Anatomy of a Love Writer

As a matter of fact yes, I was an anatomy major in college...though I bet my professors couldn't have guessed what my biological education ended up being used for.

With National November Novel Writing Month just around the corner, I've been doing some thinking about what makes us "love writers" tick. Is it that we just love a good story with a happy ending? Or perhaps we just can't get enough of rubbing elbows (and other parts) with those sexy alpha hunks. Maybe we're simply addicted to the thrill of new love--that pivotal moment where boy meets girl with enough heat to place any nearby fireworks factory in serious jeopardy. Or perhaps it's a combination of all these things.

Any way you slice it, I was a good college student on the fast track to a nursing degree, one of the top students in my class. Invited by the college to study advanced microbiology. Awarded scholarships in the field. And encouraged by teachers with pats on the back that were no more than thinly disguised pushes toward the door of Registered Nursing 101.

Then somewhere along that path, I detoured into the steaming jungle of romantic and erotic studies...and I've never looked back. The romance bug had bitten, and it proved to be an illness which no nursing education could ever hope to cure me of. So I never saw what was behind the door to Nursing 101, but I've visited many strange and exotic lands.

One of the things that brings me back to romance is the surprise element--a statement that knits the brows of many. "What surprise?" they say. "Romance is always the same: they meet, they fall, they fight, they get back together." Perhaps the traditional arc hits these markers, yes, but it's the wiggly path that drags the characters--often most unwillingly--from A to Z that keeps me turning those pages. The surprise of love finding people in the most unlikely of circumstances, and forging them together. And nowadays when I write, I find that I want to experience just as much suprise during the process as if I were reading a brand new book.

It's for that reason I decided to write this year's book for national novel month with no starting plot or characters--and to let readers suggest the alpha hunk that will get the ball rolling. In this way I will be introduced to him with no preconceived notion of who he is or what he is supposed to do--he will surprise me when he crosses my path just as much as the heroine he is fated to find love with. With just one difference--I know someone special is coming, someone to steal my breath and speed my pulse. Anticipation is a sweet thing, and waiting for the November 1 kickoff to meet this latest hero has my toes and points north tingling. Wish me luck!