#PitchWars Blog Hop – Why I Wrote CALAMITY

This post is part of a blog hop for #PitchWars and will be hosted by the fearless C.M. Franklin on her blog. Follow the links at the bottom of this post to visit the other authors in this blog hop.

The first time someone asked me why I wrote Calamity, I answered without thinking, “Because it pleased me to do so.” And that’s true. I didn’t set out to write the Great American Novel or to criticize some aspect of the human race. I simply wanted to entertain myself with the hope that I could produce something that might entertain others.

So the question I’ll answer is, “What inspired me to write Calamity?”

I had been re-re-reworking my last MS in that clutchy way we do, occasionally setting it aside to follow an errant idea or other, then coming back again to find ways to get back into that world I had become so comfortable in. My Scrivener work area is a graveyard of half-told tales, and I started to worry I’d never have another compelling idea. That’s when I realized I needed to stop writing and start reading.

My stack of books waiting to be read never diminishes. It just topples over occasionally. Several books on my shelf — or more accurately on TOP of my bookshelf — were written by a close friend. I got them all at one time but didn’t read them in one sitting. The last book of four sat unopened with a lovely inscription on the inner flap that reads, “May the cards always be in your favor.” It’s a book about gambling, and sex, and love, and sex. Mostly gambling.

At the start of the novel, Shuffle Up and Deal by Susan DiPlacido, our intrepid heroine, a poker player mind you, suffers a streak of terrible luck. Not just with the cards but with everything else. And this all plays out in such a way that she’s at her absolute worst at the exact moment she first meets that famous poker player she has a legendary crush on. As it goes in romance novels, the heartthrob not only overlooks her embarrassing entrance into his life, he’s captivated by this apparent nut job of a girl. And — spoiler alert  — things work out just fine.

After reading that, I began to imagine a scenario where embarrassing snafus don’t just fail to hinder the romance but inadvertently work in favor of landing Mr. Me Love You Long Time. Then my evil thoughts took it to eleven. What if snagging the heartthrob turns out to be just one more calamitous misfortune for our unlucky heroine. And what if — spoiler alert  — things don’t work out just fine? Or at least not in the way she planned.

I knew I had to write that book.

Thus began my long slow torture of poor Mallory, the girl whose name literally means “the unlucky one.”

Carleen Karanovic: HOPE ON A FEATHER

Heather Truett: RENASCENCE

Tracie Martin: WILD IS THE WIND

Susan Bickford: FRAMED

Rachel Sarah: RULES FOR RUNNING AWAY

Amanda Rawson Hill: GRIMM AND BEAR IT

Charlotte Gruber: CODE OF SILENCE

Kip Wilson: THE MOST DAZZLING GIRL IN BERLIN

Nikki Roberti: THE TRUTH ABOUT TWO-SHOES

Anna Patel: EXODUS

A. Reynolds: LE CIRQUE DU LITERATI

Susan Crispell: WISHES TO NOWHERE

Ron Walters: THE GOLEM INITIATIVE

Rosalyn Eves: THE BLOOD ROSE REBELLION

Ashley Poston: HEART OF IRON

Mara Rutherford: WINTERSOUL

Janet Walden-West: Damned If She Do

Kazul Wolf: SUMMER THUNDER

D. Grimm: WITCHER

Kelli Newby: THORNVAAL

Tara Sim: TIMEKEEPER

Elliah Terry: POCKET FULL OF POPPIES

Alessa Hinlo: THE HONEST THIEF

Rachel Horwitz: THE BOOTLEGGER’S BIBLE

Whitney Taylor: DEFINITIONS OF INDEFINABLE THINGS

Lyra Selene: REVERIE

Natalie Williamson: SET IN STONE

Robin Lemke: THE DANCE OF THE PALMS

Stephanie Herman: CLIFF WITH NO EDGE

Shannon Cooley: A FROG, A WHISTLE, AND A VIAL OF SAND

Ruth Anne Snow: THE GIRLS OF MARCH

Elizabeth Dimit: PHOEBE FRANZ’S GUIDE TO PASSPORTS, PAGEANTS, & PARENTAL DISASTERS

Gwen C. Katz: AMONG THE RED STARS

Jennifer Hawkins: FALSE START

Kelly DeVos: THE WHITE LEHUA

Gina Denny: SANDS OF IMMORTALITY

Natasha M. Heck: FOLLOW THE MOON

Esher Hogan – Walking After Midnight

D.A. Mages: THE MEMORY OF OBJECTS

Kirsten Squires: INCREPTO