My Three Masters

 Back at the start of my erotic romance writing career, my ignorance was mind-boggling. I didn’t write with any sort of plan, I simply wrote the stories that came into my head. Or rather, I’d take images and spin them from a ball of tangled yarn into something that hopefully resembled a sweater. Or at least a scarf. I wrote a contemporary set in the Caribbean, another set in Maine, the saucy tale of a wayward receptionist -- then decided to experiment with a Regency romance.

Series? What was that? While I loved reading series, it seemed clear that my mind didn’t work that way. I was a “standalone” writer. A “one-off” writer interested in exploring a transformational moment in someone’s sexual journey. How the heck do you make a series out of that?

Well, my editors soon bonked me over the head with the obvious. If readers like the characters, they want to know more about them. They want to know what happens next. Hello, sequel? Ever heard of it? How about series? Ring a bell? So I got the message and continued Dana, Simon and Ethan’s story in the Receptionist series. I wrote another book set in Wild, Alaska. Now that I’m onboard the series train, I love it. I can revisit old characters, bring new things into their lives, throw new challenges at them, and create an entirely new story in a world I’ve already established. 

So now it’s the Marquis de Beaumont’s turn. In MY THREE LORDS he played a crucial role in Lady Alicia’s sexual discovery, but at the end the Marquis was left on the outside of the great love between Alicia and the Duke of Warrington. I decided the Marquis deserved his own story.

MY THREE MASTERS, out now from Ellora’s Cave, picks up the tale of the naughty lives of the Marquis, the Duke, the Earl and his Countess, with the addition of the lovely, scarred and mysterious nursemaid Miranda Brown. In MY THREE MASTERS, everyone’s back in all their scandalous glory, but the main story is the passionate love that develops between the Marquis and Miranda. This book has much more of a BDSM slant, as well as a vicious bad guy and some dark secrets.

With all these sequels flying around, it sure seems like I know what I’m doing, right? I confess that it’s still pretty much accidental. Oh, my editor wants a follow-up to MY THREE LORDS? Um, okay. Cue the wheels spinning. (If I’m lucky.) Maybe one of these days I’ll actually plan a series ahead of time. You never know.

Here’s the blurb for MY THREE MASTERS. You can read an excerpt here and buy the book here. 

It’s been years since the Marquis de Beaumont, London’s most notorious rake, felt anything more than sexual need. But something about the mysterious nursemaid Miranda Brown catches his eye. Why is her face so terribly scarred? Why does her speech slip into the cadence of the upper class? Why is she haunting his dreams?

Miranda is used to hiding in plain sight. After fleeing her vicious guardian, she’s wary of everyone, especially the Marquis, who stars in her most secret nighttime fantasies. But not even her fantasies could prepare her for the truth about the Marquis, the Duke, the Earl and the Countess…or for the intense passion that flares between them. As the secrets from her past begin to surface, she fears their fragile bond won’t survive, and that not even her three masters will be able to save her from a cruel fate.

Inside Scoop: This Regency-set tale boasts ménage, BDSM…just about everything you could possibly want in a hot historical. 

 Happy reading! 

Juniper

Potato Chip Books

Unlike a lot of people, I’m not a true chocolate fanatic. I enjoy the taste, but I can take a single chocolate and leave the rest of the box without feeling particularly deprived. Potato chips, on the other hand, are another story. Put me near a bag and my self control promptly takes wing.

This rather labored explanation is meant to serve as the basis for an equally labored metaphor. Some books, you see, are like chocolate for me. I read a chocolate book over several days and then I may or may not get others by the same author. It’s pleasant reading, I like it, but it doesn’t really drive me to read nonstop. Other books, believe me, are more like potato chips. Once you start you just can’t put it down.

I first encountered the whole potato chip phenomenon when somebody gave me a box of Linda Howard’s old Harlequin romances from the eighties several years ago. I soon discovered I could polish one off in a few hours if I didn’t do anything else, and I usually didn’t want to do anything else while I was reading. After a couple of Linda Howard binges, I started rationing. I’d come home from work on Friday afternoon and curl up with a Linda Howard series romance. Three hours later, I’d probably be finished, but if I wasn’t, I’d go on reading after dinner or the next day until I was done. The whole process made Fridays something I looked forward to all week long.

After Linda Howard, I discovered Jayne Ann Krentz. Now Krentz’s books were a little longer, but I tore through them in the same way I’d torn through Howard’s. Weekend reading—I’d always check to make sure I had one on hand. Just like potato chips.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the writers who grabbed me this way (and I’d add Elizabeth Lowell to this list) were all old school. They’d come up through the ranks of series romances and they’d learned their trade well. Plots moved along at a very brisk pace. Characters were drawn in broad strokes and tended to fall into predictable patterns—the brooding alpha male, the headstrong, passionate woman. You didn’t spend a lot of time thinking when you read these books—you just plowed ahead.

By now, of course, all three of these writers have moved into Living Legend status, and they no longer write in the same way. They publish longer works and they seldom do more than one a year. Moreover, their characters are usually more complex, with more complete backstories. But the lessons you can learn from potato chip books are real. Stories matter. Characters may be stereotypical, but they’ve also got to be interesting. And most of all, once you’ve got the readers hooked, you’ll hold onto them. For those of us who write books in a series, that’s the Holy Grail, believe me.

Potato chip books. Betcha can’t read just one.

So who have I missed? What other potato chip authors would you add to this list?