This will be a brief post because, frankly, I don't remember that much about the writing and editing.
Well . . . maybe I do. I do remember wondering how far I should take Emma out of her comfort zone. I had planned to take her into a bar, a porn shop, and a crack house, and I thought all three of those areas were important. But I didn't want to lose my readers along the way.
So during the writing I walked a very fine line . . . as you can imagine. Emma learns that showing love is more important than keeping her feet clean . . . and she can go to those places while still keeping her heart clean.
I'm pretty sure I remember Lisa Bergren editing this one . . . and reading that she didn't find much to edit. This story simply fell together and there were only a couple of places that needed tweaking.
Oddly enough, it's one of my shorter novels--I think it's only 70,000 words or so. But a story should be as long as it should be, and no longer. And I knew when I had finished.
I also remember that my publisher wasn't wild about the title "The Debt." Thought it sounded like a nonfiction book on financial advice. So we tried "The Call" and "The Letter" (I'd already written THE NOTE), and in the end, we came back around to "The Debt." It fits--who has the greater love for the master? The one who has been forgiven the greater debt.
Tomorrow: the results and reader reaction
~~Angie
Oddly enough, it's one of my shorter novels--I think it's only 70,000 words or so. But a story should be as long as it should be, and no longer.
ReplyDeleteOh, amen to that!
About the title...I ordered the book and then went out of town for a week. It arrived while I was gone, and my husband emailed me to say that The Debt had come. His comment? "Did we really need another one?" I wasn't sure if he meant another debt or another book. ;-)
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