Square One

On Tuesday, I got my assignment from The Most Amazing Editor In the World, Kerri. Send her In the Zone book 5 by mid-May. The next day, I begin to plot. I know I want it to be Booth MacDonald's story. I decide Elliot Fleming is going to buy the team a plane, so I think, why not have Booth fall in love with one of the flight crew? It'll be a "forbidden love" story. Here are the initial notes I made.

Then, I started with the Post-its. I write scene descriptions down and move them around as needed. I got about half the book plotted, but hit a bit of a wall, so I decided to just start writing.

I wrote about 700 words. It was fun. Then around nine o'clock, I thought, "This story sucks." I also thought, "Kate, this is the end of your hockey series. You have no more ideas." I rarely get these self-doubt attacks, but there it was.

Enter Jennifer Lazaris, a fellow hockey romance writer and friend. With her help, I find some tropes that sound interesting and all apply to the heroine.

• She's the sister of one of Booth's teammates.
• She's a virgin.
• She's a big, beautiful woman, but with shaky self-confidence.

Together, we start brainstorming what Booth's heroine is like. Why is she a virgin? Who's sister is she? When we finally said good night (or when Jen finally said, "I must go make pancakes now"), I was excited about the new heroine. I had also killed off Phoebe Sugarman and her daughter Sam. Booth's physically handicapped dad might also have gotten cut. That remains to be seen.

Today, I am revitalized. I jotted down two pages of notes about the new heroine.She doesn't have a name yet, but she will soon because I can't write unless there are names. I got a bit more nailed down about who Booth is and what happened to him before he became a Barracuda.

This book is taking off and I'm really excited.