"What She's Having" comes out in 2 days!

It's a partly sunny Sunday afternoon as I write this. Air quality in the Twin Cities is not great today, thanks to the wildfires elsewhere whose widespread effects seem to be a permanent feature of life now.

You can maybe tell I'm in an odd mood, thinking about all kinds of things, trying not to be either too gloomy or too excited about stuff in the news or in life around me.

"What She's Having" comes out this Tuesday (Aug. 20th), and of the 3 books I've submitted so far for the Galway series, this one is probably closest to my heart, probably because of the character Joe (July's love interest). Not only was Joe inspired by two lovely guys I've actually known in real life, but he also embodies pretty much everything I'd want in an ideal partner for me. He's good-hearted, kind, steady, loyal, loving, passionate, bright, funny, capable, playful, sexy... Mmm.

And whenever I compare him to people I actually tried to partner with at various times in my life, I find myself laughing and thinking, "Damn, I could have used some more guidance on this from a young age!" Not that I wanted my parents to butt in, or that I would have listened if they had tried, but... I think a few conversations about relationships and what to expect and how to evaluate them and what to think about in choosing someone who'll be a good match  might have worked wonders.

But my family didn't talk much about serious or emotional stuff, and although I was a whiz at book learning, I might as well have stepped off a spaceship when it came to understanding social life. I'm sure I was more than a little weird (and that it would be more accurate for me to say "am" instead of "was"!).

So when I write a love story, I have to really think through every interaction and reaction for my characters. It's important to me that they seem like real people--people who are likeable, people my readers and I can root for--which means that they don't always know what they're doing, or how best to do it, or even what they want. Sometimes they're fooling themselves, so you can bet they also misunderstand other people. 

I'll never make a misunderstanding the entire or only conflict in a story; that's not enough to keep people apart long enough for a relationship to grow in interesting ways. But at the same time, people misunderstand each other in real life all the time. They fear rejection, and they keep secrets, and sometimes they tell only partial truths. And my characters do too, because I want them to be as real to readers as they are to me.

You know how even the people you love the most in life can be really frustrating, because they can't seem to see what's crystal clear to you as far as what they should do and who they should (and should not) be with? Well, that's how my characters are: sometimes frustrating. 

But because I love them despite their imperfections, I'll make sure they always get their HEA.

Even if I make them crawl through hell to reach it.
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Anyway. "What She's Having" comes out Tuesday. I hope you get your hands on it and I hope you love it.
Thanks for reading!