(NOT MY REAL WRITING DESK—ENTIRELY TOO NEAT!)

You’d think, with 30+ books in print and ample opportunities to learn from experienced editors and critique partners, I’d have a better grip on exactly how a story should work.

Actually, regarding my current effort, it has been more a matter of “too many cooks spoil the broth.” While brainstorming and fleshing out my original idea for this book, I was gleaning inspiration (???) from multiple sources—an author mastermind group, three critique partners with very different perspectives, and even AI.

[For the record, I do NOT permit AI to write any portion of my novels. I use it strictly as a tool for exploring ideas and researching applicable topics.]

The result? A book that couldn’t decide what it really wanted to be. Romance? Suspense? Women’s Fiction? None of the above???

What I DO write is emotion-driven, faith-filled romance, and because there are usually complicating subplots involving important secondary characters, my stories often venture into a more women’s fiction-like vibe. But suspense? Nah. At least, not the kind with cops and FBI agents chasing down criminals who plot evil schemes against the unsuspecting protagonists.

So I’ve had to go back to the basics. Strip out the evil schemers. Cut the cop scenes. Nix the white- and black-hat hackers battling each other behind their computer screens.

What’s left? Characters dealing with lingering pain from their troubled pasts as they strive to become people worthy of love. Characters who come to accept God’s forgiveness, even as they learn to forgive themselves and each other. A hero and heroine who earn their happily-ever-after because they’re overcomers in Christ. 

Reworking this story has taken weeks longer than I’d hoped, but the ending is at last in sight, and it’s going to be a good one. Thanks for your patience, dear readers, and look for Teach My Heart to Dance coming soon in the Montana Mercies Romance series.