The story I intended to write: A fun and sexy romp in which a cowboy tracks down his wayward bride and wins her back.

What I’m ending up with: Cowboy finds his wayward bride, a town rife with corruption, and two children who need him. The poor guy not only has to win back his wife’s love and trust, but save an entire town.

:cowboy: + :nookie: = :bang:

:cowboy: + :hug: vs :villain: = :type:

NOT what I was going for, but apparently the story I’m going to get. Of course I probably tanked its chances of being chosen for the antho I’m subbing it for because the intended hot, warning-worthy sex was replaced by regular sex, fistfights and a gun battle, but I think it’s still a good story, so who knows?

(Submitting to an editor who’s not MY editor makes me nervous, anyway.)

It’s funny, but it just occured to me—if Tony Casavetti (from On the Edge) had been born a hundred years earlier, this could have been his story.

EDITED TO ADD:

I want to clarify something before I get in trouble. I don’t believe the stories for the anthology will be chosen based on sexual content. That’s not what I meant. What I mean is this:

I see an editor’s job as being twofold: 1) To work with an author to make a story the best it can be and 2) to make her publisher money.

Now let’s say—hypothetically—it comes to down to a choice between my story and another. Both romantic, well-written (hopefully) and strong. But the other is a cowboy menage or a m/m or has some other currently uber-selling element—as poignant as Brokeback Mountain, but with smoking hot sex. If you really want both books, but can only take one, you take the one that will sell like homemade blueberry hotcakes.