When Book Two Becomes Book One

I recently entered both of my novels, KEEPING SECRETS and TELLING LIES in the Daphne First Novel Contest (details to come in a later post). The second book had been planned and written as a sequel to the first and they have been presented to various publishers as a series.

When I reviewed the comments from the Daphne judges with my agent, we realized that TELLING LIES had been much better received and, in fact, should probably become the first book. The comments also suggested that the action—the protagonist bumping into a man whom she believes has been dead for eight years in the Botticelli Room of the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy—should start the story and move up from where I had placed it.

Okay, I thought, I can do this. Rewriting is the name of the publishing game as Laura and other members of this blog have discussed. And the truth is, it’s not impossible to go back and rethink the work. The tricky part is making it better. There are sections that I love that take place in the Uffizi and set up the sub plot of stolen Nazi art. I want to find a way to work this in that makes sense and still advances the story. Plus, to make this a stand alone, I need to remove the overt references to the story line and action that occurred in book one.

So far, I’ve redone the opening and moved the critical action to page one. It's a start and there definitely is a lot more to do. But, I will be on vacation for a few weeks and the rewriting will have to wait.