Lacey's Bookshelf

As you must know by now, this week the Mavens are doing the Novel Meme. It goes like this:

Hey, Maven Lacey, what books have you written?

And the answer is...Not nearly enough.

1) As with a few of the other Mavens, my first-ever attempt to write a novel happened before I turned 10. I wanted to write a Babysitter's Club-style book because that's what I knew. I started it on one of the pcs at my mom's work, where it remains to this day. Needless to say, it also remains incomplete, which very well may be why it has yet to be published.

Or maybe that's not why.

2) My first earnest attempt to write a novel resulted in If You Asked the Devil to Dance, which is the launch title of my Romance with Color series. In DTD, the fierce, passionate Shawano warrior heroine is forced from her tribe into English society in the hopes she will be able to save her people from ruin. While attempting to collect her English father's inheritance, she meets the ton's idea of your cliched romance novel hero: He's reserved, dark and devilishly handsome, with wicked eyes and a lady-killing smile...only he doesn't know that because he's too shy to ask anyone why it is everyone backs away from him all the time. These h/h are about as star-crossed as they come, and even I wondered how the story could ever end happily.

3) The second novel in my Romance with Color series is If You Asked an Angel to Love. ATL follows the first story out of England into war-torn America, where the first heroine's brother continues the Shawano fight for independence. Armed with guns, money, much-needed supplies -- and a fiery, female stowaway -- he returns just a little too late. His people have surrendered to despair and given up. His attempts to lead them to victory are met with loss of life and eventual mutiny. As his life spirals out of his control, he becomes more and more attracted to the woman who dares to take what she wants. And therein lies the catch: to truly have her, she must want him. And the silent, unyielding warrior has yet to give her a reason to...

4) If You Asked a Rake to Reform is the third novel in my Romance with Color series. The hero is a moronic ninny whose primary purpose in life is to demonstrate proper wear of the latest cravats. The heroine is a half-black former slave with a burning desire to become an Abolitionist. These two collide in a darkly humorous battle of wits and parasols with a toss-up ending I still haven't quite decided on.

5) VHM, the novel is my contemporary Geek Lit romance. Also known as The Novel that Shall Never Be Published, the basic plot was conceived by my coworkers after they realized I write historical fiction and they'd never want to read my books unless they took my career in hand. (But their wives, I am assured, can't wait for the day they can snatch up my girlie books.)

VHM is about an engineer who writes a book about her coworkers because she's got writer's block between her first and second novels (cough, cough) and suddenly Real Life is more interesting (and easier to write about) than historical fiction. She never intends for it to see the light of day...

YOUR TURN: Which one do you want to read first? Why?