I remember thinking I was finished with the Celebrities Series, as it came to be called after I wrote ALL THE LOVE SONGS and its prequel, NO AFTER YOU. I’ve talked and written about those books a lot, and they continue to be reader favorites, but most people don’t know where MIDNIGHT TRADITION came from.
I had been writing a lot, and I was burning out a little at that time. I couldn’t even tell you what I was writing, but life was busy, work was stressful, and I needed a break. Writing is usually where I go to take breaks, so I needed to write something different to mix things up a bit. I got this idea to write a love story that happens at a party. It’s insta-love, yes, but I had these images of someone just seeing another person at a party and wondering who they were. I remembered how Oz on Buffy the Vampire Slayer kept seeing Willow around, and he would ask, “Who is that girl?” I had that in my mind at first. Then, it was about how to get them together at the party but also keep them apart because at parties, two people very rarely are able to just sit and talk for hours without being interrupted or having one thing after another get in their way. I’m an introvert who generally stands against a wall or finds a place to sit and tries not to move, and I still get pulled or people interrupt a conversation I’m having. So, it started there.
I still didn’t have characters or anything else; just this weird idea to challenge myself to make it believable that these two could meet and end up together. A New Year’s Eve party seemed like a good idea because people would kiss at midnight, and that would make a nice anchor for the two of them. At some point, it dawned on me that one of my characters, Peyton Gloss, was known for throwing good parties and events, and that was pretty much it. I knew it would be Peyton’s party from then on, and I remembered Maddox from ALL THE LOVE SONGS.
Of course, in that book, Maddox wasn’t single - she had a girlfriend. And if I was going to tell this story, I’d have to break them up. So, Jessica’s background was born from that decision. Then, I came up with Avery’s backstory from there and started writing.
The challenging part with writing a book like this was trying to make it all believable. So, if they got pulled apart at the party, why? Who was it? If they’re falling in love, what conflict would happen? There still has to be conflict. How do I then resolve it? It can’t be so big that it can’t be reasonably resolved in twenty-four hours, but it needs to be enough to make them think about things.
Because of that need, we meet Val, who has a little thing for Avery and makes Maddox jealous. We also have Jessica showing up at that party, causing a little problem before she leaves. Then, we have our midnight kiss, and, well… after that… you know. They all lived happily ever after.
Midnight Tradition
Celebrities Series Book #3
Genre: Contemporary Sapphic Romance
Release Date: December 10th, 2020
Formats: Kindle, Audible, Paperback
Length: 58,220 words
Listening Length: 5 hours and 57 minutes
