Family Values

Okay. Yesterday I promised to write something about family values. Berkley Homespun novels were supposed to extol family values. The books had to contain at least one child. They had to be sweet (as opposed to erotic) romances. They had to leave the reader feeling good about American culture and, well, values.

So I wrote a couple of proposals. Y'know which one Berkley chose? The one in which the heroine steals a baby and a bunch of money and runs to the New Mexico Territory to her foster brother, an alcoholic who preaches to a town of ex or current criminals who are always getting drunk and shooting each other. His church is the saloon, and his congregation is about as mixed a bag of exiles, drunkards, runaways and/or weak links as you can find anywhere (except maybe downtown L.A.). Diabolito Lindo, the town, is in Lincoln County, in the Sacramento Mountains, where Billy the Kid did his thing a year or so prior to when the book (SWEET CHARITY) starts.

I don't know about you, but those aren't the types of family values I think of when I think of  family values.

First Blog of My Own

Hokey-pokey, so I finally entered the blogosphere. Don't ask me why, 'cause I don't know, unless it's because some perverse side of me needs to be ignored by another bunch of people. Not that I'm bitter or anything :-)

However, I do have something to say today. I managed to get my next-to-last book in my backlist uploaded to Kindle and Smashwords! Yuppers. SWEET CHARITY, first published as a Berkley Homespun book in 1997, and such a sweet historical romance, you'll probably need insulin after you read it, is now available as an e-book for the paltry fee of $2.99! Wow, whatta deal, huh?

That means I only have probably my least favorite book (of those I've written), MY WILD IRISH ROSE, to be formatted and uploaded. Well, there are three novellas and a couple of westerns, but those will just have to wait. More about them later, I guess.

Honestly, if you've ever thought an author has any control over his/her career, read this blog. Or don't, but it really will explain some things. I originally started writing historical romance novels set in the western United States. Mind you, as a city kid, I didn't have a single clue how a ranch or a farm operated; therefore, I set my books in places other than ranches or farms. SWEET CHARITY, for instance, takes place in a tiny territorial town called Diabolito Lindo and features Jake Molloy, a rather rough-and-tumble preacher, and Gracie Molloy, his sort-of foster sister. I figured I'd write Berkley Homespuns for years and years. Hmm. I just thought of another blog topic: family values, which were what Homespuns were supposed to exalt. More later on that.

Shows how much I knew. As soon as I'd finished my second book for the Homespun line, I was told by my editor that they were canceling the Homespun line, and wouldn't I like to write paranormals for their Jove Haunted Hearts line. Well . . . as a matter of fact, no, I wouldn't like to write paranormals. For anybody. However, needs must, so I began writing paranormals for Jove's Haunted Hearts line.

And then the Haunted Hearts line was canceled. Would I write a book set in Ireland for their Irish Eyes line? WHAT?????? Okay, my heritage is Scots. I don't have a clue about how life is carried on in Ireland. Or Scotland, for that matter, although I have a slightly better handle on Scotland than Ireland. The first things that pop into my head when I think Ireland are leprechauns, religious wars, famine and alcoholism. Unfortunately, Berkley didn't want any of those things to appear in their Irish Eyes books. So I went to the library, checked out every book I could find on Ireland, and wrote the blasted book with an American female as the heroine. Hey, you do what you have to do.