Hi all. Leya here. I don’t remember what day we’re supposed to be on, and we’re surely not keeping up with the blog posts. I just have something to talk about.
In February, B. Isabel Writes LLC published my second novel, You’ve Got Bookmail, which is by all accounts a love story between a reclusive author and her mailman, as we tried to show with the cover:
The thing is, there’s more to the book than just what’s happening between the two main characters, Kassandra and Asher. Kassandra is also writing a spicy contemporary romance with a FMC she created as her own foil in order to live out a life she doesn’t feel worthy of. As Kassandra changes, thanks to the relationship she develops with Asher, so does her main character, Shar.
Well, when the reviews and DMs from ARC readers started rolling in, there was an overwhelming request for Shar’s fulls story. Truthfully, there is another couple in the book I had considered giving a story to, but I never once thought of expanding Shar’s story…until readers asked for it.
Now, you might say to yourself that writing Shar’s story should be fairly easy because I already have an outline of sorts from the original snippets. There are two errors with this thought.
1) It assumes that I, a pantser, will find writing from an outline easy. When I started You’ve Got Bookmail, I had nothing more than careers and a vibe in mind. I had no idea where the story was heading, and it actually opens with a snippet of Shar’s story because I couldn’t think of anything else for Kassandra to be doing when she meets Asher than to be writing. The two storylines flowed smoothly because they developed together organically, not because I planned them that way.
2) It assumes the already written snippets will fit seamlessly into the new book. When I wrote the original snippets, which are mainly, let’s be honest, sex scenes, the only perspective I cared about was Shar’s. In this new book, though, Mack becomes far more important. His point of view matters also, and some of those scenes must be split to show both of them. Not only that, but I’m trying to weave his life, personality, and backstory in between these snippets while also expanding the readers’ view into Shar’s psyche.
Shifting the POV in some of the original scenes while weaving together a full love story with two characters who were happily single and mingling when they met has been a challenge.
It’s also a struggle to get the timeline to work. The majority of You’ve Got Bookmail happens over about a month to a month and a half. Then we see the characters much later. That means, the snippets of Shar’s story appeared to show a relationship developing much more quickly. That rushed feeling doesn’t work in the full novel.
All that to say, though I am enjoying the development of this story, it has been much harder to write than my previous books (published and unpublished). I also want to say that I am grateful to my readers who saw something in this story they loved enough to want to see it play out. That is the encouragement I needed to know that I must be doing something right.
Shar’s Story (Yes, that is the title!) is projected to release on May 25. As of today, April 13, I am nearly 33k words into what I project will be a novel between 45-55k words. Newsletter subscribers already got to see the cover, but everyone else will only get teasers until it is revealed on April 25. Keep your eyes on my social media and my shop. Preorders will be live as soon as the cover is revealed.
