Diana Holquist | What Makes You Mad?

Some writers start their books with a character they love. Others start with plot. Then there are the folks who look to the market to see what’s hot: a vampire lesbian spy thriller shape-shifter historical—count me in!

And then there’s me.

Me, I get mad.

Here’s something that made me mad: reading a twenty-something’s blog about her search for the “perfect” husband. He had to be tall, rich, successful, etc. I wanted to smack that woman. I wanted a mysterious Gypsy psychic to swoop in and rock her world by telling her that her one soul mate on this earth was a penniless single father, down on his luck.

Hey, wait…that would make a good book. (My first book, Make Me a Match.)

But I was still mad. Which was good, because I had another book due.

This time, I was mad about reading my 7,436th kick-ass heroine romance novel. Enough already with the spy/killer/half-beast/vamp woman who does it all in heels. Not that I don’t love those books; but I needed a change. I wanted to read about a heroine like me, an overweight mother of two…

...um. Okay, so I didn’t want to read that. But what about a shy heroine who kicks ass in her own quiet, low-heeled way? So I wrote my next book, Sexiest Man Alive; the shyest woman alive finds out her soul mate is People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive.

What makes you mad? Hey, you never know, maybe some author here will read your idea here and write it. Maybe it’ll even be me, since I’ve got another book due soon...

Diana Holquist

http://www.dianaholquist.com/