Reloading Romance by M. L. Buchman

Writing romance is a constantly changing world. Okay, all writing is, but I don’t often notice it quite as much as I have these last several months.

It’s like seeing your kid daily, it’s still your kid. But someone sees them after a year or two gap and they can’t stop talking about how much the kid changed. 

Now try that for five years, as my romance writing just did.

From 2012 to 2019 I published some 50 romance novels and over 70 short stories, most of them in what I now call the Emily Beale Universe (emilybeale.com). Then I stopped. I found it more and more challenging to keep the romance fresh…and I had this great idea for a thriller series wrapped around a woman air-crash investigator who is on the autism spectrum. (Fourteen books later, I’m still in love with Miranda Chase, miranda-chase.com.) 

To make it even more of a time gap, I hadn’t written my major military romantic suspense heroine, Emily Beale, in an MRS since 2016. 

However, my fans have been clamoring for a new Emily Beale book since, well, the first Emily Beale book back in 2012.

Restarting

How did I decide it was time to return to a long-closed series—long-closed genre for that matter? It was not at the begging of the fans. As Stephen King says in his fabulous On Writing book, I keep my ideas’ door firmly closed to the outside world (except for my lady, who’s an awesome brainstorming partner).

Nor was it because I’d finally recovered from some sort of romance burn-out. If you read my Miranda Chase, you’ll find plenty of strong romantic elements. As an intriguing side note, in a thriller series, the relationships are spread out over a much longer arc. As the Happy Ever After is for the plot elements (i.e. the crisis is solved and the world survives to turn another day) and not the love stories, the relationships can add grist without conclusion. Spinning out their personal lives—it’s the same core team throughout the whole thriller series—allows me much more depth of in motivations and evolving those relationships. Seriously fun.

But back to my main point, restarting a romance series. 

The characters had been very quiet. Oh, now and then they’d pop their heads up with a question or idea, but nothing much came of it. The core of a book needs a powerful character question. I used to think this was especially true of romance but, the more I write, the more I think it applies across all genres.

And the characters from my Emily Beale Universe weren’t tossing out any big character-side questions. Until last winter.

The Question

Oddly, it didn’t come from the romantic couple. They took me a while to find. No, to relaunch an older and successful series, the question needed a bigger source. 

Well, the core voice of the entire series was Emily Beale. No one, in all those books, wasn’t somehow affected by Emily (even books and stories she wasn’t in at all). The question had to come from her.

And, my own theory, the question must be: simple, yet deep.

For Emily, it ultimately came down to “What’s next?” It was only as I delved into the question that I found those deeper layers. How do I dig down? Easy. I write the book and see what I learn.

To answer her question, I had to find what drove it. Emily is a force of nature, the best at everything she does and not an other character wouldn’t take the bullet for her because she engenders that much respect. For her, it turned out that “What’s next?” is a very deep question because it must be something that she believes in and believes that it serves her country, her team, and her family. Also, she’s never asked what might serve her best, a huge (and interesting) blind spot.

In fact, it’s such a big question that, like the romances in my thriller series that I mentioned earlier, it won’t fit within a single book. I fully expect that this is a launch of a new series (the next characters haven’t fully shown up yet, but I expect to hear from them soon…perhaps this next winter). And if it becomes a series, Emily’s question is going to drive right up the core of these titles for a long time to come.

The Craft

“Putting my romance hat back on” as a writer was like riding a bicycle, after a multi-decade gap. There’s an inherent structure to a romance, any romance. There’s a meeting (or re-meeting for second-chance), there’s connection and troubles galore, and finally they get their Happy Ever After. I’m a purist. To me, being a romance means there’s an HEA. (HFN, Happy for Now, just makes me angry. I heaved Bridget Jones Diary: The Edge of Reason at the wall at about page five because I’d bought into the HEA of the first book and then had it taken away. Like all the actors, but movie #2 annoyed the crap out of me, too. Just sayin’.)

Romance structure can be pure (as in contemporary romance), mixed-in (like romantic suspense), or nearly overwhelmed by other elements (vampire lit among others). But once familiar with the structure, and I mean down to a writer’s core after crafting numerous books, it becomes a powerful base to build story upon.

Over the last five years of writing thrillers, I’ve learned the thriller core as well. But it’s a very different tool. Story has a different shape, the writing has a faster pacing, the action behaves differently. The chapter, paragraph, and even sentence structure are quite different.

So, “putting my romance hat back on” made me feel like I was stuttering at the keyboard. (I put a lot of mileage on the backspace key in the first hundred pages, a lot.)

Keeping Clear

This was actually the biggest challenge. 

I remember way back when I’d finished my first fantasy novel. It sold to a tiny press, so I was hands-on for every step: edit, polish, cover design, and final production. When it was all done, the editor turned to me and said, “Great. When do I get the next book?”

Uh…

I still think the scariest moment in my entire twenty-nine years of writing was opening that blank white screen and knowing that, for a fact, anything I wrote was going to be utter crap compared to the book I’d just been working on. It took me many books to truly understand that the purpose of the first draft, to get something, anything down on the page (you can’t edit a blank page). I actually now call my first draft, the Ugly Draft. It keeps the pressure off—a bit.

After so long hiatus, I ran into the same issue.

The original Night Stalkers, Firehawks, and Delta Force series won numerous awards and titles: Top 10 and Top 5 romance of the year from people like Booklist, Barnes & Noble, and NPR. (I typically no longer submit my titles to traditional review sites, but it was certainly fun while it lasted.)

Now I was sitting down, opening that blank document once again, with little more in mind than Emily’s question. All of those accolades had to be left outside the closed door because anything I wrote, even after 75 novels, was going to be…well, there’s a reason I call it the Ugly Draft. And to do it in a genre I hadn’t touched in five years…

There’s a screen saver on my computer, a tumbling: Let Go! Have Fun! The more I did those two simple tasks, the easier the writing became. I was there to tell a good story. Not to load myself down with stress and angst.

The Result

It’s both similar and different. It follows the same romance structure that I developed in my earlier military romantic suspense titles. And I did enjoy putting that particular writer hat back on. 

But it’s also, in some ways, unrecognizably different. That’s probably mostly my perception rather than my readers’ reactions. But the feel, the depth, the focus are far more elaborate than those earlier titles. Of course, I’ve also had about 2.5M more words of practice since the last time I wrote a big Emily Beale story, so I’m far more conscious of those bigger elements and building them as I go.

Now? It’s time to let it out into the world. And move along! I’m already 30K words into the next book (another Miranda Chase at the moment).

If you want to see what I wrought, Night Stalkers Reload #1: Guard the East Flank releases June 1 direct-from-the-author at https://mlbuchman.com and is available everywhere for a July 1 pre-order (https://books2read.com/guard-the-east-flank).

BIO

  USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller M. L. "Matt" Buchman has over 75 novels, 200 short stories, and 50 read-by-author audiobooks. From the beginning, his powerful female heroines insisted on putting character first, then a great adventure.

PW declares of his Miranda Chase action-adventure thrillers that: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.” 

About his military romantic thrillers: “Like Robert Ludlum and Nora Roberts had a book baby.” 

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 designs quilts. He and his wife presently live on the North Shore of Massachusetts. More at: https://mlbuchman.com 

A Thrilling Experience

by M. L. Buchman

I just finished the post-first-reader draft of my first-ever techno-thriller (and if I could squeeze more hyphens into that sentences...). I found the experience to be...educational to say the least.

I've written thrillers before. My Dead Chef foodie-thriller series follows television's top chefs as they are hunted and killed on air. These light-hearted romps all have several things in common, but one of those is having a romance down the core.

More info at: https://www.mlbuchman.com/thrillers/

These aren't romances, but rather have "strong romantic elements" as we say in the industry. Like my 50 romance novels (and even my several SF/F novels), a romance lends a structure to a novel. There are first meetings, intimacy, conflict, growing affection, and happy-ever-after resolution (or at least happy-for-now in the non-romances).

In my latest novel, I set out to write a pure techno-thriller. I didn't even want to mimic a Clive Cussler style where Dirk Pitt is falling happily in lust with the book's heroine. Even Lee Child's ever-so-remote Jack Reacher has something of a romance arc in most of his tales.

In this one? Not even a smidgen.

Why did I do this?

Partly to challenge myself--it's a piece of how I'm constantly striving to improve my craft. Take the romance core that I've learned over the course of 60 novels and almost every one of my 100+ short stories, and toss it aside. Learn something new.

Also, far more than romantic suspense, a thriller is about pacing. By removing the romance, I was able to focus all of my attention on the critical thriller element of pacing.

...and it was like I'd forgotten how to write.

Thoughts jumbled. Events seemed to just happen for reasons I, as the writer, couldn't figure out for the longest time. (I have learned as a writer to generally trust my instincts. If I insert something odd, there's probably a reason my subconscious put it there. So, even if I don't know why it's there, I almost always leave it in.)

Character arcs! Oy vey! Character arcs, with no underlying romance superstructure, were total chaos. A character's growth in a romance is most of why we read them. We want to go on the journey with them. It's how we know who the hero and heroine are, they're the ones going through the most change. That's who the reader consistently identifies with.

Sure. Great. Fine.

But what about all of the other possible character arcs outside of romance?

That was the harrowing challenge of my thriller. My main character had to find a whole other path. Also, they had to go through it without even once breaking the drive-ahead pace that's so essential to a thriller. It was an amazing and educational experience and, yes, there will be more of them.

And then, after I finished that draft and sent it to the copyeditor yesterday, I pulled up a military romantic suspense I'm working on, the second novel in the new series that started with a Novel #1 serialization this month:

https://www.mlbuchman.com/shadow-force-psi/

Let me just say, "WHOA!" Suddenly character superseded pacing, sentences and paragraphs were longer, and there was a radiantly clear character arc (two of them actually, as it's a romance).

It's like coming home to an old friend...and not quite recognizing them. I'm sure that by the time I've done another day or two of writing, the familiar and comfortable world of romance will wrap it's gentle hug back around me. But for now, my brain is still in thriller world.

Coming October 2019

M.L. "Matt" Buchman has over 60 novels, 100 short stories, and a fast-growing pile of audiobooks out in the world. M.L. writes romance, thrillers, and SF&F…so far. Recently named as "The 20 Best Romantic Suspense Novels: Modern Masterpieces" by ALA’s Booklist, he has also been selected three times as "Top-10 Romance Novel of the Year." NPR and B&N listed other works as "Best 5 Romance of the Year." As a 30-year project manager with a geophysics degree who has: designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, and bicycled solo around the world, he is awed by what's possible. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.

The DNA of Military Romantic Suspense

by M. L. Buchman

I didn't set out to write MRS (Military Romantic Suspense). After over seventy titles I'm still surprised that its half of my total works and 2/3s of my income! (I also have a big swath of contemporary romance and a nice little starter kit on SF/F and Thrillers.)

THE START
The fact that I arrived her completely by accident is simply part of the punchline. I was working on my foodie thriller Swap Out! and needed a cool military helicopter to rescue my hero from the top of Chicago's tallest building. I researched around and found my helo. I also found the military team called The Night Stalkers, the helicopter pilots of the US Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, SOAR. I often end the story with how I opened up their job application out of curiosity to see if I would have qualified back in the day (so not!) and discovered the second line on the form: "Women may not apply." That was 2008 and the application was changed in 2012. There are now women who fly with Emily Beale, but I still like to think that she was the one who kicked down the doors (even if the publisher insisted on putting her in a nightie—I can't begin to describe the fight I had to give her the bit chain for her dog tags).

More info at www.mlbuchman.com

Anyway, that's my usual story. But it has much deeper origins that I think are absolutely essential to writing successful military romantic suspense. I'll gladly admit that I've become a total snob about who I'll read versus who I chuck against the wall. Here's why.

THE VOICE
My first military hero was laughed out of the critique group back in 1997. The men just thought the poor guy was absolutely hilarious. (On the other hand, I got them back when I wrote a birth scene from the women's point of view. They went green...and the women laughed me out of the room.) (Eventually I got the guy to a point where my male critique partners conceded that he was at least male. And the women, after six complete rewrites, admitted I'd come pretty close—by which time the guy's weren't aghast, they were stone silent.) Anyway, I knew that writing strong alpha heroes was a challenge for me. So I started reading.

I read military memoir, especially from retired SEALs and Special Operations. I read about amazing men (and a few women). I also read very much for how they felt, acted, and viewed the world. My favorite single piece of fan mail ever was from a woman who had served as a helo pilot for years. When she read my first Delta Force novel, Target Engaged, she wrote to say: "I know your hero. He's exactly like my Delta pal."

More info at www.mlbuchman.com

My point? If you don't have the voice right...you're nowhere. And readers like me will be heaving the book at the wall—just sayin'.

But even if the voice is right, and the tech is right, and the weapons are right (an extremely critical step), if you miss the DNA...fuggedaboutit!

THE DNA
I heard a brilliant description of what makes a cross-genre title a romance (this was back in the days when romance was still six or seven genres, not 21 or whatever it has grown to since I last checked). She said:

If you can peel the romance out of the book and it still stands, then it isn't a romance. If you peel out the romance and the book collapses, then it is a romance.

I've given this a lot of thought and I think that she only scratched the surface. What really makes a story a military romantic suspense is that all three elements—military, romance, and suspense—must be present.

But what makes it a satisfying MRS?

Let's go back to that speaker (who's name I've long since lost). The way I write, if you pull ANY of those three elements out and the story DOESN'T collapse then you don't have a military romantic suspense.

And it's a full web:

• The suspense must be driven by the military action.
• The military aspect absolutely controls the type of suspense that is used.
• The attitudes and personalities of the military will uniquely shape the romance.
• The suspense impacts the course of the romance.

These are in most good MRS stories, but there are still some other elements that I just don't find that often:

• The romance must be of a type that couldn't happen anywhere except in the military or involving military people.
• And the suspense is also driven and shaped by the romance.

Another way to say this:

• The suspense must both require military skills to solve it and be only soluble by the H&H (hero/heroine, hero/hero, heroine/heroine, heroine/pretty alien, whatever). Further that military and suspense must slam the pressure onto the relationship at precisely the worst moment or in the worst way.

For me, a rocking Military Romantic Suspense is a perfect storm of the three elements all so tightly wound together that to remove on doesn't destroy the story, it destroys both the stories. Pull out military, and the romance and the suspense stories don't work. And so on.

Do I achieve this in every book? OMG, NO! Do I try? Every single time.

Check out my latest MRS and tell me how I did.

More info at www.mlbuchman.com

Or, if you prefer a lighter tone, you can try out my brand new release from just this week (the explosives-sniffing dog handler and the new driver of the Presidential motorcade:

More info at www.mlbuchman.com

M.L. Buchman started the first of over 50 novels and as many short stories while flying from South Korea to ride across the Australian Outback. All part of a solo around-the-world bicycle trip (a mid-life crisis on wheels) that ultimately launched his writing career.

Booklist has selected his military and firefighter series(es) as 3-time “Top 10 Romance of the Year.” NPR and Barnes & Noble have named other titles “Top 5 Romance of the Year.” In 2016 he was a finalist for RWA's RITA award. He has flown and jumped out of airplanes, can single-hand a fifty-foot sailboat, and has designed and built two houses. In between writing, he also quilts. M.L. is constantly amazed at what can be done with a degree in geophysics. He also writes: contemporary romance, thrillers, and SF. More info at: www.mlbuchman.com.

A New Form of Storytelling (for me)

by M. L. Buchman

After 50+ novels and a near equal number of short stories, I would have thought that I'd at least bumped my nose into most of the forms of storytelling that I'd be using for a long time to come.

• Romance, SF, Thriller, Fantasy, Mystery, even a failed stab or two at YA, etc. These all have distinct voices and techniques and it's been fun. Obviously I especially love romance (35+ novels worth), but I certainly enjoyed them all.
• Third person, first person, (a second person that went straight into the shredder), even a shot at omniscient (that my first reader sent straight to the shredder).
• Almost every length from 500 words to 170,000. (I recently checked and the only 10k blocks I've missed are 120-160,000 words.
• Stand-alone, duologies, series, even complexly interconnected series.
• Anthologies where the challenge is to match the editor's theme.
• Co-author? Never really drew me. I like owning all aspects of my story.
• Shared world co-promotions...WHOOPS!

That last was a new one for me that I'd never given any thought to. And here's what I learned tackling this project.

How it started

This is all Cristin Harber's fault. She writes wonderful military romantic suspense in her Team Titan world. Three months ago, she was just another name that I didn't pay much attention to as it went by. Oddly, I read very little military romantic suspense, because I don't want those other author's voices in my head when I'm writing.

Then someone introduced us at a conference. It rates as one of the most fun conference conversations I've ever had, and there have been some doozies. We talked character, story, marketing, series, business, more marketing, more... And we spent most of the time laughing and saying, "I know!" (We missed a whole block of sessions and didn't care.)

At the end she said, "We should do something together." I suggested some conventional ideas, short story swaps on each other's websites, etc. She said, "Actually, how would you like write a novel for my 2017 Titan World project?" Sick of the strictures of Amazon's Kindle Worlds, she decided to do the same thing, but on her own. She had nine other authors lined up, I was to be the last and the tenth.

On the (really long) flight home from Florida to Oregon, I read two of her novels. In the next few days I read two more, then I (foolishly) said, "Sure. When?" Her answer of going live in 3 months was a bit of a shocker, but I got the novel conceived and written and it launched yesterday! 

But that isn't the interesting part. Nor the contract (I actually like contracts, a hangover from nearly a decade as a paralegal and legal project manager) that had to carefully protect each of our intellectual property rights against all foreseeable eventualities.

The really intriguing part for me was that it was a collaboration project. Not just a tale in a collection, but rather a world cross-over. The story was to really cross over into her Titan World. Take one or more of her characters and include them in a romance. Ten authors (plus a new title from Cristin) all sat down to write something. They took children of Titan and grew them up and gave them love stories. They wrote side adventures for minor characters. There were as many different approaches as there were characters.

Matt's adventure

I decided to take her ultra-macho, ultra-irascible team leader, along with his rockin' leather-clad lady, and introduce them to my Night Stalkers. I had read his love story, Westin's Chase, but I'd never written anything like it.

Being true to her characters wasn't the issue.

Matching her characters' voices, mannerisms, attitudes also wasn't an issue. Cristin writes very memorable characters.

The problem was the characters themselves. Cristin writes (at least compared to mine) very over-the-top folks. Jared growls as much as his bulldog and when he issues orders its at full, former US Ranger volume. His lady Lily, who everyone except him calls Sugar, is an ex-ATF, leather-clad gunsmith. Every word either of them speaks is big, strong, outrageous. Every action is doubly so. And sex? Trebly so!

Enter the Night Stalkers. Alpha strong, sure. But understated. Thoughtful. Quiet. My sex isn't behind the scenes, but neither is it a massive multi-page romp like Jared's and Sugar's.

So, I found my opening...I'm writing along...enter Jared and Sugar.

They blow my characters off the page. They're from a different kind of world and they show it. It was the single hardest part (also the most interesting for me as a writer), learning how to balance their voices. I wanted to stay true to both Cristin's and my own characters and tone, but we are different writers. We have different tones.

I'm thrilled to say that my characters were not overwhelmed by the time I was done and that hers weren't lost. But despite the horrendous deadline, I had to spend an awful lot of writing time just working on that first meeting until they all stood both Night Stalker and Titan Strong.

Then once I had the voices balanced, I still had to write a story in which characters who react and behave differently than mine were integrated into one of my stories.

It was an incredibly challenging project. It was an incredibly fun project. Would I do it again if the opportunity arises? With the right other author? Sure! With Cristin Harber? Absolutely!

You can check out Titan World at  your favorite store:
Amazon    Barnes & Noble    iBooks    Kobo

M. L. Buchman has over 50 novels and 40 short stories in print. Military romantic suspense titles from his Night Stalker, Firehawks, and Delta Force series have been named Booklist “Top 10 Romance of the Year”: 2012, 2015, & 2016. His Delta Force series opener, Target Engaged, was a 2016 Romance Writers of America RITA finalist. In addition to romance, he also writes thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, and designed and built two houses. Somewhere along the way he also bicycled solo around the world.

He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife and is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing and receive a free 4-novel starter e-library by subscribing to his newsletter at:

www.mlbuchman.com.

Writing Romance in Two Worlds

by M. L. Buchman

Most of the time I write Romantic Suspense. I love the genre and find the possibilities endless and exciting. It takes the thriller reader in me and wraps it around the boy raised on Broadway and Hollywood musicals. Fred Astair I have pretty well covered from The Gay Divorcee to The Towering Inferno. Bing from The Big Broadcast to Stagecoach. No, No, Nanette to Pippin. Favorite movie? Notting Hill. I grew up to be the one in our relationship who cries at happy endings which still makes my grown daughter giggle no end.

There something about romantic suspense that snares me. Taking that heat of danger and the slowly tightening bands of tension and leveraging them to crank up the pressure on the romance with no emergency relief valve... Actually, there's a tip for anyone who wants to write good romantic suspense, when you get to that upper relief valve limit, don't give in. Let your characters suffer without it until they are forced to "blow" and face whatever truth or reality it is that they must face.

The Latest Firehawks novel

The Latest Night Stalkers novel

The next Delta Force novel (coming August 2nd)

But that mad romantic in me comes out every now and then. He comes out when he went to bended knee and forgot every word he'd ever intended to say and had to point mutely at the ring he held forth as a proposal. (And I won't mention the part of the ceremony that my bride had to read because I was too busy crying.)

My first adventure into straight contemporary romance led me to the Pike Place Market and Seattle's waterfront. It is an area that I've haunted by land and sea for over two decades and is very dear to my heart. To take that passion and all of that joy and bring it to five love stories was just so much fun. It all began when my wife gave me a calendar of a dozen lighthouse and we decided to make that our mission for the year: to visit them all. That was when I had the idea to send my own hero and heroine on the same journey in Where Dreams Are Born.

Several years later, I now live on the Oregon Coast. And if there was ever a more romantic place, I haven't been there. The first two novels in the Eagle Cove series are out and two more will be following soon. I grew up in a town of twelve hundred people and ten thousand head of dairy cow. I've lived on islands with a total population of seven hundred and one general store. And someday, my ridiculously romantic heart, hopes to live in a town just like Eagle Cove.

Romantic suspense and contemporary romance are a world apart, and I'm so glad to be in love with both of them.

M. L. Buchman has over 40 novels in print. His military romantic suspense books have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year” and twice Booklist “Top 10 of the Year,” placing two titles on their “Top 101 Romances of the Last 10 Years” list. He has been nominated for the Reviewer’s Choice Award for “Top 10 Romantic Suspense of 2014” by RT Book Reviews. In addition to romance, he also writes thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world.

He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife and is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing and receive exclusive content by subscribing to his newsletter at www.mlbuchman.com.

Giving Back - military romance style

by M. L. Buchman

Sometimes you get a chance to give back and sometimes you get a chance to pay forward. I think it is an interesting difference.

Years ago I asked my writing mentor, a very successful writer with over a hundred novels in print and many appearances on many lists, what could I possibly do for him in thanks for all he had done for me?

"Nothing."

"Uh..."

"What you can do is pay forward. Help a writer who is anywhere on the path behind you." And I have done my best to pay forward whenever the opportunity arises.

It is also one of the reasons I tell the kind of stories that I do, whether in my military romantic suspense Night Stalkers series or in a whole different genre like my Dead Chef thrillers. The single unifying theme of all my writing is to Champion the Human Spirit. I always seek to write stories that uplift us and show some of the wonderful things I see in the world. One of the strongest themes for me has become honoring those who choose to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. I make no judgment as to what they are sent to do, but in turn am constantly awed by what they do in that service.

However, every now and then, I get a rare opportunity to pay back as well. For my writing mentor, who has long since become my friend, it is typically help with a particularly odd piece of software (I was a computer geek for many years).

But how could I ever pay back those who serve to protect our country and keep what peace is possible? The opportunity came up when I was invited into an anthology to help benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. Eight authors and the publisher Sourcebooks have collaborated on an anthology and all proceeds are being donated to the WWP.

The Way of the Warrior is filled with a brand new Night Stalkers tale by myself, a Troubleshooters, Inc. tale by Suzanne Brockmann, and more by Julie Ann Walker, Catherine Mann, and others. Stories of survival, of teamwork, and always of finding true love. Please, buy a copy (8 novellas in 472pp also equals a great investment in reading pleasure as well) or donate directly to the WWP, I know of no worthier cause and am thrilled at this opportunity to pay back.

Available for pre-order now (May 5th release).

M. L. Buchman has over 35 novels in print. His military romantic suspense books have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year” and Booklist “Top 10 of the Year.” He has been nominated for the Reviewer’s Choice Award for “Top 10 Romantic Suspense of 2014” by RT Book Reviews. In addition to romance, he also writes thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world. He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife. He is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing by subscribing to his newsletter at www.mlbuchman.com.

Leaping into Military Romantic Suspense

by M. L. Buchman

I didn’t set out to write military romantic suspense. I was a fantasy and thriller writer, though always with “strong romantic elements.” After all, what’s more fun that a love story? Right, my point exactly.

So there I was, writing a foodie thriller entitled Swap Out! When I needed my hero to be rescued from a Chicago high-rise by a kick-ass helicopter. I knew nothing about helicopters, so I started researching them. Meanwhile, a kick-ass heroine shows up in [helicopter] (square brackets are how I, as a writer, tell myself, “Research this later, and fix it right here, but don’t stop writing now.”) She isn’t his love interest, instead she’s…well, that’s a different story.

Bottom line, there I am learning about helicopters on the side of my foodie thriller. And in my research, I learned about a great deal of truly intriguing technology. Then I stumbled on the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, who call themselves the Night Stalkers. These are the dudes who fly secret missions for much of the U.S. Special Operations Forces, including the raid on bin Laden’s compound among hundreds of much less publicized events.

And here I think is where one of the great joys of being a writer pays off, and one of the great secrets of writing as well: I went down the rabbit hole. I was intrigued and I followed that curiosity I followed it all the way down to the transfer application (because you can’t even apply to fly for SOAR without at least five years helicopter experience in the Armed Forces.)

On the transfer application, there used to be a little box that said, “Men only.” (That only changed recently.) I had been wanting to write a true romance for some time and I’d actively been hunting for a story to tell. And in that instant, I had the key to all of my military romantic suspense writing:  

The first women to fly for the Night Stalkers, 

and the men they deserve.  

With that as my motto, I launched into writing and was an overnight success.

Not really, just kidding.

What I launched into was two years of research into every aspect of SOAR, helicopters, and most importantly the stories told by the men of Special Operations Forces. For in a romance, the most important thing is getting the character right and that constituted the bulk of my research reading and interviews.

I have come to love my women who fly to battle in "The Night Stalkers" series and fly to fight forest fires and worse in my "Firehawks" series. Perhaps the most surprising lesson for me in all of this has been learning a deep, deep respect for the men and women who choose to serve in the U.S. military, especially those who serve at the tip of the spear in our Special Operations Forces.

To this day, I research nearly as many hours as I write, always seeking authenticity while still honoring both the military I have discovered, balanced with the demands of the love story that is what I set out to tell in the first place.

coming Sept 2, 2012

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