From: Rachel Butler To: Recipient Undisclosed Sent: 2:03 a.m. Subject: Re: Request for info
What can I tell you about Selena McCaffrey?
She first came to mind when I was working on a book I hoped to sell to Silhouette Intimate Moments. She had a lot in common with the other heroines I've created she's lovely, feminine, strong, intelligent, capable . . . and a bit more.
Not just strong, but kick-ass strong. I know, I know — the term has been way overused, but it was just coming into vogue when Selena popped up. And it's a fitting description (hey, you've hung around me long enough to know what I say about cliches: they become cliches because they're true).
And there's her occupation. Now she's an artist who dabbles in violence on the side, but in the beginning, she was well and truly a hit woman. She'd killed numerous people, and was determined that the Oklahoma cop next on her hit list would be the last.
And there's her race. If you've met Selena in The Assassin, then you know she's half black and half Puerto Rican, raised in Puerto Rico and Jamaica until she was fourteen. No matter how politically correct people like to pretend that race doesn't matter, we all know it does.
The rejection from Silhouette was a bit vague — that I'd pushed the envelope a little too far. I don't know if that meant they just weren't ready for a kick-ass heroine (this was before the Bombshell line came along), or if they weren't up to dealing with a heroine who kills for a living, or if their minds weren't quite open enough for a multi-racial heroine in a romance with a white hero.
Whatever, their rejection was my gain, because Bantam Dell loved the idea and snapped it up (and for a whole lot more money than Silhouette would have paid!).
And so that's where Selena is now — at home at Bantam Dell in The Assassin, Deep Cover, and two more yet-to-be-named books. If you want to know more about her, read the books or look around here. And be sure to check out her journal.
I bet you'll like her.
I certainly do.
Rachel
". . . sure to give J.D. Robb's Eve Dallas a run for the money." — Publisher's Weekly