Just over a year ago, Jean Joachim, published romance writer and Ben Tanner, retired Marine with seven years of active service, began their collaboration on a military romance novel. Living over 800 miles away from each other, they had to write their book over the Internet. On September 25, Love, Lost and Found was published by Secret Cravings Publishing to stunning reviews.
Ben and Jean met in a Facebook chat room for writers. One night they carried on a lengthy conversation as two characters. Due to the rapport they struck up, Jean suggested, half-joking, that they should write a book together. Ben took her up on it and the partnership was born. Though Ben thought, at first, of the project as more of a hobby, it wasn’t long before Jean had convinced him this was going to be a real book and it would get published.
The two pored over the story, tossing out ideas to each other through email or private messages on Facebook. Once they had settled on the basic outline, they began having conversations with each other in character. Jean portrayed Tara, the heroine, while Ben took the role of Mick, the hero. Their banter back and forth became the basis for most of the conversations between the characters in the book.
While they were crafting their book, Ben was working two jobs and Jean was writing and publishing other books. But love for the story and characters in Love, Lost and Found drove them on to complete the manuscript and submit it for publication to Secret Cravings Publishing (SCP). SCP scooped up the book and extracted a promise from Ben and Jean to write two more books, creating a series. Jean has 11 other contemporary romances published and was the recipient of the 2012 Author of the Year award from the New York City chapter of Romance Writers of America.
For more information on Love Lost and Found, contact: Jean Joachim at sunnydaysbook@
