Extras: The Inside Take
This is where I tell you interesting connections between characters as well as cool historical facts that you might enjoy. But do be aware that these are written for people who have already read each book; the outcome of the books are no secret. Please do not read any of The Inside Take posts if you're wary of knowing who is paired with whom!
Inside Say Yes to the Duke
The backbone of Say Yes springs from unhappy memories of middle school: I was miserably convinced that I was deeply unattractive and would never fit in anywhere. That private horror was exacerbated by overhearing a few unkind remarks. Viola, the heroine of Say Yes, is absolutely convinced that as an adopted child, she’s not a “real” Wilde. And […]
Read More →Inside Say No to the Duke
I grew up in a farmhouse in Minnesota—but my mother had grown up in a far grander manner. She brought up myself and my siblings with silver and china at every meal. My brothers changed into white shirts for dinner; my sister and I only wore dresses to school, because we were ladies, and ladies […]
Read More →Inside Born to be Wilde
I will begin with my dedication to my brother-in-law, Sunil. Years ago, he told me that Sunil was another name for Krishna (the Supreme God, in Hindu belief). In the great epic poem, The Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna or Sunil disguises himself and acts as a charioteer to Parth, a Pandava Prince, who is going into battle. […]
Read More →Inside Too Wilde to Wed
The pre-plot of this novel springs from my understanding that Georgian noblemen and ladies must regularly have felt as if they were participating in a costume drama. Their clothing was so exaggerated: wigs that towered above their heads, coats that cost as much as a small British estate, makeup that took up to an hour […]
Read More →Inside Wilde in Love
One of the inspirations for this book was a comparison of our modern celebrity culture and that of Georgian England. I came up with the idea while watching Something Rotten!, a Broadway musical that turned Shakespeare into a Renaissance rock star. I combined the humor of the Broadway show and the frenzy surrounding another show, […]
Read More →Inside Seven Minutes in Heaven
While it’s not at all essential for reading Seven Minutes in Heaven, it can be a lot of fun to go read about Eugenia and Ward when they were little. Teddy (or Ward) is a funny, adorable boy in Desperate Duchesses, the story of his father and stepmother. And Eugenia is a wise, eccentric little […]
Read More →Inside A Gentleman Never Tells
The idea for the story sprang from rereading the Essex Sister series when I was writing its Companion, particularly Pleasure for Pleasure, Josie’s story. Josie is ostracized in London’s so-called polite society because of a nasty name—“the Scottish Sausage”—passed around by a group of fashionable young men. But Josie wasn’t the only one; another girl […]
Read More →Inside My American Duchess
My American Duchess was supposed to be a novella. One of my best friend’s sons, Joe, brought a diamond ring in his pocket all the way from England and asked his beloved Leeanne to marry him in Central Park while staying with us! I decided to write a novella in honor of their romance. But […]
Read More →Inside Four Nights with the Duke
Four Nights with the Duke follows Three Weeks with Lady X, the tale of Thorn and India, who also appear in this novel. From the moment Vander told Thorn, in Three Weeks, that he wanted the type of marriage that the Duke of Villiers had, I knew that he would be the best kind of […]
Read More →Inside Three Weeks With Lady X
You do not need to have read any of my previous books to read Three Weeks with Lady X. That said, if you have read the Desperate Duchesses series, you’ll recognize some old friends, since Thorn, the hero of Three Weeks, is the eldest illegitimate son of the Duke of Villiers. Thorn appeared as a […]
Read More →Inside To Wed a Rake
The most important thing to know about this story is that after writing it, I was heartbroken to realize that I had taken a fabulous plot and boiled it down to a hundred pages. It would have made a great novel (and my editor agreed!). I don’t know about you all, but for me there are […]
Read More →Inside A Fool Again
This story has one of my very favorite first lines: “A well-bred lady never ogles a man from behind her black veil, especially during her husband’s burial.” When I first wrote Fool for Love, I didn’t even know that Darby had two brothers. But suddenly they popped up on the computer (believe it or not, this does happen […]
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