The Book

I could go on and on about everything else on the planet, but I guess I should say something about the book I've written.

It's a historical romance; the exact period is early Victorian (I picked Victorian because I am crazy about the Victorians. If you are going to read this blog, be prepared for some Victorians. I love 'em. Someday I'll write a post about why I love the Victorians so much, and you will go straight to sleep. So what? Who needs you anyway??)

The plot, in two sentences or less, goes like this: A shy man, who happens to be rich, falls in love with a shy woman, who happens to be poor. He is being pressured to marry for heirs; she is being pressured to marry for money. Inevitably, they marry. Once wed, in the same house, they are faced with the enormous task of getting to know each other, overcoming a hundred complications, and falling madly in love. In the process, they become different, and better people, because they have each other.

That's sort of it. Like most authors, I worry about it. If you read too much writing and publishing advice, you will drive yourself crazy with second-guessing. My current worry is that it isn't "hooky" enough. Supposedly you're supposed to write something "hooky". Like, single British girl finding love, written in diary form. Or, woman time-travels from 1940s Scotland to 1700s Scotland and ends up at Culloden 1500 pages later. (Er, I guess that last one is sort of messy, but it got published anyway.) In any case, my novel does not have a hook to it.

Though last week I read The Perfect Waltz by Anne Gracie, and it had no hook at all. Man and woman meet in Regency ton, fall in love, unload wagons of baggage, foil villains, opine that they are not worthy of each other, et cetera, et cetera. It's all been done a million times. And yet, it got published - and I enjoyed it a lot. I suspect it got published because it was good.

As much as I worry, I think my book is good. It won't win Pulitzers, nor will it take the romance world by storm; Laura Kinsale will not fall to her knees, weeping with adoration. But it doesn't suck. I would like to write to an agent, "Hello, I know you get about 8 million semi-literate enquiries a day, but your website says that you are actively looking for material that doesn't suck. I have this book on my computer that has so far avoided the fate of sucking. What do you think?"

Well, maybe it will sell, and maybe it won't. I'm revising it now, and when I'm finished I'll revise it once or twice more, and then it is on its own, being sent into the publishosphere over and over. In the meantime I have another idea for the next book and I think I need to start my research. (Though this one will be Victorian again, of course, so half my research is already done.) Oh, and I have another query letter to write... just in case.