Book Club Rewind - Robyn Carr

Well once again, I forgot to bring my notepad and pen with me to the book club dinner table. I did have it with me....just not at the table when we first started chatting with Robyn Carr (this month's Plano book club author). Luckily one of the other ladies was able to run to the other room to get it for me. Thank goodness especially since I am getting to this so late. My evil day job is keeping me from everything lately. My apologies.

As I said, Robyn Carr was the Plano book club's author for our August get together. Anyone who has read her Virgin River series will be pleased to know she did spill the beans about characters in upcoming Virgin River books. The series could go on and on with the current area residents and Jack's five unmarried marine buddies.

Book 4, likely to be released in late 2008/early 2009, will center around Paul & Vanessa. Book 5 will center around a retired Army blackhawk helicopter pilot who owns several cabins in the area and a young caregiver named Shelby who was briefly mentioned one of the existing Virgin River books. Book 6 is Ricky's book and the mysterious pot grower will also have a storyline in this book. Books 4, 5 and 6 are already written and will likely be released close together similar to how books 1 - 3 were released. She also has a 7th Virgin River book in outline, but no word on if the publisher has bought a 7th book.


Robyn says she tries to balance both the romance and women's issues instead of having an either or situation. She likes watching women get through their daily lives with the natural drama and humor that occurs. When she was writing Virgin River, she to demonstrate that Mel would not recognize herself at the end of the book because of Mel's experiences in the book from start to finish.

Robyn thinks adjustment subjects are not covered as much because there is no big drama like that associated with say a character having an affair. In Robyn's Grace Valley series, the series was complete and she did not want to just create a melodrama in it for it to continue.

Who does Robyn Carr like to read when she is not writing:
- JR Ward. She read the whole series twice.
- Susan Elizabeth Phillips
- Jennifer Crusie

Some of Robyn's notable quotes from the evening with our book club:
- "...somebody got me hooked on these damn vampires."
- "They have their spouses to dump their own emotional crisises on."

Robyn Carr | Plano Book Club August 2007 Guest

Meeting with reader groups and bookclubs has been my favorite thing for a long time, and when I had more time I belonged to two bookclubs of my own. From the author's perspective, at least this author's perspective, these are readers who are so focused on the story and characters, I learn more from them than they learn from me.

It's always great fun to hear what readers like about your work, that goes without saying, but the value to me as I continue to write is learning from them where the story didn't jive for them, where they wanted more and they are never shy about telling you what they want to see next. A favorite bookclub selection of mine has been The House On Olive Street – and one reader group took issue with the beginning, which several agreed was hard to get into. My immediate response was, "Oh yeah? Well you should've tried writing it!"

There have been some fun surprises. I was asked to join a church bookclub as they discussed my book, Runaway Mistress. Runaway Mistress for the church ladies? Oh man, I thought, they’re going to chew me up and spit me out. While certainly a far cry from an erotic novel, that particular book wasn’t exactly chaste. And then I faced twenty five women, the youngest of whom was perhaps forty, and thought, I'm toast. But they were all about plot and characterization, focusing on those scenes that added emotion and drama, what made them laugh, where they cried. There was a pet's death in that story and one woman who’d lost her beloved pet rather recently wept as she talked about how that made her feel. The love scenes never even came up. Unable to let sleeping dogs lie, I had to ask how they felt about those scenes. Was it too much? Where there too many? Too graphic? Did it ever seem gratuitous? They looked amongst themselves, shrugging, head shaking, like they hadn't thought about it much. Then one woman in her late sixties or early seventies said, "My dear, where do you think we get little Christians."

Since the release of the first Virgin River novel to the present, after all three have been available, I've had hundreds of letters. These readers don't hesitate to tell me exactly what they want. They're very clear about who their favorite characters are and who they’d like to see have a Virgin River novel focused on. I'm not just another pretty face, man – I listened. I have changed direction a couple of times to give my readers exactly what they want.

It's my pleasure to announce that the publisher wants at least three more Virgin River novels, a task I'm more than up to. I got a piece of news just a couple of days ago that has me walking on air – Virgin River will be listed as one of the ten best romances of the year by the American Library Association's Booklist Magazine. It doesn't get any better than that.

Robyn Carr
Whispering Rock, June 2007
Shelter Mountain, May 2007
Virgin River, April 2007
http://www.robyncarr.com/

Guest blogger - Robyn Carr

The invitation to blog here today came at a perfect time – the third installment in the Virgin River series – Whispering Rock – will be released in a few days. And I’ve just experienced the most amazing couple of months.

When I started Virgin River, beginning like I always do – on page one, flying by the seat of my pants – I was writing one story, one romance. I became acquainted with Mel Monroe, a nurse midwife in search of peace and meaning in her troubled life. Enter Jack Sheridan, a retired marine who built a small country bar and grill in a town of six hundred because it was the perfect place for him to hunt and fish and wind down from a life far too adventurous. I was getting acquainted with a couple of remarkable people. By the time I was a hundred pages in, I knew there was more than one book in this town. When I met the marines who still hung tight after serving in combat together, frequently gathering in the pristine beauty of the redwoods to hunt, fish, play poker and rally around their leader, Jack, I knew they would be the spinal column for a series. When I met the women, I met the heart.

I wrote like a fiend, like a driven lunatic, the pages stacking up faster than I could count them. Then it got interesting. I had a few people in my life I could pass research questions through, but I had to get serious about this project. I went to Humboldt County, California, the actual setting for the series, and found it to be much more rural and rugged in the mountains than I’d imagined, not to mention more beautiful than I thought myself capable of describing. I went in search of and found law enforcement professionals, hunters, fishermen, business owners, locals. I visited towns, large and small, and went in search of towns that made the map, but were so buried in the mountains, I couldn’t find them! I engaged the expertise of a nurse practitioner and a midwife who had experienced both big city medicine and rural medicine, two incredible professionals dedicated to serving their women. I spent time with marines and heard their stories.

And revised, revised, revised. I passed the manuscripts for the first three books through so many hands and took note of so many professional opinions, I had to create a notebook to follow the books! At final draft, I had a series filled with passion and adventure, with heart and humor, anchored by Mel and Jack – the nurse midwife and the marine-owner of the local watering hole, two people whose driving purpose is to serve the town and their friends.

I thought the payoff was going to come with the release of the books – three in three months – Virgin River, Shelter Mountain, Whispering Rock. But I was wrong – the payoff came in the form of emails – dozens and dozens of them, more than I’ve ever received in my career. Not only did people write me that they loved the series and couldn’t wait for the next book – they wasted no time in telling me who they wanted to read more about. I had countless requests to deliver Jack Sheridan to the homes swooning women! (Get in line, ladies!) I was given running commentary as to when readers laughed out loud, when they cried.

The most illuminating communication came from the families of military men and women. Now, Jack and his boys are not active duty marines, and the stories are not about military conflict. But these men are shaped by their life experiences and there was something about their commitment, their strength of character and loyalty, that brought the wives, mothers, grandmothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters to me through notes and letters. I answer every email personally and will until I am completely overwhelmed (please God!) and I wrote back to every one of them. I offered far too many condolences. It is not an easy life for the supporters of our military; it’s harrowing and emotional, and they hold up like finely tempered steel – with astonishing courage and incredible love. They aren’t just patriots – they take it to the next level, it’s personal, it’s part of their existence. And I was reminded that it’s not temporary – it’s a way of life. These emails, these people, validated Jack, Preacher and the guys.

So here it is – my experience in creating this series was quadrupled by my experience in hearing how it’s been received. I am humbled. I am honored. And I’m darn lucky and awful proud. Who knew? We work, we write, we plunder along trying to make that connection. When you get the message through readers that you’ve touched them in a personal and vital place, it’s simply amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone of you who has written to me. I welcome your thoughts, and I listen.

Robyn Carr
Whispering Rock, June 2007
Shelter Mountain, May 2007
Virgin River, April 2007
http://www.robyncarr.com/