The Next Big Thing for EM Lynley

 

The Next Big Thing for EM Lynley

Welcome to the Next Big Thing blog hop. First a big thank you to Belinda McBride for inviting me to participate. This is different approach to blog hops, and I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do. Belinda McBride tagged me, Amy Lane, ZA Maxfield, and Christopher Koehler . Go check to see what their next big things are!

My Next Big Thing is CRUSH.

 

What is the title of your book? CRUSH. At least that’s the working title. It might change. Crush is what the wine harvest is called, because winemakers crush the grapes immediately after picking them. It’s the most intense time of the year in the wine business and a wrong decision or error can ruin a whole year’s worth of work in the vineyards. Pressure and excitement are at a peak.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I worked in the wine industry in Northern California for nearly seven years and I always wanted to write a book about a winemaker and show what it’s like working in the wine business. And since I love writing books about people whose jobs put them at odds, I chose a family winemaker and a business guy whose company wants to take over the winery, forcing them to made a choice between their jobs and their feelings for each other.

What genre does your book fall under?

M/M Contemporary

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?

That’s easy, Matt Bomer. He can play any character in any of my stories. He could be Simon Ford pretty easily. For Austin Kelvin, a younger Ewan McGregor would be great, kind of like the way he looked in Moulin Rouge, younger and more innocent, but serious.

 

What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Can a young man give up what he thinks is his dream job to help save a man who stands to lose everything he loves, even when they come from opposite backgrounds? There’s so much more to it than that, but it’s at the heart of the decisions these men face.

Will your book be self published or represented by an agency?

It’s Book 3 in the Delectable series published by Dreamspinner Press, so I expect that’s where it will be available. Book 1 is Brand New Flavor, which came out November 21 and Book 2 Lighting the Way Home, co-written with Shira Anthony, will be out in March 2013.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I decided to write this as my NaNoWriMo project for 2012, so all 69,300 words were written in 30 days. I don’t think I’d try this again. Originally, I wasn’t sure if it would be a novel or novella, so one month didn’t seem such a short timeline. But as I got deeper into the characters and their stories, it became a novel.

This wasn’t quite as much of a daredevil move as it might seem. I’ve been thinking about this storyline for about two years, and spent about a month working on character development and plotlines pretty intensively before I put a word of story on paper (or pixel). As I wrote, I deepened character and backstory and layered in some additional subplots. A lot more of that work happens during a second draft for me anyway, usually adding 10-20 % more word count as I flesh out ideas I only skimmed over in a first draft.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Nothing springs directly to mind, though if you like Andrew Grey’s food-related series, you’ll probably enjoy this one.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

In the Napa and Sonoma areas we’ve seen a big change in the wine industry as more money has come into the region. Big business has taken over what used to be family wineries. Silicon Valley money has pushed the prices of real estate and everything else through the roof and tourism has changed both the landscape and the lifestyle for natives. I wanted to write a book dealing with those influences and how two men, one a Napa native of modest background and the other the son of a rich man who buys up a winery with a self-made fortune would interact and whether they could find common ground upon which to build a relationship, when they seem to have such opposite viewpoints, goals and interests.

What else about your book might interest the reader?

It’s got lots of insider information about winemaking, the wine industry and local color and flavor. If you love wine, or just want to know what it’s like to live in the area, you’ll enjoy reading it for those details, as much as for the love story.

Stop back later for an excerpt. Since it hasn’t yet been edited, I need to do some work before it’s ready to share.

One Response to “The Next Big Thing for EM Lynley”

1. Rush says:

   December 17, 2012 at 6:10 PM

   You Crush sounds like a very interesting story considering that there aren’t many books out there covering the wine industry and that’s one subject I really enjoy reading about. Imagining Matt Bomer as one of your characters will always be a win win in MY book! 🙂 Thanks for the sneak peek!

   ~Rush~

   Reply