What I Wrote This Week
This week, I spent most of my time revamping Finding Zen. The new version has been uploaded and is ready for you to check out! Keep reading to find out about why I felt the need to make the changes.
Why did you feel like now was the right time to spruce up Finding Zen?
I’m writing Shadow Phoenix, the prequel of the series right now. It’s more than halfway done, and between that and the character development and plotting I’ve done for Playing Jericho, there were some inconsistencies in who the characters had revealed themselves to be. So, before I wrote any more books in the series, I felt like it was important to make everything consistent.
What’s changing in Zen?
Most of the dialogue and interactions with the guys in the band have now been changed in some way. When I originally wrote Zen, I hadn’t fully fleshed out who the characters were going to be. I knew True would be sort of a hopeless romantic type, Maddox was an arrogant jerk, and Jericho? Well, I figured he’d be shy. But that was all I had on any of them.
As I’ve written their books and really done a deep dive into who they are, there were so many complexities that I didn’t reflect in the original version of Zen. It was time to go back and correct all of that.
Anything else?
Finding Zen was the very first romance novel I’d written (very first full length novel in general), and I was not at all comfortable with writing sex scenes. They were awkward and uncomfortable to write, and I think that reflected in the way they read, too. So I did some tweaking in those areas.
There were also some plot inconsistencies, things that didn’t work, and holes that needed shoring up. Thanks to my super awesome proofreaders and friends, fellow author Melony Ann and her boyfriend, Sergeant Brad, who’ve been instrumental in making sure all the criminal and law enforcement aspects to my stories were realistic and accurate, I think we got everything straightened out and the story’s a lot tighter than it was.
Turns out I’m not as good at catching errors and plot holes as I thought I was. Haha!
Why did Jericho need to be rewritten?
When I originally imagined the Jericho character, he was shy and quiet, geeky. Maybe even virginal, which I thought could make a really interesting character dynamic. A 28-year-old rock star virgin? So unlikely.
But, when it came time to actually plot his book, I must have spent a month coming up with different ideas, brainstorming and tossing them around with my writer friends and my husband. Nothing ever felt right, nothing stuck. And then I stepped back and realized it was because who Jericho was as a character just wasn’t right.
When I made that discovery, I threw everything out the window and stopped fighting him. With some great advice, I stopped trying to make him into who I wanted him to be, and instead just let him be who he was meant to be. And let me tell you… he’s not at all what you’ve been expecting. Of all the heroes I’ve written, Jericho is the darkest.
What about the Shadow Phoenix prequel? How do the changes play into that?
The prequel is going to come out before Jericho releases and I’m a little more than halfway done writing it. You’ll get a really intense deep dive into who the guys of Shadow Phoenix were around the time the band starts their rise to fame. They go through a lot, and you’ll be able to follow along for the ride. And the book will also prepare you for Jericho’s story. Things in Zen will make more sense. This prequel will tie everything in the SP world together with a messy bow.
What about that new cover?
Since I was revisiting the entire book, I thought it could use a new look, too. I have a blog post coming soon detailing the cover, but I gave the series a face lift and I’m in love with the new look.
What about the other books?
In the coming weeks, I’m going to be making a few small changes to Loving True and Saving Maddox to reflect the new character changes in Jericho. The other characters in those books are great as-is.
Do I have to do anything to get the updated version of Finding Zen?
Make sure your kindle is set to get automatic updates so that whenever I make changes, they download automatically. You can find the instructions on how to do that here. You don’t need to repurchase it, but if you’ve read and returned it in Kindle Unlimited, you will need to re-download it again.
So, there you have it! That’s what I’ve been up to this week. When you’re done reading the Finding Zen update, let me know what you think of the changes in the comments.