19
Bianca
“Now that wehave the niceties out of the way,” my agent says as she pushes aside her empty plate.“I wanted to talk to you about your current project.”Her face is tight, and nothing about her smile is sincere.
“Okay,” I say the words, drawing them out because if Susan has dropped everything to fly to Chicago to meet with me, the news probably isn’t good.
I’ve been with Susan Williams, one of the biggest romance agents in the world, for almost four years.She took a chance on me when no one else would.Others claimed I was too young or too inexperienced to have a successful writing career, but not Susan.
Most of the time, I’m grateful to have her in my life.
Then there’re times like this, when she’s about to school me in the ways of publishing, where I want to cover my ears and run out of the room before she makes me feel as small as an ant.
Susan leans over, digging into her oversized purse and pulling out a giant stack of papers.“I had a lengthy conversation with your editor after you sent us the first half.”
I pull my hands back into my lap, balling them into tight fists.I’m prepping for a mental and verbal ass-beating with no recourse but to sit here and take it.
“Okay,” I repeat as my lunch churns in my stomach.
She removes the giant clip holding the sheets together and flips the title page over, exposing the first page of my upcoming book.All I see is red.Not from anger, but from the critical ink of my editor’s pen.
“I’m just going to be honest and get to the point quickly.”
I don’t know if she thinks those words are going to bring me solace, but they don’t.My heart’s pounding and my hands are sweating as I dig my fingernails into the fleshy part of my palms.
“The beginning of the story isn’t what your readers typically expect.It’s a super slow start and does not capture anyone’s attention.The entire first few chapters need to be reworked.”
“I thought it was sweet.”The smile I give her is pained.
She waves her hand over the stack of papers and shakes her head.“Sweetie, your readers don’t want sweet.They want hot and fast.”
“The story is hot,” I argue and sit up a little straighter than I had been a moment ago.
I’ve pulled out all the stops on this one, giving my readers everything I know they love.The hero is a hot alpha with a mouth on him that’ll make any woman’s heart skip a few beats.
“The beginning needs more punch, and a sex scene or two would be nice too.What’s going on in your life?Sometimes, our real world causes issues in our fictional one.”
“Nothing’s changed,” I lie.
She raises one overly plucked eyebrow.“Still going through your man hiatus?”
I nod slowly.“Sort of.”
“Oh?”Now, both of her eyebrows are up.“What’s ‘sort of’ mean, exactly?”
“A few weeks ago, I started seeing someone.”
“That explains it, then,” she says, running her hand up and down the top sheet of paper.“The chapters you’ve sent me recently have become more intense and steamier.You can clearly tell when you were without a man.It shows in your work.”
“I don’t agree.”
“Read over the first few chapters.You’ll see there’s a huge difference—and not a good one either.”
Susan’s trying to be nice, I know she is, but her words still sting.They always do.In the end, and I’ll never admit this to her, she’s almost always right.She’s never been one to blow smoke up my ass and tell me something is great.And because of her inability to lie, I always publish a better book.
“Whatever’s going on in your personal life has major effects on your writing.I know why you swore off men for a little while, sweetie, but when you’re writing spicy romance…men are part of the business.You can’t be sour on love and try to pull emotion from your readers.”
“Fine,” I snap.“I’ll rework the beginning, but I’ll need a few more weeks.”
