I can hardly believe it's only FIVE days until WARRIOR'S LAST GIFT goes live. It seems only a few weeks ago I was sitting at a blank screen wondering how I could ever, EVER, manage to get a whole story into only 20,000 words.
And yet... It happened. The characters cooperated [finally!] and the story came together, just as it needed to unfold.
The thing is, for every book I write, secondary characters appear. It sometimes feels as though I have no control over them. They just show up and insert themselves into the story and I can't push them out or the story won't work.
And every single character that pops up has his or her own backstory.
I don't usually know their whole backstory the first time I "meet" them. Sometimes I don't know that story until they've made all their appearances in the book I'm working on and then it hits me. Often those backstories are the reason a character will get his or her own story.
So it was with Jeanne MacGhie Horvesson. By the time I finished WARRIOR'S REDEMPTION, I knew I had to do something for Jeanne. She might be only a kitchen maid, but she'd been such a good friend to my heroine, Dani. And what had her reward for her friendship been? Her whole life had been turned upside down by the story's end.
How could I leave her that way?
Her character nagged at me, even as I began putting together the next book, WARRIOR REBORN [due out October 30]. When I was offered the opportunity to write a short story to fit inbetween REDEMPTION and REBORN, I jumped at it. Maybe this was my chance to set things right for Jeanne.
The only problem was, I'd never written anything shorter than 80,000 words! How the heck was I going to pull a whole story together in a quarter of that space???
I sat down at the computer, sweet tea close at hand, and just like that, Jeanne's whole backstory came to me. And once it did, I had no choice. Jeanne gave up everything for love and for honor. She is possibly the most loyal character I've ever known. Because of that, she and Eric, stubborn and hard-headed as they both may be, deserved their Second Chance at a Happy Ever After. I hope I've done justice to them in 20,000 words! :-)
Oh! You don't have to wait until next Tuesday to order your copy. WARRIOR'S LAST GIFT is available for pre-order now at Amazon, or Barnes and Noble!
I'd love to hear from you after you read Jeanne and Eric's story. I'd like to know if you believe in Second Chances as much as I do.
Until next time, Happy Reading!
~ Melissa
