Snow Days is getting real!

I’ve sent off the copy edits for Snow Days With You and the proofread will also be done within two weeks, meaning early readers will start to meet Luna and Yannick in just a couple more weeks!

Luna was a very satisfying character to write, a bit starry-eyed, absent-minded and idealistic. Her name is an important part of the story and probably where the whole thing started, both for my writing process and for the story itself.

I love writing quirky, flawed male main characters with lots of banter, like Tiziano in Italian Sunshine, but Yannick is an entirely different person from my usual and I loved every minute with him. He’s sweet and caring and gentle, he blushes and gets shy about his feelings for Luna, he can’t quite believe she would be interested in him. In short, he’s what romance fans call a ‘cinnamon roll’ of the highest order. But he can also scale a rock wall, ski off-piste, find lost mountaineers in a snowstorm, coax a fearful Luna out of her comfort zone in the valley and, heartbreakingly, deal with the consequences when people lose their lives on the mountain.

It’s fascinating how different each book is for me, even as certain aspects become easier with each book. The processes of going through the characters’ backstories, goals and motivations has become habit and certain technical aspects of writing (varying sentence structure and vocabulary, balancing dialogue and exposition, building tension etc.) are getting easier get ‘right’ (or close to) in earlier drafts, thanks to the input of my editor over the previous six (!) books.

But I can’t sit still. I get scared of repeating character traits, story elements and themes and I always want to try something new (within romance of course – don’t worry there’s no Leonie Mack thriller on the horizon!). I will also admit that I keep half an eye on the market, thinking about what sells in the genre at the moment, because I have seen it over and over again that great books just don’t always sell and if I can combine something that’s captured my passion and imagination with a topic that is also popular with readers, that’s the sweet spot I’m aiming for.

The challenge here is to make sure I give my loyal readers the things they loved about my other books, while also pushing myself to explore something fresh – all while not second-guessing my own abilities because I’m trying something new.

Snow Days is something a bit special for me. The romance is very soft and if not exactly uncomplicated, it is low angst, very sweet. It’s only the challenges of their lives that keep them from believing they could stay together (and we all want to believe that love conquers all!). This is partly because I had an entire mystery to solve in the sub-plot, which was a brand new element for me.

I enjoyed writing the mystery more than I thought I would actually. I planned the red herrings and the discoveries and the twist (shh) and the scenes where something big were revealed were very satisfying to craft. But it was a challenge to make the relationship deep and compelling when I had a wild sub-plot to manage as well!

The result is I hope a nice balance with enough romance for my usual readers and enough of a mystery to bring in a few new ones (maybe?). It’s also a little longer than I’d hoped at 91,000 words (a tiny bit longer than Twenty-One Nights in Paris). My publisher is encouraging us to write shorter because of printing costs and I’ve also seen the trend in general is towards shorter novels. But I failed at that! I hope it’s worth the read, though, with the two interwoven plots.

The romance is also on the sentimental side, which is always a bit of a risk given the non-romance publishing industry shuns sentimentality. I know a lot of readers love it though and I thought here it was needed to complement the drama of the mountain setting.

I seem to alternate between a funny book and a sentimental book and it’ll be interesting to see how that continues to play out! I haven’t confirmed plans for book nine, yet, but as I’ve finished the first draft of book eight (separate post about that coming at ya soon) I’ll be addressing that very shortly!