Jennifer Lane

Romantic Suspense author JENNIFER LANE is proud to have Omnific Publishing offering her debut novel, With Good Behavior. In honor of the release of With Good Behavior on July 13, 2010, Jennifer has agreed share a little bit about her writing process and the publication of her first book.

Since I have a full-time job, I do most of my writing on the weekends. It typically takes me the majority of one day to write one chapter, and I attempt to write one chapter per week, unless I'm traveling. The forty-one chapters of With Good Behavior took me about nine months to write, with another month or two spent editing and writing the synopsis.

I'd written a novel about my beloved sport of swimming, and some of my online friends commented that I should try to publish it. After realizing the swimming story was way too long and unpolished, I decided to start writing a more marketable story that would interest a variety of readers and combine my favorite genres-romance and suspense. Still, when I finished it, publishing the novel felt more like a dream than a reality. I halfheartedly sent queries to a few agents, but when I found out about Omnific, a publisher that was a perfect fit for my novel, I had an inkling the dream could indeed become real! A lot of help and encouragement from my friends and family made it all possible.

I did outline the plot before I started writing, and a fellow author offered some suggestions to tweak the story. I wanted to take a risk with one of my storylines, but I almost backed out on following through. I'm glad I decided to keep it because some readers have told me they were shocked by that development. I do like to keep my readers on their toes!

The romantic leads are two law-abiding citizens who unwittingly got mixed up with a Mafia capo, Logan Barberi, which led them both to prison sentences. The story begins as Sophie and Grant are starting parole and attempting to rebuild their lives and their dignity. Sophie Taylor is a former psychologist who's an intelligent, spunky, strawberry-blond beauty. She has a tendency to open her heart to wounded people, including the "bad-boy" boyfriends littering her past. Grant Madsen is a former Navy lieutenant who's hard-working and kind, with dark Italian features and stunning crystal-blue eyes. He has a penchant for brooding and self-sacrifice. Their paths collide outside their parole officer's door, and both have no idea about the explosive hidden connection waiting for them like a ticking bomb down the road.

Chicago is my favorite city, especially in the summer, and I visit my sisters and their families there frequently. I love that such a vibrant, big city retains the friendliness of the Midwest. Lake Michigan is spectacular, and the Chicago River plays an integral role in my story too. My "research" for the novel has included eating at delicious Chicago restaurants, shopping the Magnificent Mile, and taking an architectural cruise. (It was rough, but somebody had to do it).The old-time crime element of the city also plays a part in this Mafia tale.

I've finished the sequel, currently titled Bad Behavior, and Omnific will publish it in 2011. Though I haven't started writing a third story in the series, I do have some ideas percolating that involve Grant's nephew and father.

My career as a psychologist was definitely an inspiration for the story. Unlike Sophie, I've never slept with a client (and never will!) but I am a goody two-shoes like her, so it was frightening to explore a "what-if" storyline of being betrayed by a person you trusted too easily and landing in prison as a result. How would you bounce back from that devastation? I'm fascinated by the resiliency of the human spirit, which I witness daily in my job. To say Grant's Mafia family is dysfunctional is an understatement, and he has overcome so much to become the good man that he is. I also joke that this story is a combination of The Sopranos, Sherrybaby, and Prison Break-I was inspired by all three.

Rather than specifying a particular genre, I love emotionally evocative books that make me both laugh and cry, and learning about different cultures is always a bonus. Recently I enjoyed The Help by Kathryn Stockett, especially the relationship between Aibileen and Mae Mobley (which made me bawl!). I also loved A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, and a collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.

All I know is what has worked for me: writing what I'm passionate about, and turning the solitary process of writing into a social venture by sharing ideas and critiques with friends all over the world. It was very motivating for me to write one chapter at a time and then post it to an online community to discuss provocative plot aspects and future directions. My circuitous path to publishing also shows that you don't need to be a creative writing major to get there, but being a voracious reader who loves to edit her work sure can help.