How 'Gentling the Cowboy' became 'Taken, Not Spurred'

Let’s go back to 2010. Before the billionaire sagas and the sprawling family sagas of Firebrook Valley, there was a girl, a horse trailer, and a very misplaced shower scene.

A lot of people think Maid for the Billionaire was my first book. While it was the first one I ever published, the very first story I ever finished was a little cowboy romance called Gentling the Cowboy.

It was a total fantasy: me trailering my horse down to Texas, pulling into the wrong ranch, and accidentally showering in the wrong house... only to be discovered by the (very handsome) owner. It was a fun story to write, and when I finally wrote "The End," my pride knew no bounds.

But as I quickly learned, there’s a big difference between having a story in your heart and having the skills to put it on the page.

The "Internet Rain Cloud"

I did what any aspiring author does—I shared it. First with friends, and then I gathered up some courage and went online to share it with critique groups.

Oh, the internet in 2010.

It was soul-wrenching. I was slammed. One woman actually told me my writing was so bad it made her "bash her head on the wall until she bled." I suggested she stop reading! That critique was a massive rain cloud on my tiny personal parade. I retreated, tucked my cowboy story away, and figured maybe my stories weren't meant for the world after all.

A Seat at the "Big Girl’s" Table

Thankfully, I have older brothers who love me and didn't want me to quit. One of them told me about a local writing group, promising that people are nicer in person than they are online. I was terrified, but my brother actually offered to come and sit beside me so I wouldn't be alone.

I sat down at a random table, only to realize I had accidentally sat with at least two New York Times Bestselling authors. One of them was the wonderfully warm Annette Blair. I might have thrown up in my mouth a little while waiting for their response.

But Annette showed me something I’ve never forgotten: Successful people don't mock people who are trying. She looked me in the eye and said, "I was prepared to just say something nice about your book because I know this is your first one.but you have such a strong voice. If you're willing to hear it, I'll tell you what you're doing wrong." She spent twenty minutes showing me the biggest things I was doing wrong, and I will always be grateful for the grace she showed me.

The Sci-Fi Detour and a Dare

I wasn't ready to fix the cowboy book yet, so I took a detour. I joined a group of brilliant Sci-Fi authors and started writing about electromagnetism falling in love with humans. I learned so much from them about pacing, dialogue, and point of view.

Then, at a party, a friend asked me: "Is that what you actually like to read?"

I laughed. "No! I love Harlequin romances and billionaires!"

She smiled and asked, "Then why don't you write that?"

The Magic in the Middle

Maid for the Billionaire was born from that dare. It wasn't until after I'd hit the New York Times list with one of my billionaire romances that I found the courage to rewrite my cowboy romance. With the help of a professional editor who suggested I focus a little less on the horse and a little more on the sexy cowboy, Gentling the Cowboy was rewritten. Shortly after its release, it was snapped up by a publisher and rebranded as Taken Not Spurred.

I need to stop here and thank every Texan who read it for not coming for me for my depiction of them. I hadn’t been to that amazing state yet, so my characters were purely how a woman born and bred in New England imagined Texans would be. Thank you for allowing my mistakes to be overshadowed by the fun of the shower scene. The grace you showed me as well as the opportunities that story brought to me . . . well, that was the magic.

Write the book

People often tell me they want to be an author but don't know how. My answer is always the same: Write the book. Your first book might not be your best book. It might be the one that stays in the drawer for a while. But if you never write the first one, you’ll never get to the second, the third, or the fiftieth.

My path to publication was a winding one, but that just makes the journey more beautiful. And someday, maybe, I’ll be brave enough to share the sci-fi I wrote . . .