I started writing Rock Star (the first book in the Music & Lyrics series) way back in August 2016.
It started out with a scene in my head of Nate Nash, a guy who knew what it was like to be the hottest selling solo artist around, only to have his career start crumbling around him. Too much fame, too many parties and drinks and…well, too much living the life of a famous rock star had led to his inevitable fall from grace.
In that scene in my head, Nate was driving his car to a meeting with his record company when a song comes on the radio. He’s never heard the song before, but he knows that voice. It’s a voice from his past. A woman who he’d left behind in order to pursue his musical career. Stevie Jacks. The sound of her voice after so long caused him to run off the road.
Just as Nate’s house of cards were falling down around him, Stevie’s star was rising fast. She had moved on from where Nate left her and had forged her own career with a new band. Jacks and Nash were no more but Court’n Jacks were just beginning.
That was the story in a nutshell. I did a mock up of the book cover and I had a plan and I started writing, only…things didn’t go to plan.
This story just wouldn’t come together and I struggled to finish it. When I finally reached the end, I knew the ending I had planned wouldn’t work. Nate and Stevie were still too far away from each other and their relationship was too unbalanced. I could have forced the ending, but I didn’t want to. I had to make a decision…shoe-horn the ending or leave it as a cliff-hanger.
I hate cliff-hangers. I really, really do. But I couldn’t see any other way out of making sure the story of Nate and Stevie reached a satisfying conclusion. I made a bargain with myself; I would publish Rock Star as a cliff-hanger only if I could get the second book out within a month so I didn’t leave my readers hanging.
And that’s what I did. I released Rock Star more than a year later from when I started writing it and released Songbird, the second book, a month after. This book had taken me longer to write than any other book and I’d released several books within the year it took me to write Rock Star and Songbird, but I’m glad I took the time and I’m also glad I didn’t give up on it (which I was tempted to do more than once.)
Rock Star new cover 
Songbird cover
I eventually released Rock Star and Songbird in a boxset because I just couldn’t stand having the cliff-hanger out there in the world.
There were a lot of surprises and learning curves with writing these books, but the biggest surprise of all was the Court siblings. These three people (Jace, Nadine, and Vanessa) were nowhere on my radar when I started writing Nate’s story. In fact, in my original plan, Stevie was a solo artist, but…well, that just didn’t fit with who Stevie was. Enter the Court siblings and suddenly I had a band and that band…man, they were magic.
Getting to know the Court siblings through their stories has been so rewarding for me. This series, although it originally started with Nate, is really dominated by Jace, Nadine, and Vanessa Court.
If you’ve ever read anything about my writing process you’ll know that I think of myself as merely the scribe who writes down what the characters tell me.
Nadine didn’t hold back. She wanted to tell me her story. She wanted the world to know her. Gabe was such a sweetie to write and he’s perfect for Nadine, tempering her propensity for self-destructive behaviour, believing in her when she couldn’t believe in herself, and basically just being a really good guy.
Vanessa wasn’t quite as verbose as Nadine. She’d pretty much been Nadine’s shadow and then, when Nadine and Gabe got together, she was left at a bit of a loose end. Enter Carson. I love Carson 😍 He originally appeared as Stevie’s near-fiancé in the earlier books and I thought that was that. I thought he was done and then BAM! there he was, showing up at the end of Strings and hooking up with Vanessa.
It seemed like an odd match…a state senator and a drummer…but they just worked together. I love their story so much!
And finally, finally, it was Jace’s turn.
He was a hard nut to crack and led me on a merry chase. Jace was tight-lipped and did not want to play (which is why his story is last.) It took Maeve to get him to open up and I have to say he is one of my favourite characters to write.
Grumpy? Yes.
Control freak? Definitely.
But he’s also loyal and honest and earnest and he has a heart of gold…when you finally get through the hard stone casing.
Maeve was a delight! Oh my goodness, she made me laugh. She is exactly what Jace needs in his life, someone who won’t sit back and take his crap. She challenges him and urges him to do better and he brings out the best in her too.
It’s sad to say goodbye to this series. I actually had a bit of a misty eye when I was writing the last chapters. It may have started out as a bit of a problem child, but Music & Lyrics has become one of my favourite. Maybe we’ll see them again sometime…you never know.