The Writing Of Maple Street – Part Two

Welcome to Stop Two!!  HCI Books – The Publisher of It Happened On Maple Street.  Be sure you have a look around while you’re here today.  HCI not only publishes all of the original Chicken Soup for the Soul books, but they’ve got a wealth of non-fiction titles on every subject imaginable.  Titles that you can trust to deliver informative, meaty, accurate information.  Titles that inspire.  And titles that tutor.

So, on to part two.  After the great Harlequin Party adventure, Tim and I talked about the possibility of writing our book during the long drive home from Florida.  We discussed ‘what if’s’ and played around with titles.   We played with titles with smiles on our faces, much like we discuss what we’ll do with the money when we win the Mega Millions jackpot.  And then we moved on to discuss plot possibilities for the SuperRomance trilogy my editor had just asked if I was interested in writing when I finished with The Chapman Files.  We discussed road signs and the road trips we wanted to take in the future.  We’d moved on.  Or so I thought.  I didn’t find out until we were writing this tonight that he’d had a few other thoughts…

Tim here.  After the party fog wore off the next day I did a reality check.  Were we really asked to write our story?  Of course the thought sounded great.  Finally everyone could see that I was right! ( HA HA)  But seriously, how would this come back at me?  Putting all my stuff from the past many years out there, stuff that only I knew, would people think this was not normal?  Perhaps they’d think it was weird.  But one thing that I have learned in all my years of living is if you never try then you’ll never know what could have been – a mistake that I made years earlier by the way, as you’ll find out if you read It Happened on Maple Street.

I do have to admit that the thought raced through my brain that I could be a Co-Author of a book.  Imagine, the first book I ever wrote and it was a NY Times best seller!

Okay, the man lives with an author.  He knows about the lists we pour over.  And fret over

A few days after we returned from Florida, I received an email from Olivia Rupprecht, the True Vows series developer.  She wanted to know if I was interested in speaking with her and Michele Matrisciani, Editorial Director for HCI Books, about possibly writing my story for them.  With butterflies swarming in regions I hadn’t known existed, but with an outer calm that I’d perfected over thirty years of living, I called Tim.  And responded to Olivia in the affirmative.  That first call was half an hour long.  And not painful at all.  I was jazzed.  I could do this.  I wanted to do this!  I met Tim for lunch and told him all about the call.  It would really be no different than anything else I’d ever done.  They just wanted me to write a good book.  I’d done that many times.  And this time, really, it would be easier, because I knew the story so well.  Words would just flow.

But more than that, I cared now.  I had my heart invested in the outcome.  Because, at the end of the call, Olivia had said something to me that I will never forget.  She told me that I had the chance to help other women who’d been in similar circumstances.  And then she said, “If we can help even one woman, we’ve done our jobs.”  That was it.  She’d told me I could make a difference.  I had a job to do.  But it wasn’t just up to me.  This wasn’t just my story.  Tim had to be on board one hundred percent.  Olivia and Michelle made that fact quite clear.  But I needed it that way, too.  As you’ll find if you read It Happened On Maple Street, Tim and I go together or we don’t go at all.  Which is why he’s right here, taking over my chair again!

Tim here.  So Tara meets me for lunch and tells me about her call with HCI.  Now came the time to put my money where my mouth is, contract time.  I was excited about the book.  That much was a given.  But the contract…  I have looked over Tara’s contracts.  They all seemed to say the same thing.  You know, blah, blah, blah..we will pay this much.  Since I wasn’t signing them I didn’t take quite the ownership that Tara did.  However, this time, when the contract arrived, it was out with the magnifying glass.  What does this mean?  How about this?  By the time we were done, Tara told me to take two aspirin and she would take care of the rest.  Still, there was one big hurdle that I couldn’t get past.  I was okay with my name not being on the book.  But my name was not on the contract.  I’d only been given a waiver to sign.  But I was putting all my personal stuff out there.  After a couple glasses of wine and some rather emotional discussion, Tara understood what I was saying.  The next day we had a phone conversation with HCI, and wala, done.  They were breaking new ground with us and just that quickly all was taken care of.  So, don’t look for my name on the cover, just know that I’m in there…

And if you do look for Tim’s name, you’ll find it, right next to mine on the copyright page.  From now until the earth ends, we’re in the library of congress together.  If it were up to me, his name would be right beside mine on the cover.  And just as an aside – in our daily lives, when we’re signing checks or getting bills in the mail, our names are the same.  I am exceedingly proud to be Mrs. Tim Barney.

So, in the end, we agreed to write our story.  And I agree with Tim’s take on it, which is…The gravity of the decision to write our story will not be known for some time now, but for now, the decision was a good one!

For part three of this story, jump on over to RomCon .  We’re there right now!

And as part of the It Happened On Maple Street Launch Day Cyber Blog Party celebration, we’re giving out a copy of It Happened On Maple Street to one of this entry’s commenters!  Comment on all six of today’s blogs to be entered to win a one of a kind Maple Street Collectible basket!

Also, everyone who purchases It Happened On Maple Street today, launch day, April 1^st, will receive a free collectible autographed mini-poster.  Simply go to www.maplestreetbook.com and fill in the form to receive your poster.

This post is brought to you as part of the It Happened On Maple Street International Blog Tour.  For a complete tour schedule visit www.tarataylorquinn.com.  All blog commenters are added to the weekly basket list.  Gift Basket given each week to one randomly drawn name on the list.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, or if you suspect someone is, please contact www.thehotline.org, or call, toll free, 24/7, 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY).  The call can be anonymous and is always confidential.  There is not one second of life that is worth wasting.

Next tour stop, Saturday, April 2, Deena Remiel’s Place!

To get your copy of It Happened On Maple Street, visit your favorite bookseller, or www.maplestreetbook.com.

Don’t miss The Chapman Files!  Still available, in print or e-book.

Beginning April 1, 2011, It Happened On Maple Street is available on Kindle and Nook, too!

Work of Heart

When art meets commerce in New York, it’s an alchemic reaction of passions ignited, of worlds colliding. Cindi Myers stirs it all up and delivers an intoxicating elixir of love in Work of Heart, as she delves into the true love story of Nina Barry and Danny deZayas.

Born into a family of famous Russian artists and raised in eclectic Boulder, Colorado, Nina Barry is an accomplished painter who sees the world through kaleidoscope eyes—and when fate blows her a kiss in the form of D.J. Danny deZayas at a Brooklyn dance club, her world suddenly spins faster than a CD at warp speed!

Danny is a Renaissance man who transforms from hip DJ at night to virtuoso entrepreneur building business empires by day.  On the outside it appears that Danny has it all.  Success, a rocking lifestyle, a large and loving family.  But he doesn’t have the one thing he wants most: Nina.  They’re such close friends that they share their innermost secrets—except for the secret longing each harbors for the other.  That is, until they end up sharing more than a campfire over the Fourth of July.  The fireworks between them sizzle and burn, launching them into a dimension of intimacy that is too intense to ever be broken…

Or can it?  What happens when Danny’s travels put more than physical distance between them?  And when Nina’s starving artist existence clashes with Danny’s flush independence, will he come after her when she leaves him and begins seeing another man?  Danny has broken her heart.  What can he do to mend the rift of his making and convince Nina he’s meant to be her one and only lover, her partner for life in a world that’s their playground if only she’ll trust him again?

Click Here for more information on Cindi Myers

Alison Kent’s cutting-edge style smartly takes the contemporary pulse of love and wraps it in timeless truths as she journeys into the open hearts and secret dreams of Michelle Snow and Todd Bracken.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match . . . dot com!  An on-line dating service is not Michelle Snow’s idea of how to find love but when the Big 3-0 hits, Michelle decides she has nothing to lose since she hasn’t brought a date home in ten years, she’s professionally burned out, and her climb up the corporate ladder has come at the expense of abandoning her sweet dream: to own a boutique cupcakery.

Todd Bracken, early 30s and a successful technology consultant, isn’t exactly a player after being off the market for ten years, and pours himself into his dual passions of martial arts and home-sweet-home renovations. Only there’s no one to come home to so he decides to give Match.com a try. Todd isn’t so sure the Internet dating scene is his thing—until a message pops up in the wee hours on a weekend night: “I like your smile.” Todd likes—a lot—the whole package that glides into a French bistro in Washington, D.C.

It’s serious mojo-at-first-sight but there’s a glitch: Todd and Michelle live in different cities. Will love find its way in the digital age with a You’ve Got Mail courtship when video cam kisses just aren’t enough? And when Todd challenges Michelle to not only go for her dream but let him share it, will they be able to make it happen together despite obstacles more plentiful than a shower of rainbow sprinkles?

Order Your Copy Today!

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To enter the Valentine’s Day is For Reality Romance Lovers Win-a-Kindle Giveaway, click here >>

After publishing 54 romance novels, best-selling author Tara Taylor Quinn tells a love story in her 55th novel that is like no other love story before it. Tara’s 55th novel, “It Happened on Maple Street” is based on the true love story of real people, rather than the completely fictional characters that Tara has conjured for her previous novels.

Fans of Tara Taylor Quinn will be riveted by the intimate details she reveals about surviving domestic abuse and the redeeming power of love written in her usual compelling style. Romance readers everywhere will be deeply affected when they realize that the story of “It Happened on Maple Street” is Tara’s own real-life story.

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.

So it was with complete confidence – and utter ignorance – that I agreed to write my own true love story. I didn’t ask to write it. I didn’t propose the idea. But when the opportunity presented itself, when the invitation arose, I wanted to accept. I was excited to have the chance to write about the man of my dreams. To put our story out in the world and down in history, to immortalize us in the library of congress for evermore.

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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