An uneasy fluttering sensation filled her belly. Dear God, what should she do? Think damn it.
Annie lifted her head and nodded politely and said a cheerful, “Good afternoon.”
Without saying a word, he reached up to touch the brim of his hat. His fingers were long and tanned, his face as lean and spare as the rest of him, his jaw stubbled by a dark beard, his mouth bracketed by deep lines. He had black hair that curled below his collar.
And clear, green-gold eyes that fastened on her with an intensity that made her legs feel weak.
Cowboy, she thought desperately as they passed almost shoulder to shoulder. Maybe he was a cowboy. He was dressed like one, had the rough, hard look of a man who’d spent his life on the range. And cowboys were reputed to be men of long stares and few words.
But what would a cowhand be doing so far from the cattle trails?
It seemed to take her forever to reach Dr. Holt’s house on the corner. Her hand trembled as she knocked on the front door, barely aware of the sound over the rising buzz that filled her head. There was no reply. A tingling feeling began between her shoulder blades.
Like she was about to be shot in the back.
Unable to stop herself, she nervously glanced behind her. The dark stranger stood in front of the general store.
Watching her.
She forced a smile.
He didn’t return it.
Annie knocked on Dr. Holt’s door again, her heart hammering now. Open the door. Open it. Please, Dr. Holt, open the door!
~ ~ ~
Buy this book now on Amazon: After Sundown
Bonus Content: The Making of Midnight Raider
The Story Behind the Story
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SPOILER ALERT
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Dear Reader,
I always love those “Behind the Scenes” bonus features on DVDs. I enjoy learning what inspired the stories, characters, and settings of my favorite movies. I love getting a peek at how the costumes were made, how the sets were built, and what changes were made in the editing room. When I first set out on this digital publishing adventure, I knew I wanted to include a “Behind the Scenes” bonus feature in each of my ebooks.
But I realize that some people dislike “Behind the Scenes” features. For them, hearing the nuts-and-bolts of the creative process ruins their enjoyment of the story. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s enjoyment of my books, so if you’re someone who typically skips “Making of” features on DVDs, it’s probably best to skip this section.
Also, if you haven’t finished the whole book yet, you’ll want to finish before returning to this page. I’m about to give you an inside peek at the creative decisions that went into writing this story—so plot twists may be revealed and characters’ secrets spilled.
So… if you’ve skipped ahead to this feature, please click back and finish the book. I totally understand the skipping-ahead impulse, because I’m a chronic skipper-aheader myself. But really, now is the best time to skip back. Before you see any spoilers.
When you’re all done, return to this page. I’ll be waiting right here for you.
Ready? Here we go.
Inspirations
If you’ve read my other books, you know that most of my inspiration comes from movies. I can usually remember not only the specific movie, but the exact scenes that inspired a particular book. Midnight Raider is one of the rare exceptions.
This book was inspired by the famous Alfred Noyes poem, “The Highwayman.” You know the one: it’s all about a handsome outlaw who “came riding, riding, riding” to steal the heart of “Bess, the landlord’s black-haired daughter.” Yep, that’s where my heroine got her name.
I read that poem for the first time in middle school and never forgot the romance, adventure, and passion of that story. Unfortunately, Noyes’ poem ends tragically when both the hero and heroine die.
So of course, I had to fix that.
Another inspiration came from a favorite Kathleen Woodiwiss romance—was it The Flame and the Flower?—in which the hero and heroine are riding in a coach, and things start to get steamy… but then the scene just ends. I was so disappointed! I wanted nooky in the coach and didn’t get it.
So of course, I had to fix that.
And there you have it. No movies this time around. Midnight Raider was inspired entirely by Alfred Noyes + a desire for good coach nooky.
Soundtrack
The love theme I chose for Midnight Raider when I wrote the original manuscript was Richard Marx’s 1987 hit “Hold On to the Night.” The lyrics about the night, two lovers who long to be together but find themselves torn apart, and “love that is real but in disguise” still resonate with me. Even with all the changes I’ve made in the book, I still feel like that song captures Marcus and Elizabeth’s relationship better than any other.
The Title
Midnight Raider is (surprise!) the only title this book has ever had. I endured some epic title battles with my New York publishers over the years, but this wasn’t one of them. In fact, it was actually the first time—and would be one of the last times—my publisher allowed me to keep my original title with no arguments at all. Midnight Raider was the working title on the original manuscript, the only title I submitted to my editor at Avon, and to my astonishment, the title they put on the cover.
For this new edition, I made so many major revisions, I actually thought about changing the title, to distinguish this book from the 1992 paperback. But in the end, I just couldn’t do it. I still love that title. And thanks to the changes, Midnight Raider is now the book I always wanted it to be.
The Cover
When Avon published the first edition in 1992, I was hoping they would show the characters in their highwaymen garb. I thought that was one of the major hooks: He’s secretly a highwayman. And so is she. (Oooh, I think I’m gonna Tweet that.)
But this was the 1990s, so they’re both mostly naked on the Avon cover. She’s wearing his shirt, and they’re outside on the grass, in what looks like a really uncomfortable position. Also, the entire cover is almost pitch black. When I grumbled about that, one of the Avon editors said, “Well, you can’t take a book called Midnight Raider and put a pretty, bright cover on it!”
Oh, really? Wherever she is, I hope that editor gets an eyeful of the 2015 edition of Midnight Raider. This is one of the prettiest bright blue covers I’ve ever seen. (Thank you, Kim Killion!) I know, I know, I say this every time, but I really do think this cover may be my favorite. It captures all the passion and emotion of the story… so much better than that dreary Avon cover.
Challenges
In 1990, not long after starting work on this book, I became an “orphan” for the first time: I lost my first editor, Nancy Yost, when she left Avon to become a literary agent. Nancy had acquired this book along with my debut novel in a two-book contract. But she left the company just weeks after I turned in the proposal for Midnight Raider. It was pretty terrifying, facing the future as an “orphaned” newbie author at one of the biggest romance publishers in New York.
Fortunately, the editor who replaced Nancy would become one of my all-time favorites: Marjorie Braman. She arrived at Avon fresh from editing a mystery line, so she absolutely loved Midnight Raider, with all of its suspense elements. It was the beginning of what would become one of the most rewarding professional relationships of my publishing career.
Joys
Midnight Raider became my very first RWA RITA Award Finalist, which felt like an incredible honor, since it was only my second book.
I have to be honest, though: when I read through it to start preparing this new edition, I found myself thinking, “What were those RITA judges smoking?” How could anyone consider the 1992 edition RITA-worthy? It had some major flaws, which we’ll chat about in a minute.
Looking at it objectively, I think what caught the judges’ attention back then was that this book was Different with a capital D.
In the early 1990s, hist
orical romance heroines were almost always young (often teenagers), virginal, aristocratic, and interested mainly in marriage. Elizabeth in Midnight Raider broke that mold. Instead of a naive, aristocratic innocent, she was a woman of the working class—and she was a widow, with painful experience of the harsher edges of life and marriage. Even more unusual, I gave her a goal that was normally, at that time, reserved for heroes: vengeance.
These days, none of those traits would make any romance reader—or RITA judge—bat an eye. But in the early 90s they were considered daring and groundbreaking. I think that’s what landed this book a spot on the RITA finalists list… despite its (numerous) other flaws.
The RITA nod also cheered me up after this book’s dismal sales performance. The buyers at the national chain bookstores, who basically ran romance publishing back then, were not amused at my risk-taking. The original paperback edition received only a small print run and vanished from stores before it ever really had a chance to find an audience.
Which was probably a good thing.
Changes
Oh, those flaws. Did I mention that the first edition of this book had flaws? Brace yourselves and I’ll try to make this quick. It’s not pretty.
The 1992 edition of Midnight Raider had a “hero,” Pierce Wolverton, who was arrogant, unfeeling, emotionally deceitful, and physically abusive. He was an “alphahole” with no sense of humor. He specialized in brooding looks and punishing kisses—and in one scene, he almost raped the heroine.
The book was also extremely violent, so graphically bloody that you would have thought Stephen King was my co-author.
Oh, and it had almost no dialogue. Back when I wrote the original manuscript in 1990, I had zero confidence in my ability to write dialogue… so I just didn’t write much dialogue. Most of the book consisted of long, narrative “sitting and thinking” scenes, wherein the characters mulled over their situation and tried to decide what to do next.
Which made it an incredibly long book. The first edition weighed in at 125,000 words. Most of it narrative.
So, um, yeah. Flaws.
Back in the 90s, all of this was pretty standard stuff in historical romances. But when I read it in 2013, I knew there was no way I could unleash that book on the romance readers of the 21st century. I have plenty of friends who just OCR-scanned their backlist paperbacks and published their ebook editions the next day. But that’s not me. I’m a perfectionist. I realize it’s somewhat controversial for authors to make major changes to previously published books… but I couldn’t allow myself to offer anything less than my best work to readers.
I’m not in this to make a quick buck. I’m trying to establish what I hope will be a lasting career. If I want to win fans, I need to offer them books worthy of their time, money, and emotional investment.
And the thing is, I could see all the mistakes now. I was oblivious to them in 1992, but I think a couple of decades of writing experience have made me a better writer. They’ve at least made me a more confident writer. I even know how to write dialogue now.
So in the fall of 2013, I set out to make Midnight Raider reader-worthy. I thought it would take me three or four months.
Instead, I didn’t finish until February 2015.
The experience was like spinning 1,000 plates in the air, and trying to remove 400 of those plates, while not letting the other 600 fall… and simultaneously adding 300 new plates.
I wanted to keep the aspects of Midnight Raider that I liked—the adventure, the heroine, the plot—and give it everything that it was missing. Like emotion, humor, and dialogue. I also gave the book a brand-new hero.
Yes, I performed what may have been the world’s first “alphahole-ectomy.” Pierce Wolverton received a personality transplant and an infusion of decency. I deleted the entire “almost-rape” scene and the aftermath, cutting two full chapters. I changed him so much, I couldn’t even bring myself to call him by the same name anymore. So I dubbed Elizabeth’s new hero Marcus Worthington.
I also chopped out most of those “sitting and thinking” scenes. Of the original 125,000 words, I ended up cutting almost 40,000 words. I simultaneously added about 15,000 words of all-new material, most of it dialogue. This new edition of Midnight Raider is a much leaner, faster-paced book at about 100,000 words.
I did keep some things the same, though. The secondary characters—Nell, Georgiana, Quinn, Montaigne—are largely unchanged from the 1992 edition. And though I’m still a bit worried that the trial feels too long, I ended up keeping those scenes intact. It’s kind of my John Grisham moment, and required a metric ton of research, so I couldn’t bring myself to cut it.
As I told a friend while going through this incredibly difficult revision process, it would have been easier to just write a whole new book from scratch. At one point, I almost gave up. I seriously considered just sticking the book in a folder and letting it remain there, forgotten, forever.
You’ll never guess what kept me going.
The cover. Kim, my designer, had already completed the gorgeous cover, and it was too beautiful to abandon. I had to keep going. So I kept working until I felt I had a book worthy of that cover… and worthy of my readers.
It was one of the greatest challenges I’ve ever faced as a novelist. And not an especially smart business decision, because I ended up not publishing any new books at all in 2014.
But it was one of the most satisfying creative decisions I’ve ever made. In the end, I’m glad I did it. This new edition is the book I always wanted Midnight Raider to be.
Future Sequels
Midnight Raider was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel, but this revised edition has a new secondary character who’s kind of caught my fancy—even though she never actually appears in the book: Elizabeth’s younger sister, Emma. I think it might be fun to see what happens when she arrives in Boston. And I think her husband might just try to win her back. I love writing about this time period, and I’d love to expand my Escape with a Scoundrel series.
Follow Me
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip behind the scenes of Midnight Raider. Be sure to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at http://www.shellythacker.com/contact to get the latest behind-the-scenes news and sneak previews. Each monthly issue also features 99c bargain romance novels, plus free-book giveaways from some of my bestselling author friends. And there are contests and fab goodies and cocktails! Okay, not cocktails, but seriously, you want to subscribe. And follow me on all your favorite social-networking sites:
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Thanks so much for your support of my books.
Until next time, best wishes & happy reading,
Shelly
About the Author
Reviewers use words like “exquisite” and “stunning” to describe Shelly Thacker’s unique blend of powerful emotion, edge-of-your-seat adventure, and sizzling sensuality. A USA Today bestselling author, Shelly has earned lavish praise from Publishers Weekly, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Oakland Press, who have called her romance novels “innovative,” “addictive,” “erotic” and “powerful.”
Twice honored as an RWA RITA Award finalist, Shelly has received numerous other accolades for her work, including a National Readers’ Choice Award, several Romantic Times Certificates of Excellence, and five straight KISS Awards for her outstanding heroes. The Detroit Free Press has twice placed her books on their annual list of the year’s best romances.
When she’s not at the computer, you’ll find Shelly reading with her kids, knitting in local cafes, or kickboxing at the gym. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and two daughters.
For more information about Shelly’s books, including excerpts and sneak previews, visit www.shellythacker.com
&nbs
p; Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Also by Shelly Thacker
Copyright
Excerpt: Run Wild
Excerpt: Forever His
Excerpt: After Sundown
Bonus Content: The Making of Midnight Raider
About the Author
Midnight Raider Page 36