The Rose Arbor/ Rose Harbor Connection

A few years ago I wrote a young adult novel that I really loved. I had every intention of making it into a trilogy. I loved my idea, loved the concept, but the problem was every time I sat down to write the second book I lost my enthusiasm. I didn’t want to write young adult fiction. Don’t get me wrong, I love teenagers. I have lived in what I call a house of hormones for more than fifteen years, meaning that I’ve parented teenagers for more than fifteen years.

And what have I learned?

I’m not hip.

I don’t want to be hip and I don’t want to try and be hip. Oh sure, I sometimes wear my daughter’s clothes, but that’s strictly a vanity thing, or a laundry thing. So, I was in a quandary. Since this was before I had decided to self-publish, I thought I had to brand myself as genre specific author and I knew I didn’t want to write Romance, Mystery, Fantasy, Young Adult or Literary. What to do? I knew I wanted to write and that’s about all I knew. So I did what all Mormons have been taught to do.

I went to the temple fasting (want to know more about this? You can read about it in the Bible) while there I got the distinct impression I needed to write like Debbie Macomber. A very clear answer to my prayer, but I wasn’t very happy.

I’ve heard Debbie Macomber speak twice. She’s an amazing, inspiring speaker, but I hadn’t read one of her bazillion books since high school. Debbie was one of the Harlequin authors that my mother read. Before my mother’s death when I was fifteen, she kept a large box of romance novels beside her bed and she didn’t know it, but I read all the books in that box, including Debbie Macomber’s. I hadn’t picked up a Debbie Macomber novel in years, but on my way home from the temple I stopped by Walmart and picked up two of her books. After reading them I decided that maybe God really had heard and answered my prayer.

So, like Debbie Macomber’s Blossom Street or Cedar Cover series, I created a small Pacific Northwestern  series that I patterned after my own home town of Arlington, Washington. I named my series and the town Rose Arbor. Although my contemporary character Bette in STEALING MERCY (published July 2011) lived in Rose Arbor, my first official Rose Arbor book is A GHOST OF A SECOND CHANCE (published March 2012) because the bulk of STEALING MERCY takes place in 1889 Seattle, about 30 years before the town of Rose Arbor, AKA Arlington, was established. While I was drafting A GHOST OF A SECOND CHANCE I was simultaneously rewriting a novel I began in 2004, THE RHYME’S LIBRARY, my soon to be second Rose Arbor book. I threw in some of my Rose Arbor characters and life was good. I began drafting my third Rose Arbor novel LOSING PENNY shortly after I published A GHOST OF A SECOND CHANCE and I loved it because I got to reform bad boyfriend Drake. And since THE RHYME’S LIBRARY has a sequel, Love at the Apple Blossom, I have five finished or nearly finished Rose Arbor books.

And writing-wise, everything was beyond peachy until I read the Debbie Macomber newsletter announcing her new Rose Harbor series. Her first Rose Harbor book was published August, 2012. The difference in our series titles is one letter. Literally shaking, I called my husband with the devastating news.

Well, it’s not like her stories take place in a small Washington town, he said.

Oh, but they do. They do, I told him.

The thought of rewriting and making new covers for my books overwhelmed me so I didn’t to do it. If I hadn’t so far along in my series I would have, but my simple goal became to have three Rose Arbor books published before Debbie Macomber had even published one. I decided that she since she was 1. a nice person 2. a really big fish 3. and I was such a tiny fish that she probably wouldn’t care.

So, what happened? My teenage daughter stumbled across my teenage book, Beyond the Fortuneteller’s Tent and she loved it. This boosted my confidence and reaffirmed my belief that I don’t have to try and be hip to write young adult books. (I now have four—almost five, including the three award winning Beyond books, and Witch Ways, a Kindle Scout winner that will be released tomorrow.)

 Beyond the Fortuneteller’ Tent, a I Heart Indies Finalist

 get your copy here A Kindle Scout winner, now available for pre-order, released tomorrow.

Why do I think that my writing prayer answered the way it was? I really believe it was my Heavenly Father’s way of saying, I know you. I’m listening. And look, here’s a miracle to show you that I’m paying attention.

The fourth Rose Arbor book (all of the books can be read independently) Love at the Apple Blossom Inn, is free.

Writer friends, if you have a free book, please list it here with your buy links.