I’m taking the plunge this month. Starting on May 15, I began writing a romance with the trope–the well-known types of romance–of Forbidden Lover with an online group headed up by good friend and colleague, Rachelle Ayala. Every day for the next month we’re to write something, and by June 14, supposedly we’ll have the first draft of a true romance.

Rachelle supplies us with the elements of a romance such as plotting suggestions, conflict and tension, and climatic scenes. It’s our choice whether we write erotica, steam, or sanitized “G” copy. Mine will probably be somewhere in the middle.

The title of my book is Behind the Altar, and I already had the cover designed by the folks at Author Marketing Club. I’m a premium member over there so I’m entitled to one free cover per year.

Leah and Dean are the forbidden lovers and right from the first chapters, life conspires to keep them apart. Here’s a few lines from yesterday’s session:

“You’re Dean?” Leah said when she found her voice. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

“I’m no Mark Twain, but it appears the reports of my death were greatly exaggerated,” Dean said.

Leah stood and came toward Jacob who reached for her hand. Leah didn’t want to be that close to him right now, not until she received an explanation of why Jacob and Geraldine had lied to her for the past three years that she’d lived with them.

“Why did you tell me he died, Jacob?” Leah asked. When her fiancé didn’t answer, she turned around to look at Geraldine. “Geraldine?”

“To us, he was dead,” Geraldine said.

“Why?” Leah asked. “Would someone please tell me what’s going on here.”

“What’s it to you, Miss Savior of the World?” Dean asked. “This is a family matter; it doesn’t concern the woman who’s been kicked out of the church hall for doing such a despicable thing as feeding the homeless.”

“You haven’t changed one bit,” Jacob said. “You’re still as nasty and spiteful as you were from the time you could throw your first mud ball. You can talk to me anyway you want, but please show my future wife respect. She’s done nothing to you.”

“Your future wife?” Dean stood looking at Leah but the sparkle in the eyes from a few moments ago seemed very far removed as these eyes flashed anger at Leah. “You’re going to marry this creep?”

Leah hesitated before nodding her head. “That was the plan, but nothing’s going to happen if I don’t get an explanation about what’s going on here.”

“I’ll leave you to your little fairy tale, princess,” Dean said. “Just know that all is not what it seems here in Baptist land. Beware of the serpents.”

Dean turned and walked out the same door he’d entered a few minutes earlier when he’d captivated Leah so thoroughly. No wonder he looked familiar, Leah thought, as she pulled away from Jacob. She ran to the door ignoring Jacob’s plea to stay there.

Time to go and write my pages for the day. I’ll keep you posted on my efforts. It’s good timing because I just finished the first draft of Native Lands, and now it’s in the hands of two Beta readers. Behind the Altar will help me pass the time while I wait for the trusted comments on a book that took far longer than a month to write.