Background on Bitter Secrets
After I finished the first draft of Bitter Heat, I immediately jumped into the second book to make sure I was on the right track and to distract myself as much as possible while I let Bitter Heat marinate. Writers are supposed to let their first draft sit for a minimum of six weeks (as the great Stephen King says) so when you come back to edit, you can look at your work with a fresh pair of eyes and ruthlessly cut what needs to be taken out without being overly sentimental. I had about half that time before Bitter Heat needed to be edited, so I went all in on book 2 and wrote about 40k words before I set it aside to edit book 1. I put a little snippet of what I'd written as the bonus scene at the end of Bitter Heat and switched my attention back to the Crime Lord Series.
I've heard authors say that coming back to a series after a long break is almost impossible--the magic's disappeared, they may have a hard time reconnecting with the characters (which may represent their old selves), or maybe their interests have changed. I don't find that to be the case for me at all. There's a fantasy series I wrote in my early 20s that I think about regularly. I still jot down notes for it because I will finish it once I complete these other series. When I went back into the Crime Lord Series I had some panic attacks, but I realize they were caused by worry that I wouldn't measure up to the previous books. I had the same feeling when I went back to Bitter Secrets, but once I got past the "I don't know if I can do this" phase and stopped overthinking it, the characters took over and I forgot to worry. Thankfully, I am able to slip in and out of my character's skins with relative ease, and even better, I find that the passing of time usually gives me better insight and perspective on these characters and their stories because of what I've been through since we last met.
There's something about Jasmine and Roth. They're some of the most intense characters I've ever met. I love the arranged marriage trope in romance and knew that book 2 would follow Roth and Jasmine for the year. I had some notes about what could happen, but after coming back to it after all this time, almost everything was scrapped because I had better ideas. The book I would have written on the heels of Bitter Heat isn't the book that I'm writing today. To me, books are like a photo album or a CD with songs that represent you at that moment in time. If I tried to write Bitter Heat today, it would be totally different from what I wrote two years ago.
The year I spent writing Carmen's books has prepared me to write Bitter Secrets. Carmen's story taught me to be patient, thoughtful, and not to worry so much about word count, which is a huge thing for authors. It defines whether your book is a novella or novel, the pricing, and if you need to split the book for paperback purposes. I write down my word count every day and even mention what scenes I'm working on.
Excuse my terrible handwriting. LOL
You wouldn't believe how helpful it is to have digital notebooks where you can easily look back at what you've been working on. Sometimes, I can spend a whole week on one scene, writing it over and over again until I'm satisfied. My discarded or extra scenes can be novellas on their own.
According to Google, romance novels tends to range from 50 - 90k words. Bitter Heat is 91k and this one is going to be significantly longer.
When I was writing Carmen's books, I was freaking out because I was hitting 200k+ territory and as the text above mentions, this is very unusual for romance. Most romance readers aren't looking for a massive story, they just want their HEA and don't care about side characters or an intriguing plot, which I happen to love. I struggled with this a lot in Carmen's story and tried to condense it, but it refused to conform. I finally gave in and let the story unfold at its own pace and was overjoyed to hear positive feedback on the first half of book 5 that I released. That experience is really helping me now because I'm not rushing to the end. I'm letting the scenes play out as Jasmine and Roth explore each other's limits. So much of their battle is internal and the push and pull between them is unlike anything I've ever experienced. The first chapter alone is almost 7k words long. I write a lot of long chapters, taking you day by day, which really adds up in words, but I've stopped fighting it and will edit later. This book is going to be a monster. There is so much to explore not just with the main characters but this elite world they're in. I'm really enjoying myself.
With all that said, this week's sneak peek is a revised version of the conversation between Jasmine and Lyle at the beginning of Bitter Secrets:
“I shouldn’t have let you marry him.”
Jasmine rubbed the space between her brows as her brother-in-law ranted on the phone. “You couldn’t stop me, Lyle.”
“I could have. I should have known something was wrong. The quickie wedding, the photographer, his sudden magnanimous gesture to let Colette in on the Ludwig deal… I’m going to ask you this once. Did you marry him because he bought a controlling share of Hennessy and Co?”
Her heart stuttered. “N-no!”
“That motherfucker!” Lyle went off in a torrent of Italian before he shouted, “After we left Tuxedo Park, Colette came clean about the bad investments. I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself for some stupid company!”
“I didn’t sacrifice anything!” she shouted back. “I married him because I wanted to!”
“Don’t give me that bullshit, Min. Who do you think you’re talking to? Maybe Colette and Ariana believed that star-crossed lovers crap, but this is me. I saw you after you came back from London. He destroyed you.”
Her hand slashed through the air in helpless frustration. It had been two days since the blow up at Tuxedo Park. She had been avoiding Lyle’s incessant calls because she knew it would be like this. She wasn’t sure what conclusions he and her sisters had come to, but now she knew it was the worse case scenario. They suspected she married Roth to save Hennessy and Co and she was going to have to lie her way out of this mess.
“That was a long time ago. I’ve changed,” she said as she paced around the kitchen island.
“So has he and not for the better,” Lyle retorted. “You must have figured out why Maximus blackmailed him--to sign those damn divorce papers. Maximus warned me he would come after you. It didn’t take months for him to relocate to New York after Maximus’ death went public. It took mere days. He’s back for revenge. ”
Her hand went to her throat as the panic she had been trying to suppress swamped her. Lyle was only confirming her own suspicions. Roth orchestrated his takeover with such ease that she knew he had been moving behind the scenes long before her father's death. He had bided his time, waiting for his moment to checkmate them. She spent the past two days searching for a way out before she realized there was none. Even if her sisters sold off their shares to Hennessy and Co, Roth wouldn’t stop. He would go after Rami and Lyle and God knew what else. He wouldn’t stop until he destroyed them all. Copyright © 2021 Mia Knight