The first book I ever wrote was an adult rom-com but after trying to query it, I ultimately decided to shelf the manuscript. I wasn’t getting any bites what-so-ever and the more I was learning about querying and publishing, the more I realized this book did not follow the rules, for example, my main character didn’t meet her love interest until halfway through the book. For a rom-com, they need to meet the love interest almost right away. Sometimes that’s okay but for a writer with no credits under her belt, that doesn’t work. So I decided to switch it up and write young adult (YA) because I had been told my voice would work well for YA and I do love reading that genre. And guess what, that worked! I now have two YA books published and I’m working on trying to find a home for my third one, a YA murder mystery set at an indie bookstore in a fictional Philadelphia town.
I was starting to draft my fourth YA book when I realized I kind of wanted to try something different. I had just finished writing a spicy adult holiday rom-com short story that got accepted into an anthology (coming out in November called Jingle These Bells!) and I had more fun than I expected writing it.
In the meantime, my family and I went on a cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia in May. Not the brightest idea we ever had because it was SO COLD. The price tag was cheap, but like they say, you get what you pay for. We were also bringing a two-year-old on board and I didn’t think it would be that hard. We couldn’t even go outside most of the cruise because of the choppy waters, which wasn’t the worst thing in the world because there was no glass to prevent my kiddo from falling off the edge so I didn’t even want to venture outdoors. It was basically like having a bunch of rainy days in an area smaller than our bedroom. On top of that, my sneaky little one figured out how to escape from his pack and play the second day during “nap” time, so it was a barrel of laughs all around. At least Nova Scotia itself was beautiful (see the below picture where I look thrilled).
The last full day on the boat I was sitting on our balcony in tears after finally putting our child down for a nap (which included going up and down on the elevator many times in a stroller) and between my tears, I came up with a book idea where I could use all of these horror stories I was experiencing. This thought helped me get through the rest of the cruise. And boy do I have stories to tell.
That’s the book I’m writing now. It’s an adult rom-com that has a dual point of view with one person being a single mom going on a cruise to Novia Scotia with her two-year-old, and the other person taking the cruise she was supposed to be on with her girlfriend who recently broke up with her. I’m having a blast writing it and it’s really helpful to have something I’m enjoying writing while I’m getting many rejections for the book that I’m querying. We will see what happens with this new project!
Diane Billas 