I've been writing for over 40 years. My first years were spent writing technical documents concerning the B-52 weapons system. Later I wrote documents on troubleshooting home PCs. And what did I do for relaxation? Fire up my home PC and write anything that wasn't a technical document! Sci-Fi, Adventure, Erotica, they were all fair game for me. I even loved writing term papers in college when I finally got around to going. After all, I enlisted for the GI Bill. Might as well cash in on it, right?
These days I spend a lot of time helping young independent writers with the craft. Every now and then a young author will come to me and say, "I just finished this short story and I love it so much that I can't put it down!" and I tell them, "Don't put it down. Go with that feeling and see where it will lead you."
That's the thing about story writing. Quite often, a writer will start with an idea and not know where it will go to. Other times a writer will have a conclusion he wants to reach but no idea how he's going to get there. Like the reader, us writers are along for the ride, not knowing quite where this journey will take us and delight in the joy we find along the way. My book, Love's Last Kiss, is an example of this.
Love's Last Kiss started as a writer's challenge. The challenge was to write a story using exactly 750 words. The story started out as a forbidden May/December romance. Forbidden because the young man was the sweet, older MS sufferer's physical therapist. I loved it so much I just had to expand it out to a 40,000 word novella. But that wasn't enough, so I continued to write the story, filling in details and adding greater dimension to the characters, exploring their past. Now at full novel length, I named it Love's Last Kiss and I'm finally happy with the story.
Steve Anderson was a "Yooper" who is someone from the upper peninsula of Michigan. He's a combat veteran with a dark past and is a damn good physical therapist. Maria D'Amato is a widow from New York City. She's beautiful, sexy, and she was severely injured in the accident that killed her husband a decade before. On top of that, she was twice Steve's age, had a daughter his age, and worse - she was his patient.
Steve had built quite a reputation as a physical therapist, but Maria had MS and Steve wouldn't see her. She needed a specialty therapist. Maria worked hard to bring herself up to a physical condition where Steve would see her as a patient. Maria's goal was to dance at her granddaughter's wedding, and Steve accepted her challenge. Their friendship blossomed and extended past the therapy table. She cooked true Italian meals for him and he became her pool boy.
Soon, love bloomed, and they realized they couldn't live without each other. They chose to spend the remaining time they had as husband and wife, and had a quiet ceremony at Maria's house. That's when everything fell apart, casting Steve back into a world he turned his back on years ago. In Afghanistan, he survived battles between different tribes through being the best shot in the unit. Now here in Vero Beach, Florida, his sins are racing to catch up to him. Only one person, Maria's sister Fabbi, can resolve the dark secrets of Maria's past before Steve and Maria's daughter Natalia start a war than can only be extinguished with blood.
You can find Love's Last Kiss here with all of Duleigh's eBooks