The creation of Kiss Across Time, the first book in the eponymous series, nearly didn’t happen.
In mid 2009, I was released from my day job with zero notice and a semi-decent severance cheque. Once I had got over the shock of it, my husband—who sometimes mind-reads even though we’ve both agreed we don’t have to—suggested I use the six months the cheque gave me to write full time and see if I could parlay my writing income into my only income.
I, just like every fiction author, dreamed of writing full time. The desire fueled nearly all my writing decisions, in search of the breakthrough novel which would let me quit the day job. It took me a whole one thousand nanoseconds to say yes to my husband’s proposal.
I tried. I really did. I stretched that six months into 18 months, by maxing out credit cards, running up debts and being in danger of missing mortgage payments more than once.
At the time, I was writing primarily for Ellora’s Cave, the digital-first erotic romance publisher. When I landed on a downtown sidewalk with my personal effects in a box under my arm, I asked Ellora’s Cave what sells best, what did they need more of?
They told me they badly wanted MMF Urban Fantasy romances.
I had avoided fantasy and paranormal romances. I mistakenly thought the supernatural too woo-woo for my tastes. Then I found myself assigned to an anthology with two other Ellora’s Cave authors and an editor, and they all wanted to write paranormal. As the only dissenting voice, I was forced to concede.
That experience led to Solstice Surrender, my first and—until I was shoved from my day job—only paranormal romance. It taught me I didn’t mind paranormal at all.
Only a little daunted, I rolled up my sleeves and started writing MMF Urban Fantasy romances for Ellora’s Cave at great speed. Like paranormal, the MMF element was completely new to me. I had to ease into it, but by the time I had finished the first trilogy I was sold on the whole concept. I was still digging deeper into the nuances, but I was enjoying myself.
My sales didn’t reflect that. At the time, I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. Since Ellora’s Cave has shut its doors, it has emerged that (possibly) a great deal of revenue had been misdirected. Perhaps I was doing nothing wrong at all, for the feedback I got from readers was fantastic.
But the lack of official sales and generally awful interactions with Ellora’s Cave meant that by early 2010, I knew this full time gig wasn’t going to last. I had already taken a part time barista job to pay bills, which turned into a full time job which paid peanuts.
By March of that year, I started looking in earnest for a better-paying day job. The chore put me into a six month funk. I felt I had failed miserably, proving I sucked as a writer.
In late March, Ellora’s Cave sent out a general call for novellas that fit into four themes, including dancing and singing. The first themed collection would be poetry.
I am not a fan of poetry. Perhaps I just haven’t met the right poem yet (although W.H. Auden can make me pause—is there a better love story than the flash fiction within “Stop All The Clocks”?).
So I looked at the criteria for the first themed collection and wrinkled my nose.
On top of my objections to having to weave poetry into the story was my general unhappiness about my finances (hyper-extended), my failure as a writer (deserved or not), and my wild reluctance to working 9-5 for the man once more.
I turned my back on the whole idea.
Then, while sitting waiting for the job interview that would eventually turn into a job offer, I recalled that “poets” way back in history did more than compile couplets of metaphors. They were history’s writers and observers. They put into story form the events they witnessed.
Then, like the proverbial bolt, it hit me. What if King Arthur had a poet, one who recorded all those fantastical events? If his stories were discovered in our day and age, they would prove (as no other historical source has yet been able to) that Arthur was a real person, and his kingdom did exist for a brief while. How marvelous would that be?
Despite my funk and general sulkiness toward anything to do with writing, I found myself pulling together the concept of the story that ended up being Kiss Across Time.
Brody and Veris leapt off the page, fully formed and with powerful personalities. It is one of the few times my characters have come to life without finicky attention to detail and laborious birthing.
Kiss Across Time was accepted for the poetry collection (which still amuses me to this day). It was first published in May 2010 under my pen name at that time, Teal Ceagh (which is really just my true initials, TLC, spelled out phonetically).