YA Romance

I went to a writer's conference with Bob Hankes where I asked a panel of literary agents, "What are you seeing too much of, and what do you want to see more of?" The answer to both questions was the same: Romance.

Romance? I thought. I don't write romance. I'm not even sure I know that much about it. So, I picked up The Summer I Turned Pretty and read it. A lot of internal dialogue and a lot of internal turmoil. Do I like him? Does he like me? I mean, does he really, really like me or just like me? Maybe I really like his brother. But he likes my best friend. Is she prettier than I am? I don't know if I should kiss him or not. Maybe I should wait for him to make the first move. Do I want him to make the first move? And on and on.

I was struggling with Old Friends & Other Strangers, going through the fifth rewrite when my writing group mercifully told me to bag it. It wasn't working. Stick with The Grotto which they were enjoying a lot more.

The problem was Old Friends was supposed to be the first in the series, and I hadn't finished it. So I decided to turn it into a romance. But cutting and pasting portions knit together with new, romantic elements didn't work either. So I scrapped it a sixth time and created an entirely (mostly) new novel called The Things We Didn't Catch.

It's gone through two beta reads, and is going through a rewrite, but I like it . . . a lot. Maybe there's still a romantic spark left in me after all these years.