Crazy Little Thing Called Love (44 page)

Susan May Warren: Back in 2010 in the wee small hours of a life-changing morning, you told me I could write fiction. You're still helping me believe and accomplish this dream-come-true.

Rachelle Gardner: My agent and friend—I think I've got it now:
This is publishing, not brain surgery. There's never a reason to panic.
(See, I am listening—because you know your stuff.)

Jessica Wong: Having you as my editor keeps getting better and better. I am beyond grateful for your expertise and support. And to Katherine Sandell: Thanks for being part of the editing process, too. I appreciated your insights!

Edie Melson: Here's to daily “text prayers”—they made all the difference while I was on deadline.

The My Book Therapy Core Team: Writers who “get” each other. Friends. Prayer warriors. Wise counselors. Yes, that about sums it up.

Randy McDaniel, the Okaloosa County Emergency Management Director: Thank you for fielding my husband's emails and phone calls. (And thank you again to my husband, who also acted as my researcher for this book.) Your information helped me get the details right for when “my” hurricane hit the Panhandle.

Jeni Cherry, the assistant wedding coordinator for the Henderson Park Inn: Thank you for providing so many wonderful details about the location for Vanessa and Logan's destination wedding!

P
aramedic Vanessa Hollister has put her adolescence behind her, including the unwanted label of being the new kid in town over and over again, thanks to her father's military career. She's overcome what her mother called “the biggest mistake of her life” and is planning an elegant destination wedding in Destin, Florida, with her new fiancé. But will the reappearance of her first husband from her
What-were-you-thinking?
teenage elopement disrupt her dream of an idyllic beach wedding?

1. If you had the chance to plan a destination wedding, what location would you pick? Why?

2. Vanessa starts her senior year of high school at a new school. As part of a military family, Vanessa moved around a lot, perfecting the role of the new girl. What was high school like for you? What were your friendships like during those years?

3. Logan and Vanessa tried to solve a problem by eloping at eighteen. Have you ever made a rash decision—one that looked like a good decision, one that was motivated by good intentions—and then regretted it later?

4. If a friend of yours told you they were planning to elope, what would you say to them?

5. At twenty-eight, Vanessa was still looking for home. How would you define home?

6. Logan and his father were both about providing for and protecting their families—but in two very different ways. How do you look at providing for and protecting your family? How would you help Logan and his dad find common ground?

7. If you could do one thing “for old times' sake,” what would you do? Why?

8. Logan, Brady, Max, and Julie were the Stormmeisters—a storm-chasing team. What kind of team have you been part of? What did you learn, being part of a team?

9. To help her grow closer to God, Vanessa started writing her prayers in a journal. What helps you draw closer to God?

10. There are often Voices of Truth in novels: key subcharacters who speak vital truths to the hero and heroine. For Logan, it was Pop Pop, his grandfather—and sometimes his sister, Caron. For Vanessa, it was Mindy and Mrs. Wright. Who is your Voice of Truth?

1. Spend some time reflecting on the roles you have taken in weddings in the past (bride, groom, maid of honor, best man, mother or father of the bride or groom), as well as any special memories—humorous or poignant—you have from those times. Share your experiences with one another, and discuss with your book club what was most special about those times.

2. Read Genesis 16. God promises Abraham and Sarah a child, but when Sarah doesn't get pregnant, they rush ahead of God. They figure out their own way to fix the problem and help God's promise come true, resulting in Sarah's servant, Hagar, giving birth to Ishmael. Think about a time when you have rushed ahead of God's timing or tried to force a longed-for dream or hope to come true. Share what you've learned with the group.

3. Vanessa struggles greatly with being the new girl all the time. Think about who in your life is relatively new to your community. Discuss ways to serve and encourage them, and consider using the time of your next book club meeting to provide tangible help and encouragement to them.

This is a new series for you! Tell us a little about where the idea came from and what you're most excited about for the Destination Wedding series.

I discussed the idea of writing a series with my mentor and friend, author Rachel Hauck, as well as my agent, Rachelle Gardner. I was thrilled Howard Books liked the idea of the Destination Wedding series. So often in contemporary romance novels the wedding comes at the end of the novel—often as an epilogue. In this series, the wedding is a main plot point. And travel—well, so many people love to read about new places, right? So combining weddings with new destinations—to me, that was a win-win situation.

What was your inspiration for writing
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
? Is there a backstory to the idea?

I have several friends who met in high school and ended up getting married—and they've stayed married, I'm happy to report. When my husband and I were dating, we talked briefly of eloping—
very briefly
. And I think everyone looks back on their high school years and can think of at least one decision—a romantic one, or just a general life decision—they made and wonder, “What if?”—what if they had done things differently?

We know you usually have a high-concept question that you weave into your stories. What was the main question for
Crazy Little Thing Called Love?

I believe a Story Question is what fuels a novel. It's what your characters are wrestling with from chapter 1 to the end. And it's often a question readers might wrestle with, too. For
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
, I focused on this Story Question: What if you realized that what you thought was your worst mistake actually was the right choice?

How did you come up with the storm-chasing profession for Logan? Did you have to do a lot of background research?

I knew Logan needed to be in a profession that was risky—and I wanted to choose something outside the box. So I mulled for a few days—mulling is a huge part of the writing process. And the idea “storm chaser” came to mind. I would have loved to have time to do more research about storm chasing—there's just never enough time to do everything I want. I've read some about storm chasers and have always been intrigued about why someone would run
toward
a tornado, instead of running for safety. And I discovered they are not just thrill seekers. They are scientists, motivated by a desire to better understand storms, to help protect people. I read some books and did research online to understand storm chasers better.

The camaraderie between Vanessa and Mindy, as well as Logan and Caron, is so much fun with the way they banter back and forth. Do you have similar relationships in your life that you model these fictional ones after?

Friendships are so, so important to me. And yes, when I'm with my friends, it's all about the conversation, the laughter, the give-and-take between us. If I can make someone laugh, I'm happy. And I'm thankful I have people in my life who know the real me, who are willing to be honest with me, to challenge me—and who are real with me, too. I don't want to pretend anymore . . . or do a fake life. That's not what God calls us to do. We're to reflect his image to others—and having honest, loving relationships with others is one of the most beautiful ways we can do that.

Vanessa is good at the
hello
and the
goodbye
but not the in-between, a great way to explain her issues with trust and relationships. How did you come up with this concept?

That truth came to me as I wrote the fast draft of
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
. The “fast draft” is my first draft of a novel—and it's a wonderful act of discovery. I write my story fast—no editing, no going back and making it all clean and nice. I uncover more about my characters: who they are, why they do the things they do, say the things they say . . . and my plot takes some unexpected twists and turns.

As I learned more about Vanessa, I realized she's great at being the new girl, and she also knows how to pack up and move on—all skills learned as a military child. What was missing was how to do the in-between: stay in a relationship for the long haul.

This is not to say that military families cannot have real, deep relationships with people. Struggling with relationships was the case for Vanessa—for this story.

Vanessa and Logan's relationship suffers from a clear communication gap. Was it difficult to develop that in their dialogue, so we can see what each side is really saying but not clearly verbalizing?

One question driving this story was how did Vanessa go from eloping at eighteen—young and idealistic and in love—to being divorced two years later? What happened? That's why it was so important to tell the story of Vanessa and Logan's earlier years—their love story. Readers needed to see their youth, their immaturity, which was so influenced by their lack of communication.

Every married couple has to learn how to communicate, whether they get married at eighteen or twenty-eight or thirty-eight. But Vanessa's and Logan's youth was definitely a disadvantage.

As far as developing their dialogue—I love writing dialogue! Much of my fast draft is dialogue, so no, that's not a challenge for me. I just had to remember to think like high-schoolers and college-age kids.

What can we expect from you next?

More Destination Wedding stories! I'm working on another novella and another novel for 2016. I'm intrigued by Logan's little sister's story: What happens with Caron and Alex? And there are always other stories simmering in my brain, sparked by conversations, news stories, and just random things I run across in my day-to-day life. I just read an online news article about a couple who built their beach house on the wrong lot—someone else's lot! I thought,
How could that happen?
And then my writer's brain turned on and I thought,
Hmmm, is there a story here?

LISAANNE PHOTOGRAPHY

BETH K. VOGT
is a nonfiction author who said she'd never write fiction. After saying she'd never marry a doctor or anyone in the military, she is now happily married to a former Air Force family physician. Beth believes God's best is often behind the door marked “Never.” An established magazine writer and editor, Beth's debut novel, Wish You Were Here, was released in May 2012. She writes inspirational contemporary romance because she believes there is more to happily ever after than the fairy tales tell us.