Why I Write: A Flashback Post

For Readers, General Blabbery, My Books, Writing

This is a flashback post about why I write that I did nearly 2 years ago for a reader blog, as I was just about to embark on indie publishing The Other Duke! Why I Do This is still the same really. Writing is the heart of me and it’s fun to see what I was thinking on the cusp of what has become the greatest adventure of my life:

Today I thought I’d talk about why I do this job. I don’t really remember a time when I didn’t write. I have boxes of stories at my parents’ house in Idaho that I wrote in elementary school. I even once said I wanted to be a writer in one of those “when I grow up” essays you’re required to write through school. But I never thought I would actually do it. I didn’t think you did arty things for a living, you had to have a back-up.

My back-up was psychology. I was going to be a marriage and family therapist. Funny thing happened on the way to a masters degree in family counseling… I realized my empathy, which is awesome as a writer (and hopefully as a human), was not that good as far as a counselor was concerned. I brought home other people’s pain, I didn’t have the ability to turn that off at night. So it turned out I wouldn’t be a good therapist.

BUT I had started working on a book I wrote during college at night and I was in love. My husband pointed this discrepancy out and suddenly, BAM. I was not going to go back to school, I was going to be a romance novelist. And that’s what I did.

So why, even after fifteen years of being a writer full-time and a published author for ten? Because I’m still in love with telling stories, first to myself and also for my readers. I love that connection that I make with someone who reads my book and is moved by my stories. I also love the freedom that my job has given me. I’m very lucky to be able to support myself and my family through my books, which means that I make my own schedule, I am able to hang out with my best friend (and husband) any time I want. We travel the world thanks to books and those who buy them.

The world of publishing is often a high wire act, but in the end I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Book 1

The Notorious Flynns

The Other Duke

For years Serafina McPhee has been engaged to marry the heir to the Duke of Hartholm and for almost as long, she has been struggling to find a way out of that engagement. When he suddenly dies, she does not mourn but thrills at the idea that she will be free. Unfortunately, best laid plans go awry when the next in line for the title, her intended’s cousin, Raphael “Rafe” Flynn is forced to take over the engagement. But Serafina knows Rafe’s reputation as a libertine and wants nothing to do with him, either, even if he is devastatingly handsome.

She proposes an arrangement: she will agree to the marriage and provide Rafe with his heir and spare. Once she has done her duty, he will let her go. Rafe is intrigued both by her beauty and by her utter disgust with the idea of being his bride. Women normally fall at his feet, not cringe away from him. However, since their arranged marriage is not something he can escape, he agrees to her terms.

But when he finds out on their wedding night the truth about her torture at the hands of his predecessor, he finds himself driven not just to fulfill his bargain with his new bride, but to introduce her to desire. While they move closer together, surrendering to wicked pleasures, dangerous emotions may violate every agreement they’ve made.

CW: Rape, Abuse, Violence

Features these tropes: Dukes, Forced Proximity, Forced Marriage, Trained in Pleasure, He Falls First, Unrequited Love, Rake/Wallflower, Cinderella