The Decade Draws to a Close

A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
Raymond Chandler





Whether distilling, germinating, or just plain hibernating, the midwife idea never left me. Always, it lay in the back of my mind sticking out an ear, a paw, a twitching nose, testing the waters of my brain or publishing or something, then withdrawing to its cave for more subconscious work.

In other words, I wanted it to be special. I wanted the publishing ground to be right. I wanted something I didn't know I wanted.

Remember, I wanted to set the story in England; hwoever, the Christian book market was not open to English-set stories. In the middle of 2008, I was in a career crisis with my writing anyway. Nothing was selling. Discouraged and frustrated, I decided to submit another idea to Avalon Books, an idea I had had around a while about a lady doctor in the 1890s. Some of the research for this story came from my midwife story, and it reared its head, demanding that I let it out and write it.

So I submitted a query for When the Snow Flies, the lady doctor story, and then began to brainstorm ideas for the midwife story with myself and my critique partners. I made a folder for it, exchanged some e-mails with friends about where I was going. . .

And then the editor at Avalon wanted a full mansucript, so I put the midwife idea away again and wrote the full. Then I sold three books to Barbour Publishing for the Heartsong Presents line and had to get to work right away on those.

My midwife continued to sleep.