OUT OF THE FRYING PAN AND INTO THE INFERNO

I'm very honored to welcome Linda Howard, one of our very own Mavens, to the playground today. Over the next three months all three Mavens will be blogging with us about their new Raintree trilogy. So pull up a swing or a patch of sand and enjoy!

Instigator

So . . . about five years ago, Beverly Barton, Linda W. Jones, and I were sitting in our hotel suite talking about writing. Big surprise there, huh? Actually, they were talking and I was listening. They had both written books in multiple continuity stories for Silhouette, and they were talking about how difficult it was when the story "bible" wasn't one they'd plotted themselves, and when they didn't know the other writers involved. One thing led to another, and soon we were talking about writers whom we could collaborate with, which somehow segued into "let's come up with our own continuity." The continuity idea devolved into a trilogy, because, let's face it, three writers working together is difficult enough, much less six or twelve!

I honestly don't remember how the idea of a paranormal clan came about. I know how we got the name Raintree: from the phone book. We all liked it, and within minutes we'd each chosen our character: I had the king of the Raintree clan, Dante; LJ had the cop brother, Gideon; and Beverly had the sister, Mercy. We each named our own character. We agreed on certain things, such as that Judah, the king of the evil Ansara wizards, was practically a mirror image of Dante in their powers. Why make this easy, right? We agreed on the location of each book, which set up some logistical problems when we had to get all three of the main characters together.

Then we began researching. We researched everything we could think of: guardian angels, mythology, numerology, astrology, Tarot, paranormal abilities, the hidden meaning of names, and a bunch of other "ologies" I can't remember right now. Of course, all this research necessitated several trips to the mountains, to a casino . . . all I can say is, I feel much more creative with a good shopping day under my belt. Understand, I have an SUV; on our first trip to the mountains, we bought so much that, on the trip home, so much was packed in that SUV that all we could see of LJ was her face. Remember the scene in ET, where he was hiding in the closet of toys and his face was surrounded by all the stuffed animals? Like that. Beverly was also holding stuff she'd bought on her lap, and bags were stuffed around her legs. I, fortunately, was driving. If I'd had to slam on the brakes, all three of us would have been crushed under the impact of our purchases flying forward.

The things we do for our writing. (Picture the back of my hand pressed to my forehead.)

We worked on these books for years. Well, not on the writing part, but on the research part. I bought most of each year's Christmas presents while we were researching. I have no idea what I'll do this year . LJ wrote Haunted really fast, or at least the first draft, and laid down the timeline that Beverly and I then followed when we wrote our books. It didn't matter what the timeline was, or who set it, just that there was one.

Because the lead characters in the subsequent books would have to be total idiots if they hadn't figured out the Raintree clan was under attack after everything that happened in Inferno -- we'd agreed that the action in all three books would have to be taking place simultaneously. Oh, man, the trouble we caused ourselves with this one decision! Take my advice: don't ever, ever do this. Time zones, flight times, sunset and sunrise times -- erk! It was detail after detail after detail that didn't matter a hill of beans to the book's plot, but were crucial to the logistics of our overlapping scenes and the big ending. Not only that, but with that one decision we also prevented both LJ and me from having a big, real, final ending in each of our books. In the end, there can be only one. Ending, that is. Right? And that had to be in the last book. If the big ending was in the first book, well, then there's no point in the second and third books.

Yikes!

We had either really set ourselves up to fail, or somehow readers would forgive us and read the books anyway.

But, at last, Beverly and I began writing our own books. LJ, I'll point out, has been very gracious (most of the time) about us taking so long. It helped that she was very busy with other books and contracts (whew!) because Beverly's schedule for those five years or longer has been absolutely hellacious. I was busy with my own stuff, such as remodeling this house, gutting and remodeling an old house on the property, buying and remodeling a house in the mountains, selling it, building a new house in the mountains, taking care of family members, landscaping, building a new office behind the house . . . have I mentioned that I like construction? I do, I do, oh I do. Love the smell of sawdust.

Anyway, finally we began. We each had notebooks full of research, the mythology we'd agreed on, what each character's powers were, etc. After five years (and lots of shopping) you'd think we'd have covered each detail. You'd be wrong.

The e-mails were flying like confetti in a ticker-tape parade. One memorable e-mail from Beverly asked, "What are y'all naming your swords?"

LJ: "Sword?"

Me: "What sword?"

LJ: "I don't have a sword in my book."

Me: "Dante's not a sword type of guy. He's into fireballs."

Beverly: "There are swords in my notes! Mercy has a sword!"

LJ: "I'm not going back and rewriting this book to put a sword in!"

Me: "No, no, no, I'm so tired I can't think. I can't name a sword. The only name that comes to mind is Kitty, and I refuse to name a sword Kitty."

LJ, perking up: "Kitty? A sword named Kitty? I like that!" (Have we mentioned that LJ's a little on the bent side? No? Well, she is. I gave her Kitty the Sword, because I sure don't want it. Kitty makes an appearance in one of her future books.)

Beverly: "Y'all don't have to have swords, but I'm not taking mine out. Mercy has a sword and she's keeping it."

And so it went, with detail after detail after detail. On toward the end, our e-mails bore the subject header: "Those damn Raintrees again."

But you know what? The characters lived with me. Lorna was fiercely independent, prickly, and determined not to let anyone close to her. Dante was a complicated man, part modern, but a big part of him was very much like a medieval ruler. In the paranormal world, his word was law, and he was ruthless in protecting his clan. He could and did kill in the protection of what he held dear, and he didn't lose any sleep over it. He often overstepped his bounds, mainly because he didn't really recognize that he had bounds. One of Lorna's duties in life now (ahem) is to point those out to him, and make him miserable if he doesn't listen to her.

We had fun doing this trilogy. We talked endless hours about it. We never, ever argued, which is something of a miracle considering how different our voices, work styles, and approaches are. Our friendship not only survived, it flourished. Silhouette gave the trilogy some great covers, came up with a smart marketing strategy, and did some whiz-bang advertising. Ads usually don't make an impression on me, but the fold-out ad they did in Sci-fi magazine was breathtaking.

We lived with them for five years, but now it's almost over. Raintree: Inferno is out. Raintree: Haunted will be out in three weeks, Raintree: Sanctuary will make its appearance in about seven weeks, at the end of June.

Those damn Raintrees. They were a lot of fun. I miss them.

Linda Howard

P.S. Anyone familiar with the playground knows we love contests :-) One commenter today will receive a copy of Raintree: Inferno. Wow us, surprise us, tell us about your favorite Linda Howard book or characters...you never know what might snag our attention and win that prize :-)