution was going well until two weeks ago when I accidentally stumbled on a rough draft of a story I’d started sometime in 2011. I blogged about it at the time and you can read it HERE if you’re so inclined.  Originally titled ‘Daring to love’, the book was meant to be written for Kwela, a romance publisher in South Africa. Unfortunately, I started working on Daring to Love shortly after I finished writing A Love’s Prescription (Not yet published) and The Officer’s Bride ( now in stores), and by the time I got to Daring to Love, I suffered that ailment known to writers as writers block. I managed to write one chapter of the novel before the words stopped coming, and when that happened, I shelved it in my flash drive and forgot all about it.

Then, two weeks ago, while searching for a work –related doc on that same old flash drive, I saw my Daring to Love manuscript. Wistfully, I read the synopsis, also on the same page as the paragraph. I found myself liking what I read, and before I knew it, I playfully began to tweak the first paragraph I’d written. Well, tweaking led to writing another paragraph, then another, and another until an hour later, I’d completed a whole chapter. I was so hooked on that chapter, I completely forgot about the doc I was supposed to be searching for. Instead, I settled in with Daring to Love. As the story began to unfold, finally coming to its conclusion two weeks later at an approximate 40,000 words, the title Daring to Love didn’t fit anymore. Rather, Lessons in Love became a more apt heading.  Lessons  is currently undergoing editing, so it will take a while before it gets published – I’m crossing my fingers for late this year or early next year. However, I thought to share the blurb with you.

Here goes:

Fourteen months ago, Tara Olu-Browne quit her well paying job to follow her heart: Become a full time romance writer. Her decision is paying off, until she agrees to write for Black Desire, a new romance publisher set to turn out books that will appeal to a West African audience. Black Desire is headed by business mogul, Jimi Akintaylor and while he says he enjoys Tara’s previous works, he is heavily critical of her current manuscript calling the love scenes implausible. Tara is left with two choices: Quit writing for Black Desire or suck up her pride and request pointers from Jimi on how she can improve on the love scenes. She chooses the latter, and realizes too late that she’s just signed up for some very practical lessons in love.