But Sherry was so accustomed to writing romances with a big backstory, that after a quick prologue, she jumped twenty months into the marriage. So the widow became an unmarried young lady-Sherry's first virginal heroine-and the focus of the book shifted completely.

People thrust into marriages remain a popular plot for a reason: It generates terrific conflict. So barely three days after receiving approval on the proposal, Sherry already knew she had to make major changes.Īha, what if the hero is actually investigating a member of the heroine's family and she is trying everything she can to escape said family-and arranged things so that they had to marry? That sounds more promising. But you also can't have a book where the internal conflict only start at the halfway point. Okay, so what they like is not really each other and there will be conflict down the road. Well, so what's the conflict? None! No conflict, no story. They like each other a lot and begin an affair shortly after their meeting. It was about a secret agent and a widow meeting by chance at the house where he had a case. The synopsis, which had seemed to hold together pretty well when she submitted it, immediately became problematic. Sherry flipped around the genders-a man who isn't as dumb as he looks and a woman who isn't as sweet as she appears-and had a successful proposal. Written on Your Skin revolved around a man who isn't as nice as he seems and a woman who isn't as dumb as she looks. So she begged Meredith for an early look at Written on Your Skin, convinced that if only she could read the whole book, she'd have her idea in hand. Casting around desperately for an idea, she read the excerpt of Written on Your Skin and totally love it. It was March of 2009, her proposal for the second book in her contract was rejected (yes, published authors get rejected all the time too). Sherry owes the conception of this story to Meredith Duran. The Journey | Trivia | Bits of Research The Journey

His at night by sherry thomas