First Round of Edits for Someone to Keep Me: DONE!

Someone to Keep Me, the collaboration between Kc Wells, author of the Collars and Cuffs series, has just completed the first round of edits.

God, what a journey this has been. When Kc first asked me about writing with her, I turned her down flat. Her being from England and me being from the US, I honestly thought we could not make it work. But when I read An Unlocked Heart and helped her to plan Trusting Thomas, I had an idea for a story that we could try. I approached Kc with it and she said hell yes. (But in a nicer way because she’s British and you know how sweet and proper they are.)

Scott Keating is an embarrassment to his family. He’s small, non-athletic, doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. He’s kept hidden away, home schooled, and lonely. His parents give him a Nook, filled with information about the career that’s been chosen for him, but Scott finds out that it’s also a window to the outside world when he connects to the Internet via the browser. What he finds is unlike anything he’s ever known. Who he meets is the catalyst for the start of his journey.

Jeff is smooth as glass. He says all the right things, worming his way into Scott’s heart. When Jeff utters those three little words, Scott is over the moon. When Jeff offers to fly Scott to England to live with him, Scott doesn’t even hesitate.

When he arrives, Jeff isn’t there. Scott is afraid. He’s in a strange country (I mean it’s England after all), has no money, nothing but the clothes on his back. What can he do but sit and cry.

Enter Ben Winters, who has just seen his sister off at the airport. He finds Scott and immediately offers assistance. Ben takes Scott to Collars and Cuffs, the place he tends bar, to meet with the owners Thomas Williams and Leo Hart. Thus begins Scott & Ben’s tale.

It was a thrill writing with Kc. Even though our styles were different (she’s more of a planner, I prefer seeing where the story takes me), we melded our styles, each being able to write the characters with little difficulty. The only thing we had to do was read what the other wrote to make sure differences in language were accounted for. From that the story evolved.

Kc and I would like to thank Max Vos and Becky Condit for reading the story for us and helping us move it along. We’d also like to thank those who beta read the story for their valuable input and their time.

Look for Someone to Keep Me coming in January from Dreamspinner Press.