At the end of April I returned to Sedona with my husband for long weekend. We just wanted to get away and didn't have a set itinerary, which made it all the more fun. While we were there, we finally made it into an art gallery to look around. (Sedona is famous for its art gallery…but it's also famous for rolling up the sidewalks around 5-6. Every time before this when we tried to go to an art gallery, it was already closed for the day.)

We wandered into Visions Fine Art after lunch one day and spent almost two hours roaming around and looking at the amazing collection there. Really, it feels almost more like a museum, albeit one where you can take your favorite piece home, if you're so inclined. And that's what we ended up doing, with a piece by Manuel Nunez entitled Beyond the Veil. This was very out of character for me, because I'm not the type to just casually pick up limited-edition prints. But I fell in love with this one, and as soon as I looked at it, an idea for a new book came to me. The actual piece is quite religious in nature, but the story I began plotting that very night definitely was not. It's another take on the Beauty and the Beast story, which I've already visited in Breath of Life, but this is much more inspired by the fairytale rather than being an outright retelling of it.

What with one thing and another, I didn't have much time to sit down and really start writing it until early this week. But already I can tell it's going to be one of those books that just flows out of me. I love all my books, of course, but some come more easily into this world than others. Some are more the story of my heart than others. And I have a feeling this story is definitely one from my heart.

Inspiration is a funny thing. You never know when it's going to hit, and before this story crept into my mind and wouldn't let go, I had a nice, neat orderly publishing schedule set up for the rest of this year — finish Murders in the Rue Scribe for a late summer/early fall release, and then finally finish Binding Spell and have that come out around the holidays. Now I really have no idea what's going to come out when, but I know I have to keep going with this one for as long as it speaks to me. I feel doubly blessed now for deciding to go the indie route with my writing, because I don't have to worry about upsetting a publisher by going completely off track from a schedule set up months or even years in advance. And since I don't really write in series — although that's a post for a different day — I don't have to fret over disappointing fans who might be waiting for the next book in a certain series. All I can hope is that my readers — especially those who enjoy my explorations of the Beauty and the Beast trope — will come back for yet another interpretation of it.

It's times like this when I wouldn't trade being a writer for anything…

When the PayPal thing blew up on the blogosphere, my second reaction (my first being righteous indignation over such obvious censorship) was that I really didn’t have a horse in that race. After all, I don’t write erotica or erotic romance; you’re not going to censored titles such as “Spank Me, Daddy” or what-have-you in the lineup for my books. In fact, when you get right down to it, my stuff is really, really tame compared to a lot (most) of what’s out there.

That got me thinking about “heat levels” (as they’re described at All Romance Ebooks and a host of other romance book–related sites), and where my books fall in such categories. My books, to put it mildly, are all over the place. Well, okay, so far I haven’t written anything that would require five or even four flames on the ARE scale, but Sympathy for the Devil and Playing With Fire definitely have some hot scenes, as do several of my WIPs (both science fiction romance). Heart of Gold and Breath of Life, on the other hand, are so clean you could give them to a sixth-grader to read.

“Why is this?” you ask. “Is Christine Pope schizophrenic?”

Possibly. However, I think the answer isn’t quite so simple. I think it’s because I write each book based on what I think the lead characters would do, and not on the fact that my publisher wants me to have 6.5 sex scenes per book, or one sex scene in the first 15 pages, or any of the other crazyballs things I’ve heard. It makes perfect sense for the leads in Sympathy and Playing to have sex because they’re adults living in modern America. On the other hand, doing the horizontal polka in 1883 with some bloke you’re not married to is an E-ticket ride to ostracism city for a well-brought-up young woman like Lavinia in Heart of Gold. That’s why I have such a hard time suspending my disbelief when I’m reading historical romance and the heroine doesn’t think twice to wander away from the ball and, er, have a ball, as it were. I’m not saying people didn’t have sex out of wedlock back then, only that there were some severe consequences involved for unmarried women of good family, and most young women would at least give it a second thought (or three or four) before blithely knocking boots with some earl behind a rosebush.

I guess this is just another reason why I like being an indie writer. Each story can be told the way it feels right to me, without having to worry about whether I’m satisfying a particular publisher’s “heat” requirement. On the other hand, maybe some readers don’t like it. Maybe they want a particular amount of sex in a romance novel, and if they don’t get it, they feel disappointed. It’s a fine line, but at the end of the day, I have to write a character in the way I feel is true to her own nature, and not because my publisher has a reputation to uphold for “hot romance.”

And that, my friends, is why Lavinia doesn’t get laid. (On-screen, that is…I have no doubt that once she and her amour were properly married, that airship was definitely rockin’.)

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ChristineJPope

And while you’re over at Smashwords, you might want to check out all the other special offers from other indie authors. It’s a great way to load up your Kindle, Nook, iPad, or whatever device you use to read ebooks. As for me, it’s probably more “write an ebook” week rather than read one, but I’m still going to grab a few things I’ve had my eye on, since “I never paid retail” is probably going to be engraved on my tombstone.

Here’s the link: http://christine-pope.tumblr.com/

And if you’re on Tumblr, too, just let me know, and I’ll follow you over there.

On the writing front, I’m making great headway with the first draft of my Heart of Gold sequel/tie-in, Taming the Earl, thanks in no small part to the Pomodoro Technique. I tend to be the world’s worst procrastinator when it comes to getting my butt in the seat and actually writing, but I downloaded a Pomodoro app for my MacBook, and voilà! instant productivity. I urge all you procrastinators out there to give it a try. I have to say hearing that little ticking noise in the background just makes the words start flowing. At this rate I should be finished with my first draft in the next couple of weeks, which keeps me on track for a mid- to late March release.

That’s all for now…that little Pomodoro only gave me a 15-minute break!

“El Churro” isn’t a real restaurant in West Hollywood — I made that up — but I did base it on the famous “El Cholo” here in Los Angeles. Things get pretty hopping in there, even on a weeknight, so you can see why Persephone and Ginger had a hard time even finding a place to stand.

Darn it…now I want a margarita!

Here’s the bar at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. Yes, it’s a real hotel, and that’s the real bar (two bars in a row…am I sensing a theme here?). One of the first science fiction conventions I ever attended was held at this hotel, back in 198-…mumble. Okay, I’m not going to name the date, but my friends and I dressed up as Pris, Rachel, and Zora from Blade Runner, so that should give you an idea. And no, I’ve never been to a UFO convention at this particular hotel, but I did go to one at the Hyatt in Irvine — purely in the name of research, I assure you.

The name is different, but this is the motel I had in mind for the place where Persephone and Paul hide out in Pomona. It’s right on Foothill Blvd., and there is indeed a Carrows less than a block down the street. I think I may even have eaten at it once or twice. Whether or not the motel is actually used as a party spot for local teenagers, I have no idea.

The café in Claremont where Persephone and Paul have breakfast. And yes, I’ve eaten here, too, but inside, as it was early December and approximately 55 degrees outside. Of course, there were still people sitting at the outside tables, as Southern Californians are generally nuts about exercising their right to eat al fresco even when the weather doesn’t oblige.

The inspiration for the “UFO Depot.” You didn’t think I made this stuff up, did you? (Okay, the alien conspiracy and the underground base at Secret Canyon and human/alien hybrid soldiers…maybe.) I do like to ground the craziness in some truth, though…it makes it a little more believable. They looked extremely closed and gone when we went to Sedona in November 2011, which saddens me. But maybe they were abducted?

The approach to Secret Canyon. It does look rather dark and mysterious, as if it’s hiding something. We didn’t get this far in when we went to Sedona, as many of these roads are best accessed with a four-wheel drive, which we don’t have. However, the next time we go we’re thinking about renting a tomcar so we can zip around in some of the more isolated locations.

This is Oak Creek at Red Rock Crossing. The spot is a favorite with hikers, tourists, picnickers, and anyone who wants to get up and personal with the creek. You really can walk across the red rocks to get to the other side. That is — I was too chicken to do it, but my husband took off his shoes and rolled up his pants and went all the way across. Even with all the people around, there is something exceptionally soothing about the sound of the water and the rustle of the wind in the leaves. No wonder that Persephone had a sort of “breakthrough” while standing in this spot.

And now for something completely different… This is the lovely Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica, or, to be more specific, one of the bungalows. I figured Paul and Persephone deserved some privacy in five-star surroundings after being drugged, tortured, and shot at by alien hybrid soldiers and rogue government agents.

Kara’s cozy living room, where the gang enjoyed pizza and beer after successfully routing the alien horde. I know I always want pizza after I’ve spent a day kicking alien butt. This living room is also featured in the sequel to Bad Vibrations…if I ever get around to writing the rest of it.

Just because… Sedona seriously is one of the most beautiful places on earth. How can you have anything but a happily ever after if you’re living in a place like this?

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, I thought I’d talk a little bit about the book and why it’s now a part of my catalogue, as it had actually been out and about on Lulu, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble for some time before that. When I wrote No Return, I had just come out of a major writing slump. Huge. We’re talking almost seven years where I hardly did any writing. Yes, you read that correctly — seven years. And the thing that brought me out of it (horrible as the movie turned out to be) was the film version of Phantom of the Opera. In poking around and trying to get advance information on the film, I found out about something I’d never heard of before: fanfiction. (Okay, so I’m a late bloomer.) More specifically, I discovered Phantom of the Opera fanfiction…and I got the idea for a contemporary retelling of the story.

I’m not going to go into the whole fanfiction debate here (you can look up my “fanfiction” tag if you want to see more thoughts on the subject). However, POTO is in the public domain. I honestly don’t see a huge difference between writing Phantom spinoffs and writing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, to be perfectly honest. No Return had a very good response from the POTO fanfic community, and then I got the idea of publishing it on Lulu, which was about the only game in town back then when it came to do-it-yourself print-on-demand publishing. Then Amazon’s KDP came along, and I digitized it and put it there, and also on B&N’s PubIt service. The whole time it sold steadily, not in huge numbers, but enough that I earned back my initial investment in the ISBN and other associated costs many times over.

Time moved along, and I was definitely out of my writing slump. In fact, I started writing in earnest, both fanfiction and original fiction. My contemporary romance, Fringe Benefits, was published by Pink Petal Books, and my next two books as well, before I made the decision to go indie. More followed. I was starting to build a decent backlist. But it always bothered me that No Return, which I’d published under a different name, couldn’t be connected with my other books.  I asked for the opinions of other indie writers on the Kindleboards as to whether they thought it would be kosher for me to update and re-edit the book, give it a new cover, and then republish it with the Christine Pope name. Everyone thought that sounded like a great idea, so here we are.

In many ways, I think No Return is my most lushly romantic book, for a variety of reasons. Part of that is just the bones of the story itself — a man so completely obsessed with a woman that he’s willing to kidnap her in a mad attempt to make her fall in love with him. In real life, of course, this little scenario wouldn’t play out quite so nicely. But this is a fantasy, a trope that some people seem to really enjoy. Not everyone, of course, and I’m fine with that. There are lots of tropes out there that I’m not all that into (sports romances, anyone?). Coming back to it after I’d been working in other genres allowed me to tighten the writing a little bit, and smooth out a few of the bumps. The story is still basically the same, but I think people who’ve read the earlier version will find enough changed to make the experience new and fresh.

And hey, you can’t beat free. Go on and check it out for yourself.

In a Victorian England not so different from our own, Lavinia Greene has been raised to be a proper young lady. When she receives a summons to Romania from her eccentric Uncle Malcolm, Lavinia finds herself drawn into a web of mayhem and murder as foreign agents attempt to seize her uncle’s latest invention. She flees for her life, accompanied by her uncle’s assistant, the diverting Joshua Jones, but when he fails to join her in England, she fears the worst has happened. However, she attempts to put the disastrous events in Romania behind her, even as she draws the attentions of the oh-so-eligible Earl of Langdon. As Lavinia finds solace in the earl’s arms, she begins to realize that the secret her uncle had been hiding affects not only her, but the entire world as well.

The book is currently available on Amazon and All Romance Ebooks, and should be up on B&N some time over the weekend. It’s also been uploaded to the iBooks store, but your guess is as good as mine as to when it will actually appear there. Last time it took two weeks. A print version is in the works, but that will take a little longer because of approving proofs, etc. I’ll post again when I have more news.

Then again, I’m engaged in a battle of the wills with Amazon (okay, a one-sided battle of wills, since their side mostly consists of ignoring my emails) because I’ve been trying for almost a week to get some data corrected in a book file I uploaded last week. Basically, I have a book I published years ago under a different name. I revised and updated it, gave it a new cover, and uploaded the new files, changing the information in the author information field at the same time. Well, the new book is there, and the new cover is there…but the Christine Pope name isn’t. Le sigh. So I’ve been emailing and emailing to get them to correct that, because I can’t use that book as a promotional tool (I enrolled it in KDP Select), and I can’t do much with it at all until it’s got “Christine Pope” on the cover. Double le sigh.

I just checked, and Mercury isn’t retrograde, so I can’t blame it on that. Anyway, as soon as I get that mess straightened out, I’ll post links and more info here. At the rate I’m going, that should be sometime next week.