Recently, the historical romance market hasn’t been all it could be. Early in my career, I wrote contemporary romance, but about six years ago I mostly turned to writing historical, first Victorian, and then 1920s romance. I’ve had a blast, releasing contemporary only in sexier Anh Leod titles like Tempting Josie and Wet Christmas (In Christmas Nookies, an anthology). I haven’t wanted to chase the market, even though I’ve been encouraged to return to contemporary.

I plotted out a standalone contemporary. I plotted out an eight-book contemporary arc using my favorite tropes. I even started book one, but I wasn’t feeling it. I kept going with a passion project set int the 1920s. But then, something changed.

I was offered an opportunity to write something contemporary, and for some reason, that idea set my creativity on fire. It had roots in the kind of historical fiction I was writing, in terms of location and characters. And, I could bring in a naughty pleasure I’d been enjoying in my relatively non-existent free time. That’s a reality TV show my father hooked me on called The Curse of Oak Island. It’s about a treasure hunting team working in Nova Scotia.

When I combined this opportunity with a treasure hunting hero and a reality TV setting, all of a sudden I had a novella I plotted in a couple of days, and a book I was drafting less than a week later. The timing was right and this time, I had a new found love for a contemporary project.

I love this story! It will be out in July, so it will be a while before I share much about it, but I wanted to tell the story of its birth. Sometimes, when we can’t drum up enthusiasm, it’s because we haven’t quite landed on the right idea yet. It’s there though. Just take a look at what currently is interesting to you. The answer might be hiding in your hobbies, favorite shows or books, in the garden…wherever you might care to look.

Coming this month with my newly revised Anh Leod story, Aphrodite’s Necklace:

Coming in March…Trifling Favors…book 7 in the Redcakes series