Speak Up!  Writing the Book of Your Heart
Author: Mary Varble
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: May 2005

If you could write the "book of your heart" without regard to market trends or those ubiquitous rules, what would it be?

Sherri Kenyon says: 
I only write the books of my heart--market be damned. And I mean that. I never pay any attention to the market. I've felt that way since the one mss I tried to write for market years ago garnered me the worst rejection of my career (this was during the four years after I'd published and couldn't sell anything). It taught me to turn a blind eye to what is "marketable" and to write the best book I can. I've made my entire career off impossible books that I was told wouldn't sell and I'm very proud of that fact.  

Trish Milburn says: 
This is always a hard question to answer because I pour so much into each book, and there are elements of myself and my experiences in each one. I guess I'd say that I'd like to see a trilogy I wrote several years ago see publication. The books were set in and around Yellowstone National Park, but because they have elements of environmentalism in them they'll probably never see the light of day despite the other marketable elements like the romances and the suspense.

Kathy Richards aka Kate Lyon says:  
TIME'S CAPTIVE is the book of my heart, and I'm working on the second.  When I began pursuing publication, I had no plans to write Native American historicals, let alone time travels.  My "learning book" was a contemporary that now holds a place of honor on the closet shelf.  The ideas for TIME'S CAPTIVE came to me in flashes of pure illumination.  You know the kind.  They hit you out of nowhere, knock you to your knees and change your entire perspective.  The more I researched, the more intrigued I became with the stories of the Native American people's final struggles and the events that forced each tribe to that inevitable choice:  fight and die or surrender and live.  TIME'S CAPTIVE was difficult to sell because I wrote it from the heart, disregarding the rules.  I was told it was too "real," "too bloody," "too sad," "not romantic enough."  I even submitted it to an editor as a straight historical and was told it was "too romantic."  That's when I put it on the shelf beside the "learning book." And when it's time finally came, one of the hardest things I had to do was cut 100 pages out of it.

Now I'm working on another compelling slice of Native American history and still receiving those stunning blasts of inspiration.  For me, writing and having my work published is the realization of a long-held dream, and such a joy and privilege that each of my books will be a book-of-the-heart.

Janice Lynn says: 
The book of my heart, well, I'm actually taking time out right now to write that book.  It's totally unlike anything I've ever written and so far I'm more proud of it than anything I've written.  It's a paranormal romantic comedy about faeries and I'm not worrying about markets or whether or not it will sell.  I'm writing this one just for me and just having fun and letting the story guide me.  With the American Title contest, my writing has been stalled for so long that this is my gift to myself, a gift to jump start my muse.

Corbette Doyle says: 
The book of my heart is a novelized version of my mother's life. Why not a memoir? There are too many gaps I will never be able to fill since she passed away 11 years ago and, even while alive, told such carefully or colorfully edited versions of the truth, that I have a murky impression of what was fact and what was fiction. Still, she was an incredible woman who overcame numerous hurdles and, even while dying from cancer, wore a smile as she orchestrated her own funeral service.

Margaret Stephens says: 
My book is the kind that becomes a keeper because the reader can't wait to read it again, an urge that hits the moment they read the last word. The kind of book that's a major page turner, generating laughter and hot purry hormonal sensations. Not at the same time. Maybe. The kind of book that sends a reader running to the book store to find more by the same author...me.

Cheryl Zach aka Nicole Byrd says: 
After waiting fifteen years to do it, I am writing the books I want to write, and enjoying it thoroughly, so I'm happy :)  My advice is, don't wait!

Mary Varble aka Marie Nicole Ryan says: 
I've already written one book of my heart and seen it published by an e-publisher. It was too long, took place over too long a span of time, hero and heroine too far apart in age, and spanned I forget how many genres: women's fiction/romantic suspense/paranormal, but I love those characters and so have nearly all the reviewers and people who've contacted me that read it.

But I have another book of the heart that probably will be written some day. Yes, it’s another one that breaks the rules, hero is an alcoholic movie star who's suicidal, and the heroine is the bilingual nanny who comes to care for his twin babies and gives him a third reason to live again.

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