What was it like for a world renowned romance writer to be the heroine of one of her own romance novels? Tara writes here about the unexpectedly emotional writing process that put her own true love story onto the pages of her newest True Vows book…

I’ve been writing for a long time. Since first grade. I sold my first book in 1992, it was out in 1993, and since that time I’ve written 54 more published books. I’m experienced. Seasoned. Bestselling. I know this business. I know what makes a book work, and I know how to make it work. I get a feeling inside when a book is good. When it’s right. And another feeling when there’s something off, something that isn’t working. I learned a long time ago how to get out of my own way – or rather, how to get out of the way of the characters in my brain who are telling their stories. I just have to give up self, focus, go down ‘in’, listen and type. Sometimes I have to describe what I see in my mind’s eye. It’s all very matter of fact to me. Very comfortable. And necessary. I’m much better adjusted when I’m writing.

I sat down to write It Happened on Maple Street with anticipation. It was going to be good. I knew how to start it. I knew the hooks and the plot devices and they weren’t made up! They were built in, real and true. The fact that they fit together perfectly, that they were the elements of a book that worked, just told me that our story really was meant to be written. I was living a ready made novel and what a joy it would be to just sit down, open up, and let it flow.

I did great for about the first chapter. After that, I was…to quote my husband…not so good. The book consumed me, as they all do, but it did more than that. It possessed me. I became the book. Because the book was me.

Generally, when I write, I feel the emotions my characters are experiencing. On any given day I might run through the gamut of angst and emotional upheavals, fear and horror and ecstatic love. And when I am done for the day, I walk away. Thoughts linger. Scenes and characters linger. But I can step outside the emotions. I can distance myself from them enough to live life.

I couldn’t do that this time. My heroine wouldn’t stay on the pages of the book. The horrific experiences she had experienced stayed with me as I left the computer and walked around my home, touched my things and tried to bring myself back to every day normal living. I couldn’t leave her behind. She was me.

As I went down ‘in’ and focused and gave myself over to the book, as I re-lived scenes in that deep mental place, I remembered things I’d long forgotten, things I’d pushed away, things I’d refused to accept or acknowledge. Before I began this project I knew basics. It’s my life. I knew bad things had happened. I remembered them. But I was in no way prepared for the details that emerged from my psyche as this book developed.

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I’ve been claustrophobic for all of my adult life. One night, late, I was still at the computer, writing a particularly grueling scene in Maple Street, and that familiar feeling of claustrophobia overwhelmed me. The same feeling I recognized from every day life when finding myself in closed in spaces. Except I wasn’t in everyday life. And I was out in the open. Physically. Mentally, emotionally, I was somewhere else, watching a mental movie of a long ago night.

I know now why I struggle with claustrophobia. I could have done without that little tidbit.

Writing Maple Street wasn’t all bad. To the contrary, while it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, it was also one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. My husband, Tim, the real life hero, was right by my side through most of the writing of Maple Street. I wrote my scenes in first person. The scenes in his point of view are written in third person. I wrote them. But I had Tim write them, first, in first person.

I made a list of all of the incidents in our past that would be included in the book and asked him to write his memories of them. I wanted to know what he remembered thinking, feeling, seeing, smelling, wanting, needing. The results, while grammatically very guy like, were incredible. Far more than I’d expected. And I fell in love all over again.

He’d really been thinking that? He’d felt – wanted – that? He was hurt by that? And yet, when I read what he’d written, our past fell into place for me. I understood things that had never made sense to me. I re-wrote his scenes, to fix the grammar and put them in third person and give them transitions, but in large part I was able to use his exact words.

We fictionalized parts of the book – life requires that we do that – but the parts of It Happened on Maple Street that are just Tim and I are all true. From love letters when we were eighteen and nineteen (yes, we kept them), a meeting we had just before our twenty-first birthdays, to emails we sent later, the love story is true.

>> Click here to gain access to Tara Taylor Quinn’s Maple Street Online Scrapbook >>

I gained something else from the writing of this book, from re-living tragedy and finding great joy. I gained an appreciation, greater than I already had, for the man in my life. For the love that we share. I will not take one second of our time together for granted. Where once something petty might have mattered to me, I now think of Maple Street, of the experience of writing it, of the truth it imparts so clearly, and petty just doesn’t matter anymore.

I am thankful beyond words to have had the opportunity to write It Happened on Maple Street. I hope, that by sharing our story, Tim and I will be helping others to know and believe that it is possible to survive horrific acts and to find pure and everlasting joy again. I hope that by reading our story, others might take another look at their own lives and be able to prevent some of our mistakes, and not have to wait twenty-seven years to get it right. And for those who only hope that the love written about in romance books, in ‘those’ books, is real, I want you to find out that that love is not a fantasy. It’s not fiction. It’s strong enough to survive everything. We only have to believe.

It Happened on Maple Street is not only the book of my life, it’s the book of my heart. It is a testimony to the healing power of love – a love I’ve spent almost twenty years writing about for fictional people in fictional worlds. I always believed in what I wrote. I am now living proof of it.

This time the world I wrote about is real. The people are real. And I am here to tell you all that love is true.

This post is brought to you as part of The Chapman Files International Blog Tour. “The Chapman Files” is a series of four books written by Tara Taylor Quinn, published by Harlequin, available in bookstores today.

Personal Notes From Tara Taylor Quinn:

Please join us in our fight against domestic abuse. We’re hosting a charity skate/walkathon on December 4th in Phoenix, Arizona. If you can join us, we’d love to have you. Tim and ttq are skating and we’re going to have a blast. If you aren’t going to be in the area, you can still sponsor us. Please. In our downed economy domestic abuse has risen and the monies to help have dwindled. To register for the skate, or to donate any amount to the cause, click here: http://www.predatorspeed.org/, or go to http://www.tarataylorquinn.com/ and click “donate.”

There’s an item from our new book, The Third Secret, hidden on the tour with us. Guess the item to enter the drawing to win it! Today’s clue: You put good stuff in them. Send all guesses to staff@tarataylorquinn.com. To see previous clues visit blog sites listed at http://www.tarataylorquinn.com/. Guess as many times as you’d like!

Don’t miss The Chapman File tour party on December 4th at >http://www.eharlequin.com/! We’re giving away a KOBO e-reader and many other cool prizes! All you have to do to be entered to win is leave comments on the tour!

Next tour stop: Wednesday, November 24, 2010. Storybroads:  http://www.storybroads.com.

The more Chaptman Files Blog Tour blogs you visit, the more chances you have to win! Every time you comment your name is dropped in the bag for the prize drawings. For weekly blog tour dates, visit http://www.tarataylorquinn.com/

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