I Stand Alone
- Maggie Shayne
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
*That title is both a shoutout to Godsmack and a sly reference to my two stand-alone novels almost nobody knows about. Also in this issue, progress on a long-awaited sequel, and the completion of number 116!
Here is the VIDEO edition of this post. The text version is below.
Part 1: The Frozen Dude
The book, Miranda's Viking, came to me as a fully developed scene, like a vision playing out before my eyes. A woman in a white lab coat, standing in front of a control panel, frantically turning knobs. She's in a room much like a lab, or some sort of hospital room. The view backs up. Behind her, there's a table with a sheet draped over the unmistakable shape of a body. A huge body.
A body that suddenly takes a strangled breath as the sheet falls away, revealing this huge, muscular, dangerous, beautiful man.
That's all I got. That's where it started.
I knew in short order the man was a frozen specimen recovered from a glacial cave by a team of archaologists. He is a tenth-century Viking, and is being kept in their climate controlled lab so that they can study him. His name is Rolf Magnusson. His nickname, The Plague of the North.
This book got me noticed, and the reason for that was that it was published in Silhouette Intimate Moments, the suspense line, not Silhouette Shadows, the paranormal line. Because really, the only thing "paranormal" was that he'd survived, somehow, and that's really more science fiction.
The original cover almost gave me a capital O.
If you look closely, you can see this model is either packing some heat, or has an extra pair of socks tucked into his jeans.
Looking at it now, I think he looks a little like my husband, a guy I hadn't even met when I wrote this book. Holy shit. Hey babe. How you doin'?
Shoot, he might need to come home early today.
Here's the current cover.
Anyway, Rolf comes to life in the modern age and Miranda, the archaeologist who's deemed herself frigid since an assault, and so is not comfortable around a big oaf without a clue about modern morality. And she has to teach him everything. And she has to keep it secret that he's come to life, because science would want to experiment on him, and she can't allow it.
Now this was only my fifth, I think, novel, and I knew that once the book was complete and edited by my main editor, and I had done any requested revisions, it then went out to a freelance copy editor to catch the little stuff, inconsistencies, historical inaccuracies, misplaced commas.
Up to now they'd been great. This time, however, I got a mean, shitty, sarcastic little snot of a copy editor. Back then we sent print outs, and got them back with edits marked on the pages. When I got Miranda's Viking back, it was marked up like I'd never seen, with snarky comments all over the place.
She questioned how Rolf could have found North America from Greenland, despite that his cohorts did just that in real history. She questioned whether he'd brushed his teeth. She added things like, after my line, "Rolf stomped away" she added ", his feathers thoroughly ruffled.
Oh. My. God.
She insulted my writing at every turn.
I was devastated. And paralyzed. And questioning whether I had any business writing at all. I'd got it on a Friday, in the mail, back when we did things that way. A big stack of pages with blue pencil all over my neatly typed lines.
I couldn't email my editor until Monday and I kept going back to it over and over all weekend. And each time I began to go through it, I got a little less hurt and a little more pissed off. Who did this shithead copy editor think she was dealing with? I had published four novels. Four!
So by the time Monday came, and I could email Melissa, I was no longer devastated and questioning my ability to write my way out of a paper bag. I was furious, and I told her I was sending the printout back to do with what she wished, and suggested she put the copy editor's name on the book.
Welp, she confessed that she hadn't see the copy edit, it was just forwarded straight to me, and when she did she was as pissed as I was. She said she went home that day covered in eraser bits from removing the CE's snarky comments, and promised I'd never have to work with her again, to which I replied, "No author should have to work with her ever."
The manuscript was later sent to a new copy editor, who did a great job with it.
That's probably the angriest I've ever been over anything in my career.
Buuuuuut I did decide to show Rolf brushing his teeth on the page, just in case.
Its current cover is one I did myself. The book is waiting its turn in line for a new one, at my publisher.
This book, when it was first released, was the one that impressed Cindy Hwang at Penguin-Putnam, a competing publisher, so much that she chatted me up at a writers' conference where we met and asked me to submit something. The resulting work became The Immortals series, and OMG I LOVED working with Cindy!
It was different, this book, especially within its line, a suspense line. But the line's executive editor was Leslie Wainger, huge fan of paranormal and sci-fi romance.
Since there was nothing out there much like it, Miranda's Viking got a lot of attention.
It won the Golden Leaf Award from the New Jersey Romance Writers and received a coveted 5-Star review from the unchallenged queen of romance reviewers at the time, the late Harriet Klausner.
Authors had pins made. They were button-type pins, pink with 5 gold stars arcing across the top over the words "Harriet knows." I had one once, and wore it with pride.
The lowest I ever got from Harriest was 3 stars, and the review was among those in her final piece. I I had never had less than a 4 and she'd been reviewing me forever. I could only assume she passed away before she'd finished adding stars.
I can't recall which title, and probably wouldn't tell you if I did.
Part 2: Written in the Stars
My second stand-alone title was originally titled Star Woman, and it, too, was a rare science-fiction entré into the Silhouette Intimate Moments line, which, as I've mentioned, was supposed to be romantic suspense.
At the time, Silhouette had a habit of using a book's entire plot as its title. For example, The Texas Brands, Book 4. My title: Long Gone Lonesome Blues. You know, like the Hank Williams song. No, you can't copyright titles. You're welcome. But it didn't matter, because Silhouette changed it to, The Husband She Couldn't Remember.
So naturally my sci-fi romance Star Woman, a total reverse-role homage to Starman starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allan...
...was re-titled, Out-of-This-World Marriage.
That year, brides on covers and wedding words in titles were selling like hotcakes. They had an entire department measuring what words and images sold, hence the word "marriage" showing up in the title.
And they were terrified of paranormal or sci-fi elements. They didn't know what to do with them, but one thing they did not want to do with them was show any hint of them on the cover.
So here's the original cover of my sci-fi alien romance.
Does that cover say, "smalltown doctor finds beautiful alien who has crashed in his back forty" to you?
My current cover at least conveys the plot, and I retitled it Stargazer, which I think I like better than Star Woman. This another cover I did myself. And again, it's in line for a makeover. Ignore that "Shayne's Supernatural's" tag. It used to be on both of these to link them to each other, if nothing else.
Stargazer: Anyway, Dr. Duffy has been seeing UFOs since he was a little boy, and one time, he saw one land. He ran into out in the night, and encounted the most beautiful little girl he'd ever seen. She was lost and terrified, and he helped her, and when he held her hand, he knew he'd remember her forever.
And then they found her family's spaceship and she got back in and flew away.
Sooooo, that was an interesting childhood dream. At least that's what he thinks now.
Until she comes back.
Here's the RT review: "Maggie Shayne knocks our socks off with OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD MARRIAGE, the fascinating tale of a cynical doctor who rediscovers his emotional side when he rescues a lovely space traveller from a government operative out to take her into custody. Ms. Shayne demonstrates an absolutely superb touch, blending fantasy and romance into an outstanding reading experience!"
I loved this story. Fun twist: On Janella's planet, women rule and men drool. Especially if you give their shock collars a tweak. Ahahahahahaha! Yeah. Fun times.
So those are my stand-alone titles, not part of a series, but overdue for an update.
And they're both worth the read, even before they get their new covers. Although if buying in paperback, wait. They'll be so much nicer soon.
BOOK NUMBER-116 IS COMPLETE
I am composing this post on Thursday, February 26th, and this morning, I finished the second draft of Lone Wolf, Book 4 of The Texas Brand: Generations.
I can't tell you how good it feels to finish a novel. I'm still wearing Wolf's bracelet on my wrist. (I wrote one into the story, then found one in the house. Source unknown. Been wearing it ever since.)
The book is off to the editor.
She's fast, so I'll have it back to begin the third draft on Monday. I'll do a third draft, and then off it goes to my publisher! I'm already contemplating what's next.
I love how the story turned out. I'm debating between two charactes for the next one, but I'm pretty sure of who it is. I just don't have the story yet.
I also have a first draft of another book awaiting me, and I might dive right in and devote March to writing that one's second draft. In The McIntyre Men series, there's a story of the neighboring Wakeland family called Baby By Christmas. It was always intended to be one of three. I now have a start on the sequel from my co-writer (and daughter) Jessica Benson. As soon as it's done, we'll be requesting new covers for both the books, with their own unique look within the series, and the author's up-to-date name. There will be one more, and it's the one you're waiting for, and I promise you'll be happy. Don't forget the theme of Big Falls: A Miracle in every story!
So, I plan to get everything done by Friday evening, and take the whole weekend off to celebrate finishing yet another novel. Ahh, basking!
LONE WOLF is emotion-packed. Have some tissues ready, folks.
But I promise, they'll be the best kind of tears!
The weekend's other video posts in case you missed them
The Bliss Blog
Eat Like You Give a Shit
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