How did you come up with the idea for
your book?
That is the one
question authors seem to get all the time and one that isn’t always easy to
answer. Characters and plots tend to evolve over time and don’t always have a
clear starting point.
That’s not the
case with California Can Wait.
I know exactly
where this book came from. At the risk of sounding too much like an E.L. James
rip off, this book used to be fanfiction. Not for Twilight however. There were never any sparkling vampires here.
My fanfiction
habit was based on the now defunct soap opera One Life To Live and that is where this particular story got it’s
origin. So many of the readers who struggled through my bad grammar back then
are still reading my stories—luckily, I have better grammar now!
If you are a
fanfiction writer or reader, you know how passionate we fans can be when the
shows don’t do the characters justice. In this case, the writers were really
trashing my favorite character Viki Lord (played by the amazing Erika Slezak).
After hitting what seemed like rock bottom, she disappeared off-screen for
several months for a bit of a character reboot.
In the meantime,
I whipped up this fanfiction story that the readers just loved. Years and years
later, I am still asked if I can take this story or that story and make them
into novels. That’s actually a bit more challenging that it seems because
fanfiction already has a world and established characters, but this particular
story was a bit easier. Since I was introducing new characters in a new town
where our heroine had gone while not on-screen, I was able to eliminate any
potential copyrighted material fairly easily to add to a for-sale product.
The characters
in California Can Wait have grown
quite a bit from where that story was, but the readers who were with me back
then are going to recognize a lot of elements from the original. And new
readers…without this confession, you never would have known!
California
Can
Wait
by
Marci Boudreaux
Genre:
Contemporary
Romance
Reporter
Andrea Davidson isn't running from her
mistakes. There's no escaping
the career-ending mess she fell into back
home. But she is moving
forward, and is halfway to a new life in
California when someone
breaks into her motel room. She's lost her
computer and her dignity,
but that's only the beginning of her newest
problem: local news
editor Graham
Bradley.
Graham Bradley doesn't know a thing about the
newspaper business. A widow
with a promise to keep, he's got more than
just his own personal
welfare riding on this small-town paper. The
last thing he needs is a
pushy woman with a secret in her past and a
vicious red pen throwing
all his mistakes and insecurities front and
center on his desk. Faced
with an impossible choice, Graham hires
Andi, but hopes she's not
just the last-and maybe worst-in a long line
of bad decisions. Saving
the small-town Gazette is the second chance
both Andi and Graham
need.
But with bill collectors calling, Andi's past
catching up fast, and the
chemistry between them making work next to
impossible, will Andi and
Graham get the second chance they both
desperately need? Or will
their demise be the next big
headline?
to Goodreads
* Apple
*
* Kobo
As a teen, Marci Boudreaux skipped over
young adult books and jumped right into the
world of romance novels.
She’s never left. Marci lives with her
husband, two kiddos, and
their numerous pets. She is a freelance
writer appearing monthly in a
variety of local magazines as well as a
content editor.
Romance is her preferred reading and writing genre because nothing feels
better than falling in love with someone new
and her husband doesn't
like when she does that in real
life.
* Facebook
* Twitter *
Follow
the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a
giveaway!
That was my mother's favorite soap, so naturally we all got hooked too.
ReplyDelete