"I got my start in romance."
It's funny to have that fixture in my life. I'd written other novels first, but the initial titles that launched my full-time career were romance. Specifically military romantic suspense, following the lives and loves of the Night Stalkers. No matter where my writing career leads me, I will always that marker: "I got my start in romance."Of course, such truths aren't random. This one came true because I loved romance enough to write: eight major series (or eleven, depending on how I count them), several minor ones, and a fair clutch of short stories.
For the Love of Romance
What makes a budding science fiction writer do something like that?
Passion! It's the only thing that could.
I love the way that people come together. How they find and change each other. How we can become our best selves with the help and aid of another. I soooooo (I mean really, really, really) a better person for having met my wife twenty-three years ago. And that's not even counting how her kid utterly shifted my reality for the better as well. Much of my writing romance has been trying to understand that incredible transformation in myself.
All In
I'm an introvert and a tentative traveler at best. Yet, I have done things that I'd never dreamed of (or only barely) as a kid. I've solo sailed a fifty-foot boat. I've flown and jumped out of airplanes, bicycled solo around the world, and many other adventures--atop nearly three decades of serving the corporate madness that makes so much of our country tick along.
Last week a friend described me as having one overriding trait, I'm always "All in." (For some reason that surprised me. My wife just laughed and said, "Duh!" Sometimes I'm a little slow.)
I don't know how to do things by halves. It's just isn't part of who I am. When I go after something, I'm... I guess that "All in" is the only phrase that describes it.
When I write romance though, I feel as if I have a true cause to be that way. To be passionate about passion just makes a huge, happy connection inside my head.
Love in the Light
As many of my fans know, I've recently leapt into action-adventure thrillers. The mad pace of adventure. The puzzle of who, why, and how to stop them. All of it. I'm having so much fun with my Miranda Chase series that I only occasionally surface and look over my shoulder.
And then I'll get a piece of fan mail, like this one last winter.
"When do we get the rest of Shadowforce: Psi? I want it and I want it now!" This fan was quite insistent.
And in that moment, I was once more "All in." I had originally planned it as a four-book series. September 2019 saw the release of the first two books. But then I was up against a deadline for the launch of the new Miranda Chase action-adventures. And to a writer, taking on a genius airplane crash investigator who is also solidly on the autism spectrum, is a glorious challenge.
Yet, I knew there were good stories lurking in Shadowforce as well. We all have gifts and skills. Some we have a better grasp of than others. And those skills change with time. During my corporate days, my gift was that I could see all aspects of a project and translate between them. The user, the manager, the programmer, the technician, the accountant... They all speak different languages but I simply knew how to communicate between them. (Did it always go well? Maybe not. But I had a pretty high success rate.)
Shadowforce is like that. They have these very special skills, but they can barely figure out how to make them work, never mind communicate among themselves, or find true happiness. I love that juxtaposition.
In Offering
So now I'm able to offer the final two adventures in Shadowforce: Psi. These romances dive to undersea cables and race through Seattle's tunnels. The adventure, the love, and the passion that I've so come to enjoy writing combine in each of these delicious romps.
Bottom line? I'm ALL IN!
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| #3 released yesterday / #4 releases in September (click for more info) |
USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller M. L.
"Matt" Buchman has 60+ contemporary and military romance novels, and action-adventure
thrillers. Also 100 short stories and lotsa audiobooks. Booklist says: 3x “Top 10
Romance of the Year” and among “The 20 Best Romantic Suspense Novels: Modern Masterpieces.”
NPR and B&N say: “Best 5 Romance of the Year.” PW declares: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female
lead will clamor for more.” A project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed
and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50’ sailboat,
and bicycled solo around the world…and he quilts. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.
5 comments:
Matt, had to laugh at the "Duh" response to your being an "All In" kinda guy. And it has worked well for you which is a great thing. What I know is true is the part of your post about "passion." It translates in different ways in different people but when reading a book, we know if the author wrote it with passion (which is not the same as emotion). Congratulations on your Shadowforce: Psi releases!
Yes, absolutely. Passion and fun! Two things I constantly strive to make sure I'm feeling when I'm writing, because the reader can sure tell if I'm not.
Doesn't mean it's easy, writing is the hardest thing I've ever done (and I've had a lot of different jobs in different industries), but it's also the most fun!
Matt, I'm so glad you are still writing some Romance stories. This series sounds like one I need to read! I also have your first Miranda Chase story on my dresser. I can't wait to get to know this character and enjoy her adventures!
I remember you when you were an SF writer and a historical mystery writer decades ago. :) I've always been amazed at how well you've fit into the romance genre when your career started taking off. Now that I know more about your wife and her impact on you, it makes perfect sense that you would love romance AND love strong women and make them central to your books.
I also laughed at the "Duh." You are definitely the most intense, passionate writer I know and I know a lot of writers. Congrats on continuing the Psi series and doing so well with Miranda.
Okay, Maggie. Now you're making me laugh. You are one of the eight people who ever read either of my historical romances. (Seriously, I never sold a single copy (under a very different pen name), so only the people in that weekend's critique group read it.) Both titles have long since been taken down.
Actually, there was one other. I managed to get it on the desk of a major historical rom editor in the UK (I forget who). She sent me back a personal note (along with that magic "get" of that era, her business card to staple to the next cover letter), "This is very well written. Please send me your next contemporary romance." This historical editor underlined "contemporary" 3 times.
Years later, during a Kris Rusch writing workshop, I wrote a historical short. Failure. So, I redrafted. She was notorious for never ever giving direct career advice about what you write. After the second draft, she handed it back and very quietly said, "Never, ever write historical again."
Still giggling.
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