by Tim Myers
And finally, she said, “I just love the idea of a lighthouse in the mountains.”
I nearly wept at the news. She got it.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. After a great deal of work, and several versions of the original story, I had a three book deal. Many things changed, from start to finish, but the lighthouse remained.
I learned a great deal about crafting a novel from her, and I was an eager pupil.
SPOILER ALERT
IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THIS BOOK YET, SKIP THIS PART.
In the original end of book 1, Innkeeping with Murder (which I called MURDER AT HATTERAS WEST), Alex and Elise got married. That had to change. My editor wanted more of a Moonlighting feel where it was always a question if they’d ever get together, and I wanted them to be a couple from the beginning. She made some good points, and to be honest, I would have changed nearly anything to get that deal.
Anything but the lighthouse.
But I always knew that Alex and Elise would end up together, in love, and happy.
Then, without much warning, after five books, the series ended. The only problem was that I wasn’t ready to end it. I’d sketched out ideas for books 6 and 7, and I even alluded to some of the events in them, like the proposed lighthouse swap with Harry and Barbara on the Outer Banks. Alex and Elise were going to go to the ocean together, and in the process, they were going to find out just how much they meant to each other. In the seventh book, they were going to be married, and the circle would be complete.
At least that’s how it worked in my mind.
END OF SPOILER. FEEL FREE TO KEEP READING!
With the lighthouse inn series over, I started writing the candle books under my name, and the card shop books as Elizabeth Bright, and one deal led to another, and the lighthouse inn books faded to the back of my mind, but never left it completely. Over the years, I had hundreds of letters and emails wanting to know what happened to Alex and Elise, but I had no outlet for their stories, and not enough time to write them.
Life, and my career writing under names other than my own, took over.
And then Kindle came into my life.
I had the foresight to have the rights reverted to my out-of-print books years before, and I finally took the time to make them available again on Kindle, Nook, Apple, Smashwords, and other venues. It was a joy to reprint my tales about lighthouses, candles, soap, and cards.
And I started thinking about Alex and Elise again.
That led to me dragging out my notes, playing with the ideas, and then writing the book you’ve just read in my spare time. KEY TO MURDER is technically a novella, weighing in at around 33,000 words, but it’s an important link in the series, and it presents the motivation that moves Alex to finally say what’s been on his mind forever. I knew readers grew frustrated with Alex at times for failing to go after the woman he loved, and believe me, I shared their frustrations.
KEY has given me the chance to visit Alex and Elise a year after the last book ended. They’ve had a year together, dating and working at Hatteras West, and they have fallen in love with each other, something each of them always suspected would happen someday.
I hope to someday write book 7 in the series, one that will include a very special wedding. I’ve already got a name for it, RING FOR MURDER, and a cover prepared. If time and health allows, I hope to write it someday as well. But I’ve also been playing with sequels to the candle books with Harrison Black, the Cardmaking books with Jennifer Shane, and the Soapmaking books with Ben Perkins and his clan. With my full schedule of traditionally published novels, I don’t have a timeline in mind, but know that my past characters are never far from my mind.
I hope you’ve enjoyed your time with Alex and Elise.
I know that I have.