Brain Hump — The Conception of "Falling for Anthony"
First: have you entered the contest yet?
Okay, so one of the FAQs I see on other authors’ sites a lot is “where do you get your ideas?” and usually the answer is “everywhere, nowhere, the ether, my muse,” and etc. Sometimes, there’s a specific story to go along with it: a first line, a title, a cloud formation (I just read this somewhere…a cloud formation.)
Anyway, I can tell you exactly how I came of with the idea of “Falling for Anthony”: pure, unadulterated shock.
Okay, not exactly. But pretty much. This is what happened.
Editor: Hey, I read your chapters for TEMPTING HUGH (the title for DEMON ANGEL way-back-when). I like the idea, your characters and voice are great, but your execution sucks.
Melissande Brooke (because that was totally going to be my non-fanfic erotic-paranormal-author psuedonym): Okay. That’s way cool.
Melissande Brooke’s heart: *dying, even though I know she’s right*
Editor: But though they aren’t strong enough to offer a contract on that book, I can offer you a spot in an anthology.
Melissande: Wh….whuh?
Editor: With Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, and Shiloh Walker.
Melissande (who knew exactly who all of these people were, because she’d been on an Ellora’s Cave kick for a while, and had discovered Holly through AAR): Oh. Cool.
Melissande’s brain: I think you may have died. Or accidentally inhaled some really strong-ass copy toner. This is a dream sequence. Oh, and mothereffing *squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*!
Editor: So it’d be a really great way to work out the details of your world, and an introduction to it. Let me know when you have an idea. I’ll have them send out the contract.
Melissande: Oh. Cool. Can I be called Meljean instead?
Editor: Sure thing. (Or something, but way more awesome.)
Meljean: *puts down phone*
Meljean: *thinks* … and it goes something like this:
Okay, so short story, connected somehow…who can I use? Colin? Oh, damn, but I want him to have his own story, even though I never intended this to be a series, but he just kind of showed up and I lurve him now and … hey! What if I tell the story of how he was turned into a vampire? With Lilith as the bad guy? And Hugh as the Guardian’s partner to Colin’s sister? Like, he poses as a doctor and stuff, and she has no idea he’s an angel and shit.
And this is what I sent her about fifteen minutes later:
I wanted to make sure before I start going haywire on an idea that I can work in a non-contemporary setting.
I was thinking of Regency period, and using Colin’s sister, Emily, as the heroine.
The story would be that she knows Colin’s been attacked and it has left him weak and weirdly sick (by nosferatu, and the sickness is because he doesn’t quite understand that he’s a vampire), and is trying to protect him, and attempting to get ‘help’ in the form of medicines or physicians, but no one, of course, is available for that kind of thing.
Guardian Anthony is trying to protect her from the nosferatu who transformed Colin–and at the same time recover a relic from the Original Big War between heaven and hell (which, yay! allows me to set that up). The relic is what the nosferatu are after, and it is in the possession of Colin and Emily’s family, kind of an heirloom from the Crusades.
Anthony poses as a physician, staying at their manor. Or, maybe only briefly at the manor, then Colin takes off with the relic, and Anthony and Emily are forced to follow him.
(I cut out the rest because it’s a spoiler.)
Editor: That sounds great! I really like the idea, and the time period is fine.
Meljean: Holy shit.
Of course, that’s not exactly the way the story turned out, but that’s how I came up with the idea.
And, okay, this is just gratuitous cuteness:
What my daughter looked like that same night when I came home:
Mommy: Show me your “cute face”!
Umbi:
Holy crap. That was like 2 years ago.
