Hi ,

Spring is coming! Yay! Okay, so the pollen isn't great, but warmer weather and tulips are life's rewards for making it through winter!

I have two Valentine books in the plotting stages. I'm a pantster (writing by the seat of my pants) by nature, but my other gig is ghost writing romance and I'm required to have a plot for that. 

Plotting is excruciatingly painful for me. My creative brain doesn't work like that. I quickly come up with a romantic, full-of-banter Valentine opening and a dead body, but often don't how the victim died, why they died, or who made them dead. 

For example, in my current Valentine effort, I have a dead guy in a rowboat along a river where Jack and Tess are celebrating their first wedding anniversary. Who is he? How'd he die? Who killed him? Why did they kill him? I have over a 1,000 words opening this story but don't know any of the above. It's hard to write a mystery without knowing details about the murder.

Here's a fun factoid, when I wrote With This Ring, I Thee Kill (book 3) and 'Til Death Do Us Part (book 4), I was about 75% through the books when I realized I didn't have any suspects except the murderer. 🤦‍♀️ 

Now I plot the murder details in advance using a murder wheel. I have the victim in the middle and spokes out to at least 3 suspects with motive, means, and opportunity. But even that can be a challenge for me. 

So I've been seeing all this hub-bub about ChatGPT and wondered if it could help me brainstorm a murder plot. Who is the dead guy in the boat? 

I'll admit, I had some interesting suggestions. Strangely, all suggest my dead guy is in finance and he's cheating on his wife. I suppose money and jealousy are top reasons for killing someone. 

One thing the AI did was try to put strain on the Valentine relationship. That's a no-no for me. Yes, there's a problem in Old Flames Never Die (book 2), but they were still figuring things out for themselves and their relationship. They also had a little bump in the last book, Dead But Not Forgotten (book 7), when Jack had amnesia. But...spoiler alert...while Jack and Tess might have relationship growing pains, their love is solid. 

While playing with AI was fun and did get my creative juices flowing, my ideas for the next book are evolving a bit differently. I found AI to be like when you go to a friend for help and they give you all sorts of suggestions, none of which would work, but their suggestions spark ideas that will work. 

BTW...I know there's a bunch of controversy around AI. The idea that someone would let AI do all the writing for them makes no sense. While the AI is crazy cool, it's not a great writer. Granted, I'm no Hemmingway, but I do believe I'm better at providing greater emotion and texture to writing than a robot does. Plus, no one and nothing knows Jack and Tess like I do. 

Upcoming

As you know, I'm a terrible judge of how much time things take me. I have grand goals and plans, but often don't get them done in the time frame I hope for. So, I don't have a deadline yet for my next projects (well...I would like the next Valentine book out in July), but here's what I've got planned. 

💗Valentine novella or book 8 in July

💗Plot and write a Halloween Valentine book 

💗Delecoeur stories moved to a new platform (these are currently free at Wattpad) 

💗Write the Valentine prequel as exclusive content (when Jack and Tess met, the boat trip, etc). 

💗Write other Valentine exclusive bonus content (e.g. between the books shorts)

💗Finish Come to Me, book 4 in the Southern Heat romances

💗Finish Bewitched by Death, the romcom mystery I started for NaNoWriMo

💗Plot a romantic adventure (like a Clive Cussler Fargo adventure only with sexy bits 😉)

I also have these on the back burner...

💗Continue work on a paranormal romance I started a long time ago. 

💗Mystery on an island full of pirate lore (this might be a cozy mystery or it could be a romance with a mystery...I haven't decided). 

Goodness, I better get writing!