Ask the Author: Lara Temple
Answered Questions (7)
Lara Temple
Hi! I'm so glad you enjoyed Lucas and Chase's stories! I enjoyed writing them so much and I miss them already. Edge and Sam's story (The Lord's Inconvenient Vow) is out in 4 months - 31 October 2019. It starts out in Egypt and then heads back to London. Sam and Edge are very special for me so I hope that comes across and I do hope you enjoy them as well! Thanks so much for reading and sharing your enjoyment and thoughts on my books - I always learn more about my books reading other people's impressions! Lara x
Lara Temple
Hi Marianne, You are very welcome - my book was the 'other' book in the Secret Valentine giveaway which you won, and I received your address from Janice Preston. It was all a little confusing but hopefully all the books reached the right places in the end
Lara Temple
Like many of my books The Duke’s Unexpected Bride started with the opening scene – I had this image of a quirky young woman trying to take a very reluctant and pudgy pug on a walk in Grosvenor Square. Sophie, the heroine was very clear to me - a misfit in a large family, with a love of painting and a big heart but always a sense of being out of place. The key line in this scene was when she tries to capture the escaping pug (called Marmaduke) and yells out ‘Heel, Duke!’ and though the pug doesn’t heed her, a real duke does. The Hero, the Duke of Harcourt, takes his title and its responsibilities very seriously and after a tragic past engagement he is determined that his wife will everything that is proper. Neither he nor Sophie considered each other as partners, despite the undeniable attraction between then, but when circumstance and an old rival force them into an engagement they struggle to come to terms with their new circumstances. There’s a light side to The Duke’s Unexpected Bride, but it is also a story about guilt and feeling helpless and realizing what you can, luckily, be very wrong about what you really need in life.
Lara Temple
I’m working on a series called The Hope House Rakes – about three men who because of wartime experiences and losses have established a special haven for men damaged by war and its aftermath. They first show up in another of my Works-In-Progress about an English officer and a woman forced to spy during the Napoleonic Wars. All three are rakes in their own way, very cynical about life but are bound together by strong bonds of loyalty and friendship. The first a kind of Cinderella story about Nell, a gawky young woman who escapes her bullying household only to find herself engaged to the rakish Lord Hunter who is only interested in the land she has inherited. But Nell has no intention of ever again being at someone else’s mercy, no matter how charming. She has been in love all her life with the beautiful Charles and is determined to make as much use of the amusing and infuriating Lord Hunter as he plans to make of her. But as she schemes to capture the heart of her perfect prince she finds that her highly flawed rake is her perfect match.
Lara Temple
I write. I know it sounds silly, but that’s what I do. I used to go into writing hibernation, running away from that block, but now it rarely happens because I literally just write my way through it. Often what I write when I’m stuck on a scene or heading into a new book isn’t very good but that’s what I have an excerpt file for (it where I dump deleted scenes – every book has a file like this and sometimes they are half as long as the finished book, I just find it easier than deleting the scenes outright, that just feels too brutal). Another tactic is to re-read what I’ve written so far and do some light editing then when I get to the sticky bit sometimes it has shaken free and I see that the block was really an attempt of a tired brain to tell me something just isn’t working. So I tend to respect blocks but I don’t indulge them, if that makes sense…?
Lara Temple
Wow - where do I start? I LOVE being a writer. I love working from home (though it’s tough on my scales!). I love that I get paid for inventing whole worlds, flawed and hopeful characters, I love falling in love alongside with my characters. I love how I discover the stories as I write them. Sometimes I am one the edge of my seat (literally and figuratively) as I write out a scene and can’t wait to find out where it is going.
I’m not saying it’s easy – it’s incredibly hard sometimes. Even harder than when I worked on Wall Street because here what is at stake is something highly personal – I’m exposing something much more delicate than a professional ego. Writing is an intimate part of who I am and until I started publishing, that part was safely tucked away out of pubic sight and now it’s out there to be kicked and stepped on by whoever wishes. It’s not always easy – three are always better and more successful writers and it’s always scary that this dream might suddenly come to an end, but no matter what - it’s worth it!!
I’m not saying it’s easy – it’s incredibly hard sometimes. Even harder than when I worked on Wall Street because here what is at stake is something highly personal – I’m exposing something much more delicate than a professional ego. Writing is an intimate part of who I am and until I started publishing, that part was safely tucked away out of pubic sight and now it’s out there to be kicked and stepped on by whoever wishes. It’s not always easy – three are always better and more successful writers and it’s always scary that this dream might suddenly come to an end, but no matter what - it’s worth it!!
Lara Temple
Inspiration is a tricky concept. Before I wrote to be published, I used to write when an idea grabbed me, or when I was procrastinating. But when a publishing house actually expressed an interest in my first manuscript, I realized I would have to make some serious attitude changes. Waiting for the muse went out the window and I forced myself to sit down, every day (barring weekends which are kid-controlled) and write. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes awful (I chuck it in the ‘excerpt’ file), but it’s all part of the process – the story just unfolds as the words come out, the more I write, the more organic the story seems to become, often surprising me as it comes out. That doesn’t mean there aren’t moments of sheer inspiration, where ideas just beg to be captured and written down, but they often occur at 4am when one of my kids wakes me up and then I can’t fall asleep and I scribble them down through bleary eyes or record them on my phone. Sometimes those are my best ideas so inspiration does matter to e
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