Somehow between moving to a new state and living though the horrible Covid lockdowns, (which I call Covid Hell), I’ve managed to start working on my next contemporary romance novel. Interestingly enough, it’s called, The Diversion, and it managed to divert another planned contemporary romance novel, The Rival.
Staying focused during Covid has been a real challenge. I spent the first half of 2020 going back and doing minor revisions on my earlier contemporary romance novels. They say you’re not supposed to do this, but oh well. It helped me through a difficult time, and the changes I made were all minor. I simply removed filler words and rephrased parts of the narratives. I also enjoyed rereading my earlier work. It was like visiting old friends I’d not seen in a long time.
One of my earlier contemporary romance novels, The Betrayal, included a minor character with major potential. Her name is Tonya Claiborne. She’s the younger sister of Annette Claiborne, one of the antagonists. Tonya was a seventeen-year-old high school senior, but she had such a strong personality that she deserved her own book, so now she is getting one. In The Diversion, Tonya is a twenty-one year old aspiring musician whose life is about to take an unexpected turn. So far I’m loving this book. It has an interesting cast of characters, and we’ll learn some interesting things about Tonya’s past that we didn’t know in The Betrayal.
Marina Martindale