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Sometimes a dream won’t let go |
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“The center of gravity should reside in two: he and she.” Anton Chekhov |
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Copyright © 2008 Sally Jane Driscoll
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THE PERFECT MATCH 2008 San Diego RWA Spring into Romance Long Contemporary Finalist 2008 Coeur de Louisiane Romancing the Tome Contest Honorable Mention |
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Never in my life did I expect to love writing romance novels! I was a short story writer and playwright, and my tales were more hard-boiled than sweet. Nothing made me happier than having everyone dead on the floor by the end. That’s how my play ended, though the audience who saw Twilight with Roses in the Baltimore Playwrights’ Festival had the impression it was romantic. My first short story publications were in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the British science fiction journal, Interzone, but a couple of my newer stories found a home in the noir e-zine, Judas, whose editor seemed to like my voice. When Trudy Ziller popped into my mind, I thought she’d fit in Judas. Until I got to the part where the hero was supposed to die. I hesitated. Here was this great guy, and I was going to kill him off! “Uh, Sally?” I said to myself. “That is really perverse.” Or maybe it wasn’t me talking. It was Trudy. “Maybe, just maybe,” Trudy told me, hands on hips, “you can find Jason something better to do? Hmmm?” I took the hint. Trudy and Jason are in my notebooks, waiting to emerge in a full-blown romance of their own. So if, in the future, you should ever have a problem with any of my romance novels, don’t come to me to complain. I didn’t want to write them in the first place. It’s all Trudy’s fault.
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