Some people have asked me if my stories ever evolve into something different than I was expecting. Or if my stories ever change as I’m writing them. Sometimes they do slightly, other times quite a bit.

Did you want to see what the changes for one story look like?

I give you Home Fires of the Great War.

The idea for this story started out as just letters between cousins Emma and Maria. I wasn’t really planning on having so many of them. But they kept writing, so I kept adding them.

But then Emma and Maria both started adding letters inside of letters. Some were parts of letters from family members, others were friends who were off fighting. And sometimes Emma would tell a “Ted, Fred, Larry, & Jim” story. (And if you don’t know who Ted, Fred, Larry & Jim are . . .)

My original plan was to just have the letters be the book, but I realized that I really needed some kind of background story going on where some things could be explained. Like missing letters, or missing pages in a letter. And to give the story a plot. So I wrote one set during the beginning of WWII. This background included all or almost all of Ria’s cousins in “The Gang” and them going off to war.

However, after sending the story off to some beta readers I was told that it was too much. There were too many people, too many story lines, too much going on. So I cut all the background, decided on something different that made the letters the vital part of the story instead of just an addition, and rewrote. This ended up being a much better background for the letters.

Then I had to publish it. My first cover was designed by Xulon Press (who actually published my book). I was excited about it, but it just didn’t fit the book.

And there you have it. A journey through the writing of Home Fires of the Great War.

Have you read this book? Do you want to if you haven’t? Which cover do you like better? Have you ever had readers tell you your story had some major problems?