Run Wild (49 page)

When Avon published the first edition of this book, I had one request: please, for the love of royalties, show the shackles on the cover. The shackles are the whole point of this book. The shackles are what set this book apart. The shackles will make people pick up this book and read the description.

As usual, Avon tossed my suggestion in the nearest shredder. They were not about to put shackles—shackles!—on the cover of one of their romance novels. Too shocking? Not pretty enough? I have no idea what they were thinking, because they never bothered to explain their reasoning to me.

They decided to put a pistol on the cover. A pretty foil pistol that’s pointed at a rather... ah... erect angle. Sitting on a bed of roses. Because, you know, that’s where pistols usually hang out. In roses. Oh, and they made the whole cover bright pink. A nauseating fuchsia pink, which seemed to be one of Avon’s favorite colors in the mid-1990s.

Since this was published as an Avon Romantic Treasure, there’s also a painting of the couple on the back cover. See any shackles there? No you do not. Perfect opportunity for some shackle action, but no. You see a couple in a forest, the heroine enthralled with her hairdo rather than her hero. They’re standing in grass that’s shin-deep, so their ankles—and more importantly, their
shackles
—are fully covered.

Why, Avon, why?
If I had a dime for every time I asked that question in the seven years I wrote for them...

As usual, my publisher had taken the elements that made my work unique and done their very best to conceal, erase, and disguise them. They wanted my book to look like every other book in their line. As pink and pretty as possible.

For this new digital edition, I wanted the cover to show the couple on the run, shackled together. I was hoping for a close-up of sexy legs, running, you know, wild. Unfortunately, there’s one small drawback to being an indie author: we have to rely on stock photos for our covers—and apparently no one shoots stock photos of running legs. At least not sexy, bare running legs. The only photos I could find showed legs clad in modern-day athletic clothes and tennis shoes. My cover artist, Kim Killion, is an absolute magician, but Photoshop can only accomplish so much.

So Kim and I went with plan B: this romantic, sexy clinch cover that shows the heroine’s bare legs and the shackles front and center. I wanted the heroine dressed in the lemon-yellow silk gown that she wears in the book, but Kim hates yellow, so her first draft of this cover was... pink.

I said
Noooooo!
to that (maybe with a few more exclamation points). Bad. Avon. Memories. On the second draft, she gave me this stunning yellow, which I love.

And yes, I know, I hear you: the hero should have a beard, and chest hair, and a brand on his chest, and some scars. Again, when working with stock photos, it’s not always possible to make the picture match the characters exactly without wrecking it. Actually, most male cover models visit a salon for a thorough waxing to
remove
all their chest hair before photo shoots. It makes their muscles more visible—and muscles sell books. Body hair, apparently, does not.

Facial hair is also a turn-off for many readers. Some won’t even consider buying a book with a bearded hero on the cover—which is why you almost never see a bearded hero on the cover of a romance novel. A little scruff, maybe, but not a full beard. I personally
love
bearded heroes, and I was hoping this rampant anti-beard prejudice might have changed by now. I mean, did you see Ben Affleck in “Argo”? Hello, yum.

So while Kim & I were working on this cover, I took an informal poll on my Facebook page.

Sure enough, 50% of my fans said a loud and clear NO to facial hair. Sigh. So my poor Nicholas is beard-free on the cover of
Run Wild
. Sorry, Nicholas, the tribe has spoken.

Trivia

~ Why do I always have trouble naming my heroines? I have no idea, but Samantha was named after a road sign on a freeway. I was on my way to a speaking engagement in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (say that five times fast) when we passed a sign for the nearby town of... Delafield.

~ Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that Samantha’s birth surname, Hibbert, is the same as the author of that research book I quoted a few paragraphs ago. I’ve done that a few times: I’ll be writing along, need a name for a character, and just glance up and grab a surname from one of the research books on the shelf above my computer.

~ Is Cannock Chase a real place? Indeed it is. In the Georgian era, it was a haven for rogues and outlaws. Today, it’s a haven for hikers and mountain bikers. There’s even a Cannock Chase tourism and visitors’ bureau! I’ve got photos and links on my
Run Wild
Pinterest board.

~ Speaking of which, are you a fellow Pinterest addict? I’ve created inspiration boards for each of my books. Visit my
Run Wild
board at http://pinterest.com/shellythacker/run-wild/ to see photos of what Cannock Chase looks like; take a peek at some real-life pirate gear; and find out which movie stars I would choose to portray Nicholas, Samantha, and other characters from the book. (One of them may or may not be named Affleck. I’m not telling.)

Changes

I made quite a few changes while preparing this new digital edition of
Run Wild
. Two of them are relatively minor: I expanded the love scene in Chapter 18 and revised the final “big fight” between the hero and heroine in Chapter 25. In the 1996 edition, the hero went
way
too far with the cold, hurtful things he said to the heroine during that argument—to the point that I couldn’t forgive him by the end of the book. He’s a little better behaved in this new edition.

One of the biggest changes I made involves the heroine’s childhood. In the Avon paperback, Sam’s parents are killed during a violent home invasion—where she also witnesses a horrifying and bloody gang rape. Yikes! Dark much? What in the world was I thinking? Those scenes felt excessive and unnecessary, and took the book much too far into melodrama. In this new edition, I eliminated the home invasion and rape scene, and her parents’ tragic death now takes place “off stage.”

The other significant change I made involves the last three pages of the book. In the 1996 edition, the Epilogue takes place in South Carolina—and it felt like a lackluster letdown to me. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it, until I started revising the book.

For Nicholas, South Carolina represents a place of suffering and isolation, very much a self-imposed prison. Sending the characters back there at the end of the book sucked all the Happily out of their Happily Ever After. I also worried about what might happen to Masud in the future—the American South was not exactly an ideal location for an African man to be living in the 18th century. Finally, I didn’t like the fact that the heroine gave up so much of her dream. I wanted her to go live in the sun and make lace in Venice.

So in this new edition, she does. I moved the whole Epilogue to Venice and I like it much better. The happy ending feels genuinely happy to me now.

Future Sequels

Looking back over my first outlines for
Run Wild
, I’m surprised to see that I originally intended to kill off both Clarice and Foster. I’m so glad I didn’t. They both deserved to survive, and we might just see them again sometime. Clarice ended up getting some of my favorite lines in the book, and I love her snark and brassiness. She would be an “older” heroine—a first for me—and I like the idea of exploring that, pairing her up with a man who could show her the true love she’s never had.

As for Foster, yes, okay, he was a villain in this book. But it might be interesting to continue his journey of redemption and give him a story of his own. I’ve never taken a character all the way from villain to hero... but I just can’t resist a good challenge.

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Run Wild
. Be sure to subscribe to my free e-mail newsletter at
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Until next time, best wishes & happy reading,

Shelly

Reviewers use words like “exquisite” and “stunning” to describe Shelly Thacker’s unique blend of powerful emotion, edge-of-your-seat adventure and sizzling sensuality. Shelly’s historical romances have earned her a place on national bestseller lists and lavish praise from such diverse media as
Publishers Weekly
,
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
, and
The Oakland Press
, who have called her books “innovative,” “addictive,” and “powerful.”

A two-time RWA RITA Finalist, Shelly has won numerous other honors for her novels, including a National Readers’ Choice Award, several
Romantic Times
Certificates of Excellence, and five straight KISS Awards for her outstanding heroes.
The Detroit Free Press
has twice placed her books on their annual list of the year’s best romances.

When she’s not at the computer, you’ll find Shelly reading with her kids, knitting in local cafes, or kickboxing at the gym. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and two daughters. For the latest news, monthly giveaways, and sneak previews of upcoming books, subscribe to Shelly’s free newsletter:
http://www.shellythacker.com/contact.html