Sacramento Lawyer: Books

Swift Ditches The Law For A Little Romance
By Sharon McWilliams

Justus came back to the living room. Serenity, sprawled on the couch, twitched in her sleep. Her robe gaped open in the front, exposing a softly mounded cleavage. His heartbeat tripled. He told himself to calm down.

But he better not let her sleep the whole night through on that sofa. Her shoulder was twisted against the couch’s arm at a crazy angle. She might get a crick in her neck. He slid one arm beneath her knees and the other under her shoulders. He clasped her to his chest, supporting her head and neck.

Nestled his arms, she felt light as the desert breeze. Mumbling drowsily, she lifted her arms and draped them around his neck, tucking her head into the hollow of his shoulder. Her hair, dark red and damp, tickled his chin. He scented her herbal soap, which held the fragrance of wild grasses.

With a soft tread, he carried Serenity to her room and laid her on the bed. Her arms clung.

Her pink lips parted. She sighed in her sleep.

He couldn’t resist.

Leaning over, he fluttered the lightest possible kiss on her pretty mouth. “Good night.”

"Goo-nite.” She pressed her lips on his, then fell back onto the pillow with a sigh.

Justus covered her with a sheet, draping it over her shoulders and tucking it around her chin. He didn’t want her to take a chill from her damp hair.

His protective instincts had kicked in full force when he’d heard someone following them. Some primitive, atavistic impulse drove him to confront the stalker. Though glad he hadn’t had to fight, he’d been willing to risk injury to defend Serenity.

He didn’t know if he’d ever felt the same way about any other woman. The doubts continued to gnaw at him, making every day—and especially the nights—a torment. When could he go to her honestly, knowing he was free to make her his?

The next morning, Serenity poured coffee for Justus. “Did you go out last night?”

“No, too tired. You don’t remember what we did?” He smiled at her, brown eyes twinkling.

“Not really. I guess I went to bed.” She didn’t want to discuss her dream. Too embarrassing to tell her guest that she’d fantasized he’d tenderly put her to bed with the sweetest of good-night kisses. But she tingled with an aliveness she hadn’t experienced for years. She didn’t want Justus to know how deeply he affected her, so she chuckled to cover the disconcerting emotion. She reminded herself yet again that falling for Justus would be crazy. fn 1

This passage hardly sounds like something written by a lawyer, but it is. Local attorney turned romance novel author, Susan Swift, wrote these words in one of her three published romance novels, The Ranger and the Rescue.

Swift jokingly refers to romance novels as “mind candy,” but she is taking her budding new career very seriously. After 20 years of practicing criminal and family law, Swift has closed shop and has changed her license to inactive. Now, instead of defending criminals and assisting people in divorces, Swift is catering to the happily-married crowd. According to Swift, most romance readers are happily married and have sex more frequently than non-romance readers.

“Reading romance enables people to relive falling in love, which is a unique experience,” Swift said.

Swift never planned on starting a brand new career writing romance novels, although she had grown tired of practicing law. In fact, she did not know she wanted to become a writer, and she had never even read a romance novel before she decided to start writing romance novels.

On the advice of a friend and writer, Bud Gardner, Swift took a writing class. From there, Swift simply chose to write romance novels because more romance novels are sold than any other genre, and she thought it would be the easiest way to get published.

While it is easier to get published as a romance novel writer, getting published is not easy, Swift said. The process is time-consuming, requires a great deal of patience, and is driven in large part by the talent of the author’s agent and in finding the right editor.

Hopelessly Compromised, which was Swift’s third manuscript but first published book, took her eight months to write. It was the most time-consuming of all her books to write because it is a historical romance novel set in England’s Regency Period of the 1820s. Swift said Hopelessly Compromised was interesting to write because it was fascinating to research the way people lived and how they interacted with each other during that period of history. Yet, she said she would not write another historical romance because it took so much time to write.

Swift devotes some time almost every day to writing although she no longer sticks to a strict schedule like she used to. Some days she says she becomes immersed in the writing and she describes those days as wonderful. Other days, life just takes over. Even without a strict schedule, however, Swift said that it takes a great deal of dedication and self-discipline to write a book and she does not recommend becoming a writer.

Karate taught Swift some of the self-discipline required to write a novel (Swift got her black belt when she was 40 years old). She started doing karate eleven years ago and said that she does not think she would be nearly as disciplined in writing a book if she had started writing earlier in life. Karate has helped Swift gain the confidence to believe that there is nothing she cannot achieve if she puts her mind to it.

Still, Swift said it is not easy to turn a pile of paper into something that lives and breathes. But she continues to turn out manuscripts that get published. Since Hopelessly Compromised, Swift has published two additional books, His Baby, Her Heart and The Ranger and the Rescue. His Baby, Her Heart is set in Sacramento and of all her books, is Swift’s favorite. Swift’s fourth romance novel, In the Sheikh’s Arms, will be out in March.

Sheikh books, according to Swift, are a sub, sub-genre of the romance novel genre. Swift said that at first she did not think she could write a Sheikh book because she is Jewish. Nonetheless, Swift thinks she has produced a really good book. In the Sheikh’s Arms, has a cool revenge plot, the hero has a secret, and of course, romance abounds.