THE SLOW START

I said I wasn't going to let this happen again ... but it did.

With one book, my heroine spent two months eating the same chicken sandwich.

Another time, the heroine spent several weeks giggling in the photocopy machine room across from the hero's office....

It's called bogging down in the early chapters, and it's a disease I'd really like to beat. Every time it happens I say I'm going to bang out the first 2-3 chapters of the next book FAST, without worrying so much about getting it right. It always takes me a while to capture the flavor, but it happens as the book progresses -- not by spending forever on that initial setup.

But doggone it, Yvonne and her hero have been having lunch in that break room since August. Every time I think I'm ready to move on, Yvonne sets down her chili burger, shakes back her hair and says, "Okay. Let me try that again."

The thing is, it's really hard for me to know what they'll say in the next chapter before I know what they've already said in this one....

But Chapter One is finally done. Although I still haven't gotten them out of the darn break room!