I was being really lazy the other day (which is really no different than any day, except Sam days because the boy does not allow for any laziness) and was going to copy HelenKay’s second Top Ten list, but when I got to thinking about what you’d find in my books released in 2008, I realized with no small bit of amazement that all three stories originally started out as something else, and morphed from project to project before seeing print.
My novella UNBROKEN in TEX APPEAL is the story of psychologist Tess Autrey. Tess is one of four girlfriends (a group I created before my gIRL-gEAR series was even a glimmer in my eye) who were originally going to find men as part of Harlequin Temptation’s TEXAS MEN MAGAZINE mini-series, but alas, best laid plans don’t count on rejection letters . . . The women ended up moving from idea to idea until I finally put one of them, Claire Braden, into another contracted novella in 2005, one in which 
I was using a man who’d been a secondary character in a previous book as the hero. Claire, the heroine in LUV U MADLY - my Blaze novella in the anthology RED LETTER NIGHTS - makes a phone call to Tess during that story, and mentions (as Tess does in her story) her three girlfriends by name, the other two being Alexandra Pope and Windy Sullivan.
The hero of Alexandra’s unwritten story is Marcus West, who I later used as a friend of Doug Storey in WICKED GAMES. Alexandra was the first of the women for whom I wrote a proposal, aiming it, as mentioned, for the TEXAS MEN MAGAZINE mini-series. The date on my letter to my Temptation editor is April 5, 1999. I sent that idea along with the story that eventually became LUV U MADLY (same set-up, shorter execution), still starring Claire, but with a different hero than she ended up with in the Blaze. (At the same time, I submitted LADY IN RED, the story of Caleb McGregor and Miranda Cain, but more on that later as their story will be my November ‘08 Blaze release.) Alexandra was the first of the four women for whom I wrote a proposal. I started another for Windy, but didn’t hit the Temptation tone; the story had too many kids, but then she *was* a pre-school teacher! Alex, on the other hand, was a roller skating waitress in an internet coffee shop called CuppaCafe. (Yes, that’s when I registered the domain, and later the husband took it over.)
Though this may make it sound like my characters are easily interchangeable, such is not the case. Each time I move someone from one story to another, I keep who they are intact. Tess is still Tess, Claire is still Claire. They saw print in 2005 and 2008, but they are the same women I originally came up with in 1999 - only their situations changed.
Tess still has mother issues. Claire was still an ice queen. Windy I don’t know if I’ll ever write (though I did love her hero, Sam). Or Alexandra. But I thought you might like to see how things started out. Here is the first chapter of Alexandra’s story, then here is the first chapter of what was going to be Tess’s story - and is pretty much what turned into UNBROKEN, again, same set-up, way shorter execution than the original.
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Very cool, Alison! I love learning stuff like this–and will have to go read Tess and Claire’s stories!
by Fedora January 22nd, 2008 at 11:43 amVery interesting.
by Estella January 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pmAlison, When I find out that the book comes from a character in another book, I so want to read that book too to see where the character was introduced, even though you do give us the backgrounds so good in your books. Its just that I don’t want to miss anything of yours, LOL. I know I’m often one to ask for other characters in the books, their stories! Thanks for filling in on how this all coming about for your upcoming books.
by Cathie January 31st, 2008 at 1:09 pm