Orphan book

I had a two-book contract with Holt, of which THE GOOD SON is book one and THE RETURN (September, 2013) is book two.  As it happens, I wrote another novel for book two before I wrote (had to write!) THE RETURN.

It was called AMNESIA DREAMS and no one liked it. It was a Jeykll-Hyde type story, heavy on neurology and neuroscience, and the heroine of it was a bitch. No one liked this character.  She was an unlikeable character who gets hits with a huge load of stress, and how she responds to it is the spine of that subplot.  This apparently did not fly. There is a certain type of woman who can be the villainess, but not the heroine, at least in genre fiction. 

There are some changes that I would make to this story, but this character will remain as she is because I am just interested in her psychology, even if she is a bitch, and because I believe that bitch is an authentic and interesting stance for an accomplished woman to take. I'd like to publish it someday because I think some readers would like it, and I still think it has a subtle appeal.  I agree it was not suitable for the contract, and this is why I wrote THE RETURN to have the widest appeal possible: excitement, exotic locale, romance, explosions, car chases, but with thoughts too.

There is a possibility that I will yet publish this orphan--at least one publisher is interested in it--but it will have to wait until THE RETURN comes out and until I finish and sell the colossus I am working on now.  One day I will write something about strategic considerations and the writing process.