Nicole French's Blog

Hey, there. It's been a while, I know. Sorry about the radio silence. This summer and fall have been crazy busy, with the release of Legally Ours, the third and final book of my Spitfire Trilogy, and also the first book of a new series, titled Bad Idea.



Hot, yes? That cover model. Ummmmm. On top of that, I'm going back to school, keeping my day job, raising three kids, and basically never sleeping.

It's cool.



I'm excited, though. I'm excited about this new book because instead of recycled more tropes we've all read before, I took a leap of faith and wrote a story that's really close to my heart. Bad Idea reads at first like a typical bad boy meets rich girl in the city story. And it kind of is. Nico Soltero, otherwise known as The Hottest Man of my Dreams, is a part-Puerto Rican mutt from Hell's Kitchen, a twenty-six-year-old FedEx worker whose life is going nowhere. He meets Layla Barros, a student from an affluent family who's attending NYU and working part-time at an office on Nico's delivery route. Sparks fly. Drama ensues.



But. The star of this story isn't really just Layla and Nico; it's New York City. Not the flashy, cool New York you often see in TV shows or in books about asshole billionaires. It's the New York of 2002-2003, the New York of my youth, the New York I know intimately well and love with all my heart.



People who know me will probably read this book and think that I am Layla. And while there are things that overlap, I'm not her. I'm not half-Brazilian (although members of my family are). I'm not the only child of a plastic surgeon and a housewife from Pasadena (I have five siblings, and my parents are from Oregon). I did not fall in love with a beautiful Puerto Rican man who was bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. If I had, I'd probably be raising babies in Rockaway instead of writing these books from Seattle.

But I want to say a bit about the research and knowledge that went into Bad Idea. I took a risk here, choosing to write about a few communities I love and admire, but wasn't born into. It's scary to write about cultural perspectives that are not your own, particularly since in romance, you run the risk of writing characters as sexualized stereotypes. You run the risk of offending people who do identify as a part of those communities, which is NEVER, EVER something I would want to do.



But, as so many writers have pointed out, that not only contributes to an ongoing problem of whitewashing in the romance community, it also shuts down all sorts of possibilities for good stories. See, I may be white, but the life I lead is full of so much diversity. I married a man from Hawaii, I am raising multiracial children. I have devoted my academic life to studying the history of racial identity in this country. I have lived in New York, Boston, San Diego, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and Seattle, and NEVER have I lived a life where I was only ever surrounded by white people. How can I write homogenous stories if that's not the life I actually live?

So I decided to take on this challenge. And because authenticity is really important to me, nearly every place and character written in these books has some thread of truth. I actually lived in Dominican City for a while (Nico's neighborhood). I had several friends who also lived there and in some of the few remaining housing projects in Hell's Kitchen. I learned to speak Spanish well enough to pick up some of the slang terms. However, this was all a very long time ago, so I also did a LOT of research. I've been watching videos and stalking people on Instagram and reading books and reaching out to people (some within this beautiful book community) who can claim membership in the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York or the larger Brazilian community in the U.S. This is an ongoing process, and it's possible you'll see slight changes in updated versions of the book. It's taking me back to that crazy time in my life, but it's also taking me forward. I'm learning so much.



I hope this care and attention comes through, because you see, this is the New York I fell in love with. It's gritty and mixed. It's choppy and will break your heart. It's vibrant and colorful and full of tastes and smells and sights and sounds that are sometimes nice and sometimes awful and somehow always very beautiful.




One last note on the book:

If you haven't read Bad Idea, first of all, please go do it. I want to know what you think. Then come back here and keep reading, because you're going to see some spoilers:

I've had a few readers pipe up that Puerto Ricans are citizens and therefore, Nico's mother shouldn't be illegal, as she is in the book. I know this, although it's unfortunate how many Americans do not and seem to want to think about Puerto Rico as "other" from this country. I do not not want to be a part of that problem, which is one reason why I chose to make my main character Puerto Rican in particular.

Just a reminder: Nico's mother is one of many Cubans who sought sanctuary in Puerto Rican at the beginning of the Castro regime. Although she was brought up in Puerto Rico and raised in a Puerto Rican family, she is not an American citizen. Her story is unique and will come out eventually. And while yes, the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 should have made it easy for her to naturalize, I'm just going to ask you to please trust me here. If you've read my other books, you know I weave a tangled, tangled web with my characters. These facts are important, and will come up in the next book. That's all I'm going to say.

xo,
Nic
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Hey there. It's been a while, I know. I did some things since September, like published Legally Ours, the final book in my Spitfire Series, and also published Bad Idea, the first book in a series of the same name. Yes, it's another book in a long, angsty, urban series. Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger. No, I am not trying to trick anyone into reading it despite the cliffhanger. I just like them.

But Bad Idea is different than my last series. See in writing this series, I broke a major unspoken rule of contemporary romance. I wrote characters who are not white.



I did this for a few reasons. One, I just wanted to write the story about Nico Soltero, a Puerto Rican man from a working-class neighborhood, and Layla Barros, a half-Brazilian, half-white NYU student because I thought it was interesting. But I also prioritized this book over other projects because I realized my last series was contributing to a major problem in romance: whitewashed narratives.

Look. It's no secret that the romance is pretty whitewashed. Take a look at the bestseller lists on Amazon. Look at almost all of the romantic comedies or TV shows produced over the last, oh, forever. Think about the television shows Sex in the City and Girls, stories set in incredibly diverse locations like New York City. Unless you're looking at ethnically aligned categories or channels, most of what you see is pretty damn white.



I have lived in New York, San Diego, Boston, and Seattle, all settings of my books. Fifteen years ago, I was Hannah Horvath, so I can tell you that there is absolutely no way you can live in any part of New York City and live a life that white. The city wasn't like that in 2001, and it's certainly not now. Urban dwellers in particular do not live in a racially homogenous world––why do we write it that way?



Whitewashed representations does two really bad things. First, it alienates half of potential readers. Yes, half. At least. That's what percentage of the U.S. is approximately people of color, and that statistic only grows if you think internationally. People are sick of homogenous storytelling, and with good reason. It's just plain false.



But whitewashing romance does something more insidious. It reinforces a world in which legitimacy and power belong primarily to those who are white. If we only read and write narratives about white characters, we are communicating, both through our dollars and pens, that their stories are the only ones that matter––whether we think that or not. 

Let me say that again.

If you, by writing and reading "what you know," only read and write stories about white characters, you condition yourself and others that only white perspectives are worth our attention.

Look, to other white writers: I get it. It feels...scary and maybe impossible to write about cultural perspectives to which you don't belong, particularly considering the history of appropriation in this country. Thinking about it might make you feel like:



It doesn't help that American romance has a looooonnnnng history of fetishizing people of color (see James Fenimore Cooper, Lydia Marie Child...I could go on). I am not interested in being another Vanilla Ice or Miley Cyrus. I am not interested in using people of color as exoticized props or tools to demonstrate my "wokeness." And that's a fine line, my friends, particularly in a genre that often sexually objectifies its characters to begin with. It may feel safer to just "write what you know" to avoid offending anyone. But you guys, keeping your fictional worlds monochromatic is basically just pretending half of the population doesn't exist. Where's the humanity in that?

So. What can we do?

First of all, do your part to diversify the industry. Reach out to writers of color. Buy their work. Promote them as much or more than you would promote white writers. As Gabrielle Union recently said, pass the mic. It doesn't just have to be ours.



Not sure where to start? Here's a list of some fantastic writers of color and/or writers who create interesting, diverse stories. If you know others who should be on this list, let me know, and I'll add them:

- Dylan Allen
- Kimberly Reese
- CL Stacey
- S.L. Jennings
- Danielle Allen
- Nana Malone
- Ava Alise
- Kennedy Ryan
- Cathy Johns
- Claudia Burgoa
- Heather Orgeron
- Amy Harmon

Interested in learning about other writers of color? WOC In Romance is a great place to start.

Secondly, do your homework. Work to incorporate people of color into your stories in meaningful ways, but be conscious that your instincts are absolutely colored by the implicit racism steeped in our culture. Really learn about other identities that are not your own. I am not Puerto Rican, like the main character of my book, but I did my damnedest to portray his life in New York based on real scenes I witnessed, real people I know, and others to whom I reached out to confirm my impressions.

Find people who live the realities you want to portray. Take their perspectives seriously. Let them help you develop characters who are three-dimensional. Be humble enough to be called out when your versions of these characters are incorrect or even offensive. It's going to happen. That's okay. Just be willing to listen and revise, and you'll be fine.



This genre is powerful. Romance is one of the oldest and most important forms of modern literature. Shakespeare, a romance writer, coined terms and phrases that changed the face of the English language. The novel, arguably the most influential form of the modern era, started with romance and has historically provided a voice for women, a long-marginalized population, since its beginning. Like it or not, our stories have the potential to shape the world––the way people see it and what they do with it. To that end, the representations we make in them matter. So let's hold ourselves accountable. We can do better.




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I knew these comments were going to happen. In fact, I've been sort of bracing myself against them. As review come in, this is me:

Nic Waiting for Reviews
MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN LEGALLY MINE.

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I have something to say.

Something happens at the beginning of Legally Mine that I knew had the potential to piss a lot of people off. At the end of Legally Yours, we find out that Skylar, the main female character, was pregnant. By the time I had released that book, I already knew what was going to happen next, which is why it was rough to get all of those reader comments saying that Brandon was going to be an amazing father. Which...yes. He probably is. Just not in Book 2.

This, as many of you discovered, is because in the beginning of Legally Mine, Skylar has an abortion. And yes, it's Brandon's.

...

...

Sorry, I was just waiting for you to stab me through the computer screen.

I know. I KNOW. I know this is frustrating, and I know I'm breaking a lot of rules here. Abortions aren't supposed to happen in romances, right? Aside from how polarizing they are politically, if the baby's gone, it's supposed to be through a more palatable route, like miscarriage, that doesn't make the character culpable, and, if some of your reviews are any indication, ultimately unlikeable.

But that wasn't my character. That's not Skylar.

See, another thing I see from a lot of your (very appreciated, by the way) reviews is that you love my characters' multi-dimensionality. You recognize that I'm not just writing pulp fiction here; I'm trying to write real people. And the reality is that this story is as much about Skylar and Brandon's growth as very flawed, complicated people as it is about their love story.

Skylar's a pain in the ass. She tries to make smart decisions, but the reality is, she's a little dysfunctional socially, and like many people in their mid-twenties, is pretty self-absorbed. Does that frustrate you? Because let me tell you, it frustrates the hell out of me.

Nic Writing Skylar
But I'm not God. And when her pregnancy happened (and yes, it does "feel" like things just "happen" sometimes when I am writing them. I often feel like a photographer more than a creator), I also had to ask myself: what would someone like this do? What would someone who is cornered by shitty circumstances, someone who is a liberal, urban thinker, someone who is extremely career-driven and well-aware of a lot of the pressures inordinately put on women to raise children, someone who is also terrified about her own abilities to be a parent in the first place...what would she do?

The answer was quite simple. She wouldn't keep it.

Nic Writing The Scene (You Know the One)
It was hard. It was so hard to write that scene (the one at the doctor's office, and the one where she takes the pills themselves) that I had to cut them short. It was so hard that I had to come back to them after I had written most of the book.

But I also hope this decision is a catalyst for a lot of the character development Skylar goes through during the course of the book and the next. Legally Mine was hard to write because even the happiest of scenes were riddled with her remorse, her guilt, coming to terms with the fact that she has hurt the person she loves the most.

And isn't that what so often happens with first love?

You tell me.


One last note that should probably serve as a disclaimer about my books moving forward: 

If you want characters who are perfect, you should not read my books.

If you want characters who always do the right thing, you should not read my books.

If you want characters who won't be flawed, make mistakes, even do some of those things repeatedly, you should definitely not read my books.

I don't think that life has to imitate art (meaning that art should be something we all aspire to), nor do I think art must imitate life. Usually it's somewhere in the middle––taking the intense, the mundane, the beautiful, the ugly, and amplifying it to the point where viewers take something away from it that allows them to feel their own human experience that much more intensely.

xo,
Nic

Hoo-boy! It's been a seriously busy month. The best news is this: LEGALLY MINE IS FINISHED. The book is currently up for pre-order on Amazon, and just going through one last round of proofreading to make it all beautiful before its wide release on June 28. I am so, so very excited and nervous to see what everyone thinks. This was me last night:



Writing is so intensely personal, and this book in particular was really difficult in some ways to write. It came fast and furious, but after some of scenes, I'd often feel like I'd just been run over by a truck. The characters make some choices that really angered me, and I suspect will also anger you guys too, so it's a little nerve-wracking to put something out that that feels so intensely vulnerable.

But.

We don't write to be safe, do we? Aristotle, my main man, pronounced the point of poetry as catharsis: that process of purging those uncomfortable emotions we can't figure out otherwise. So my characters are just like anyone else: they make bad decisions, and they make good ones, and they have to deal with the fallout of both.

Which brings me to my point of writing: your feedback. This morning I woke up to an amazingly kind review of an early edition of the book. Knowing when my work resonates just means THE WORLD to me, you guys. I love, love, LOVE hearing from you. I had such a goofy smile on my face that my students this morning clearly thought I was nuts. I was way too happy for the end of the quarter. So that lady up there turned to this:



So I just wanted to say: thank you. Thank you for all of your support. Thank you for your reviews, which help vouch for the books and interest other readers too. Thank you for your participation and communication with me on social media. Thank you for being part of this amazing adventure.

Places where you can get in touch:

Nicole French's Le Merde (a Facebook reader group)
Nicole French Facebook page
On Goodreads (please leave a review!)
On Twitter
On Instagram
On Pinterest

xo,
Nic
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So, you might have already known this, but last week I had a cover release party. The powers that be (meaning, my editorial folks and loud-mouthed friends), informed me incessantly that the original cover for Legally Yours wasn't "sexy" enough for the book.

This was the first cover, which most of you probably remember:



It's pretty, yes. And the color pops, although, as I learned later, the text is hard to read in thumbnail. But mostly what everyone wanted was more sex-appeal, which this doesn't have at all.

Ugh.

I mean, I know the book has its share of steamy bits, but that wasn't really the heart of what I set out to do, which was to write about complex characters and their development. Okay, and their chemistry. But this is romance, not erotica, and I didn't want to sell it like that.

Still, I conceded that the cover could be spicier. So as I geared up to promote Book #2 (OUT JUNE 28TH BTW), I hired a new designer and we got to work designing not one, but all three new covers for the trilogy. Here's how they looked:





 I think they looked pretty nice, albeit maybe a bit...homogeneous. But my designer did a good job, and I was happy with how they turned out: sexy, but not vulgar, you know?

So I have a release party for the first one. I have my marketing strategy all mapped out for the second. I contact all my blogger friends, and they're sharing on their pages, and people are sharing the new covers there. And then...both Facebook and Amazon reject my ads for Legally Yours and the new cover. For being too sexually suggestive and explicit.

WTF.

I don't even know. It's so indicative of the puritanical society we live in that a picture of a fully dressed man kissing a fully dressed woman's NECK could be considered too sexually explicit. Sigh. Don't ever take these kids to Europe, is what I'm saying. They are going to be freaked out by all the penises everywhere. Statues and statues of penises, everywhere you go. Except, the Vatican, of course, where they're all covered with leaves. But I digress.

So I had to make a new cover, and I had to do it fast. This time I decided to try a different route. The covers for each of the books will be a bit different, although they will feature the same fonts and graphics. The first features a "Skylar" kind of model, the second will feature a "Brandon", and the third will be a sort of collage of the two. The second and third are not ready yet (patience!), but you can see the NEW-new cover for Legally Yours now:


 Well, what do you think? Actually, don't tell me (actually, do). I canNOT change this cover again.

As a consolation to both myself and my readers for putting up all of these shenanigans, I decided, at long last, on a release date for Legally Mine. Have at it, folks. Pre-orders will be ready as soon as the second cover is done.

Over the last few months, I've received a bunch reviews on Legally Yours. Good or bad (and mostly good--thanks for those, by the way!), often one question comes up:

Why is Brandon such an asshole in the first part of the book?
-------SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T READ LEGALLY YOURS-----

He is. I know he is. That scene in the office where he tells Skylar he wants to fuck her? Yeah, I pulled that trope right from how many popular romance heroes: Christian Grey, Jesse Ward, Gideon Cross, Hudson Pierce...don't they all have these weirdo, creepy moments where they make some kind of creepy indecent proposal toward the heroine?

Brandon has a moment like that with Skylar too. It's an uncomfortable scene. Frankly, it was uncomfortable to write. There's a lot of sexual tension, which clearly sparks when they make out. But he's also being an unmitigated asshole. Take a look:

Creepy Office Stalker“Mr. Sterling, why am I here? Somehow I don’t think it was just to enjoy a cup of tea or argue about shoes.”
He sat back into the couch again and rubbed a big hand over his face. “Haven’t I told you yet to call me by my first name?”
I shook my head. I would have remembered that.
"It's Brandon," he said as he propped his head up with one hand. "You should call me Brandon. Especially since I asked you up here because I'd really like to fuck you. Tonight, if that works." 
Ewwwwwwwww.

So...why does he do that? And, once it became clear that Brandon wasn't, in fact, the asshole he seemed like in the beginning, why did I choose to keep that whole part of the book?

The main reason is this: toxic masculinity.

Okay, let me back up to the beginning of this thought process.

See, I really, really hate Christian Grey.

I mean, look at that dude. What. An. Asshole.

Christian Grey: Emo Thumb Biter...

...

...

Still there?

Okay. In all honesty, I've probably read the Fifty Shades trilogy about five times. It's a fun read. It did a lot for the genre, it did a lot for my marriage (TMI, sorry), and it made a lot of people feel safer about exploring alternative sexual practices. I am here for all of that. That is super good.

Darcy and Rochester: The OG-CGsBut my issue with FSOG juggernaut is that it also further normalized a whole other level of toxic masculinity. Think about it. We live in a world where most men do not feel comfortable with their emotions, and that in turn fuels a whole bunch of abusive behaviors that people start to think are okay and even desirable. Christian Grey comes from a long line of sullen English dickheads (think Darcy, Heathcliff, Rochester, etc.) that emotionally manipulate women because they just can't get their shit together enough to say "Hey, I just want to be loved." And I am so, so over it.

Brandon's character evolution developed in response to that. I didn't start this book thinking he was going to be some alpha-billionaire, but that's what he ended up being. And as a character, he, like so many men in real life, is torn between the popular conception of how "real men" are supposed to act (sullen, distant, powerful, controlling, etc.) versus how his devotion for Skylar really makes him feel (vulnerable, kind, sensitive, loving).

To me, that's a realistic struggle, even when it takes place in a book that's pretty over the top. And so I decided to keep Brandon's shitty behavior, if only to allow him to build toward that "a-ha!" moment where he realizes it won't actually get him anywhere-–not with a women who's worth being with. I wanted to write a version of this trope that allowed the male figure to get beyond his own social conditioning without being "saved" by his lover.

So what do you think? Did I meet my goals there? What do you think about Brandon's character evolution?

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I know, I know. There's been a lot of radio silence lately. And you know why? Because I have been writing up an absolute storm. Writing to the point where I should be ready to announce a release date within the next few weeks! Aaaah!

Right now I am finishing up the last few planned chapters of Legally Mine, Part 2 of the Spitfire Series. Brandon and Skylar have not been making things easy for themselves, but their story has been coming, fast and hard, and that's made my job a lot easier. So, here is what my schedule is looking like for the next few months, once I finish this first draft:

April: 
Commission new covers for the entire series. I'll be doing some reveals for this on Facebook, so definitely follow me there! Edit/Revise Legally Mine. This will be my top priority Set a release date! May:
Send book out to beta readers and final proofreading. Make last rounds of changes and prep book for release. Solicit advance reviews for Legally Mine. Look for opportunities to get an advanced review copy of Legally Mine if you have already reviewed Legally Yours on Amazon. End of May/June
Hopefully release the book! Woo-hoo! 


Announcement: Chapter Release!!!And now for the big news: to celebrate all of this progress happening, I'm going to send the first chapter of Legally Mine, Spitfire Book 2, exclusively to my email subscribers on FRIDAY this week! 
All you have to do is subscribe to my email list via my Facebook or right here on my website. 
I do not spam my subscribers. In fact, this chapter release will be my very first email to everyone. So please, sign up for exclusive content and giveaways. 
Thanks so much for all of your support, everyone! 

I had a great time sitting down for an interview with Holland Rae this week. We chatted about her writing process and upcoming work.

Author Interview Describe your writing process? How do you start writing? Is there a consistent pattern to how you write your books? My writing process looks a little like the way a 1940s Film Noir detective might research a murder case [she laughs]. I usually have several stories going on at once, each with their own bulletin or white board covered in notes. I tend to write in series, so I need to be very organized – outlines, interviews, settings, etc. It might not seem organized to anyone else, but I know which stack of notes I need for the day. I'm always writing stuff down.

What advice would you give to new writers in the field?Simple: Read. Write. Always. The more you read the better you're going to get. The more you write, the better you're going to get. There's no silver bullet when it comes to being a writer. I'm still figuring out what some of the rules are for marketing and writing at the same time. But if you're serious about being a writer and you're trying to make a profession out of it, treat it like a job and not a passion. If writing is your hobby, you get to have writer's block, but I realized a while back that if writing is your job, you don't.

Who are you reading right now? Give us your top give new recommendations:So many things! Eek, not even a fair question! Okay, I'm a huge fan of Laura Kaye's Hard Ink Series, currently on the last book in the original series, and I still love it. Her characterization is really something to study, as well as her inclusion of diverse characters. I've learned so, so much from reading and listening to her books, and I really recommend her.
I'm also reading Paradise Beneath Her Feet, which is a non-fic text about feminism in The Middle East. I think it's really, really important to be constantly expanding my interests into fields I know less about. It helps with research and widens the inspirations pool.
Other loves of my life, Eloisa James, Sophie Jordan, Maya Banks, Kiera Cass, Diana Gabaldon.

What's your favorite "guilty pleasure" as a writer? Favorite drink? Snack? Locale to write?I'm really easily distracted. If I think I'll be cute and spend the day writing at the local Starbucks, I'm really going to waste a day people-watching at the local Starbucks. That being said, I'm a tea and coffee sucker, so I might take an hour and walk into town for a break. I love chocolate-covered espresso beans, but I'm trying really hard to be good, so mostly oranges, blueberries, other fruits that feel like candy.

How has your real life affected the stories or characters you write?As I said above, I studied journalism in college, and that had a huge impact on how I go about writing fiction. Journalism, as its core, is the telling of human stories – tragic, beautiful, challenging, exciting. It broadened my understanding of how stories are formed and how people interact during the best and worst times of their lives. It also helped me to 'interview' my characters when I'm getting to know them. One of my favorite real-life impact stories is from a WIP about an art thief living in Amsterdam. I studied art history throughout high school and college, especially focusing on it when I studied abroad in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is an amazing and rich city, and having spent time there, especially in the museums, I got to have a lot of fun placing the story in the heart of the city. I drew on my art history education, as well as learning a lot more for the book.

What project are you currently working on?The above story is the second one in a series. Originally I thought the books were novella length, but after the second one ended up being 10k longer than the first, and the third 10k longer than the second, I realized that the books were more suited to full-length novels. I've been revisiting the first two finish products and now I'm revamping the whole series, better fleshing out the individual characters and expanding the overarching storyline. I learned a lot about ensemble writing from Laura Kaye, and I hope I can use some of those lessons moving forward.

What’s next for you?Always writing! I write under two pen names, so I usually have some project or other in the works. Just sent in a full-length novel – one of a trilogy – for my editor to review. I have a new historical novella with The Wild Rose Press, also one of three, that I'm currently editing. I really love this book. It's about a pirate queen mercenary, which is essentially all I've ever wanted to be. I think the next book I'll be starting from scratch, rather than editing, will be book two in that series.
Book InterviewTell us a little about your new release, The Adventurous Heart.
Where did your inspiration for the book come from?
This was the third book in The Royal Rakes Collection, and I was really excited to push Georgina's story way out of the realm of the comfortable. I had an image in my mind as to what Andrea looked like, and the rest sort of fell into place after that.

Describe one piece of research you did for the book. So much history about buried treasure the Spanish Main and explorers! That's the most fun kind of research! I learned a lot about actual pirates, and I used the name and treasure of a real pirate, lost to the sands of time. As you might be able to tell, I really like pirate lore, so this story brought a lot of romanticism and adventure with it.
Do you write with music? What are some of the songs that informed the tenor of your newest release?Get it away! As I said before, I'm super easily distracted. If it's a necessity, I can write to music without lyrics. One of my recent stories was a modern Paris love story, so I had some jazzy background when there were people over the house. This story, The Adventurous Heart, I could have written with The Pirates of the Caribbean or some other epic soundtrack, but I'd really just prefer quiet. I guess that's just how I'm wired.

What’s next for this story - is it part of a series? When does it come out? Woo-hoo! This is book three. The whole series, A Duel of Hearts and To Marry a Captain, came out in fall of last year. I have a soft spot in my heart for these characters, but I'm really looking forward to concentrating on full-length works from now on.
Author Bio:Holland Rae is the author of several works of erotic and romantic fiction in both the contemporary and historical genres, and enjoys pushing the limits of freedom, feminism, and fun in her stories.  She has been an avid writer for many years, and recently moved back to her home state of New Jersey from Boston, after completing her education in journalism and creative writing.
In her free time, she loves to travel, and spent several months living in a 14th century castle in the Netherlands. When not exploring the world, she likes dreaming up stories, eating spicy food, driving fast cars, and talking to strangers.


Social Links:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HollandRae/Twitter: https://twitter.com/@RaeRomance/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hollandraeroman/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollandraeromance/Website: https://hollandrae.com/Mailing List: https://hollandrae.com/join-my-mailing-list/Keep up with Holland on her Amazon page.

You want to know a secret? Even if if makes you a little mad at me? All right, I'll tell you:

I wrote the cliffhanger on purpose. I write cliffhangers because I actually like them.

*blocks face with hands*

I know, I know. It's frustrating to becoming really invested in what's happening to a story or characters and then have a major bomb dropped on you at the end of the story. But let's be real, too: the way the story ended before the major "bomb" in Legally Yours wasn't exactly a "happy-ever-after", was it? I mean, that's definitely not how you'd want that story to end. It's not how I want the story to end.

But you know what else I dislike? I dislike becoming that invested in characters only to have their story end forever after only 200-300 pages. Or, in the case of Legally Yours, 500. Romance novels are  quick and easy to read. They're like candy, the kind you sneak late at night. You stay up until three AM, reading in the dark on your phone or your Kindle, paging through because you just. have. to. know: what happens next? So if it takes me less than a few days to get through it...yeah. I'm going to want more than just that.

My favorite books of ALL genres are the ones that are let me luxuriate with the characters for at least a week, maybe two. Maybe even months. I like my romances long, and I like them to continue long enough to really see my favorite characters grow. The fact that a book is part of a legitimate series, even if it's  not done yet, is a selling point for me, not a deterrent. Serials that cycle through the various "stories" of different character in the original book don't count.

Jodi Ellen Malpas does a great job of this in the This Man series and the One Night series. I haven't read The Protector yet, but I'm sure I'll love it too. I adore Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series as much for the detail and escape factors as for the fact that I get almost ten-thousand pages and counting of Jamie and Claire's story together.

Other writers who do this well: K.A. Linde, Heather C. Leigh, Nicole Williams, Laurelin Paige, S.C. Stephens, Rebecca Donovan, and, of course, E.L. James (I have some issues with FSOG, but that's for another post. I can't deny that I have read it several times). There are others I can think of, but these are the writers whose work is at the top of my list.

So when I asked myself what kind of stories I wanted to write, it became pretty clear when I started sketching out my first project that it was going to take multiple books to get through it. I get that it's annoying to be left hanging, but for me, the series are the books I reread. They are the stories I come back to, like old friends. There's enough in them that I can rediscover elements of the characters I'd forgotten about, enough complications that I won't immediately recall everything when I pick up the book again. I've read all of the authors listed above multiple times, and I can't always say that about all of the other romance writers I enjoy.

So here's the bright side: the next book is definitely coming out, and you'll get your fix soon enough. Legally Yours will be a trilogy; I've had that planned out for over a year. The second book is well on its way to being finished, and the third has already been started. I'd like to have the series completed by the end of the summer (although that might be a bit optimistic, so we'll see). I also have two other trilogies planned and partially drafted as well. There will be a lot to keep you busy.

My characters are complicated. Romance is fantasy, for sure, but that doesn't mean the characters shouldn't be three-dimensional. Writing those dimensions takes time. So, what do you think? Are these characters you'd want to stay with for while?

If you've read my book, you probably figured out that I connect a lot with music in my writing. This isn't by accident. I'm a trained musician myself, and it's always played a major role in how I connect with the world around me. 
So it wasn't by accident that Skylar, the narrator of Legally Yours, comes from a musical family. I made this choice for a few reason. Well, I should say more accurately that she made the choice, because most of those scenes involving music came out of nowhere. When Brandon showed up in New York, I had no idea they were going to end up at her dad's show in Brooklyn. When he showed up at her dorm, I had no idea she was going to be playing the piano. 
But in the end, these things made sense. My goal in these books was to make the characters believable and multi-dimensional. Skylar and Brandon are supposed to be accomplished, even brilliant at times. They both went to some of the best schools in the country. I actually went to NYU myself, and also went to school in Boston. I know the kinds of people who attend these colleges. They do a lot of stuff. 
So I borrowed from some of those experiences to write these scenes. The moment where Skylar plays the piano in her dorm basement, for instance, was lifted directly from my own college experiences at NYU, which has pianos in the common areas to accommodate the music students. While I was living a city full of strangers and noise (not to mention in a room with two other girls), playing the piano at two AM in an empty basement was one of the few times I found peace and time truly to myself. The club where Danny's band plays is modeled on a jazz club I used to frequent back then too: a place called Smalls that's actually in the Village, not in Brooklyn. 
The classical music is equally important too. The Boston Symphony is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city (and that's saying something), and seeing a show there is really an experience of grandeur, something I wanted to associate with Brandon's life. Likewise, the piece on the piano that Skylar plays for him later in the book, Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp Minor, perfectly captures the ups and downs of their relationship. 
In the next book, you'll see music continue to filter in and out of the story. Bruce Springsteen, who, as you probably know, is one of Brandon's favorites, is one example. Music was an important way that he connected with his foster mother, and as she enters the story more in Book 2, I've been listening to a lot of stuff I sense is on her record shelf: a lot of classic rock from the mid-to-late seventies, and a bit of eighties pop. Susan really likes Heart, I found out. And, weirdly, Cyndi Lauper, whom I don't love. So now "Time after Time" is on a loop in my house, and no one is that happy about it. Thanks a lot, Susan. 
So, to give you a feel for the series (and to hold you over until the next book comes out), here's some of the music to tide you over. Can you think of anything I'm missing for these characters? Post on my Facebook Page or send me a Tweet! 
Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp MinorMy Funny Valentine by Chet BakerMy Foolish Heart by Bill Evans TrioThunder Road by Bruce SpringsteenCrazy on You by HeartEx Factor by Lauryn Hill