Hurricane Breeze

Hurricane Breeze started as a 'palate cleanser' after finishing my Dalton & Miri book, the spin-off of When Danger Calls.  WDC was still far too fresh to edit objectively, but after a few days the writing itch was back.  Being relatively lazy, my first search was through old files to see if there was any inspiration.

As I've mentioned before, I used to hang at iVillage, where a short story group had weekly writing prompts.  One was to use the word "curmudgeon" in a short story. 

For the story to have a chance with The Wild Rose Press, however, it had to be a romance.  Since my exercise featured a reclusive, up-tight novelist dealing with his elderly neighbor (the curmudgeon of the story), there wasn't much of that.

 Still, it was worth thinking about how to work a woman into the story. Since I had the framework of my male protagonist, I needed an acceptable (meaning totally opposite) female character.

With the help of my crit group, we brainstormed the 'what if's that make a story. By the time we finished, I had the major plot points worked out. In a short story, there aren't that many of them! The surprise for me as I went back and started writing was that the male protagonist insisted on being the sole POV character in the story.  While Tiffany was a catalyst, she never insisted on taking center stage.