falling for the rebel heir...and inspiration

BEHIND THE SCENES OF A HARLEQUIN ROMANCE....

My inspiration for particular scenes in FALLING FOR THE REBEL HEIR were many and varied.

This picture of a pine forest inspired a scene or two linking the hero's home, Claudel with the nearby town of Saffron. It felt kind of magical to me:

She ducked into the pine forest and looked over her shoulder just the once to find Hud standing outside the pool house looking for her, hands on hips, eyes straining. But she knew this part of the world too well and by now she would be no more than one of a thousand shadows between the trunks.

This picture is a library in a Marriot hotel, can't remember which, and it inspired me to write a scene in which my hero becomes familiar with one of my favourite Shakespearean scenes, it also gave me the chance to give a teeny tiny ode (which I loooove to do) to a bunch of my favourite authors...

He ran his fingers gently over the spines of the books organised as far as he could tell with no regular rhyme or reason. Knowing Fay it could have been the order in which she bought them, or read them, or loved them. Many names familiar and some not so much Chaucer, Francis, Christopher, Neels, Bradbury...
And one William Shakespeare.
Hud stopped. His eyes roving over the curly gold script of several volumes until he found what he was looking for.
He slid the leather bound copy of Henry V from its slot then roamed to the middle of the room, and absently slid the white sheet away from a long red velvet chaise lounge and let it flutter to the floor, the wafting dust now feeling somehow normal.

Though mot all that much of the research I did on family coffee plantations in Colombia ended up in the book, it all certainly helped flavour the story. Our hero last worked in a small village called Salento and here you'll find high concentrations of the national tree - the Palma de Cera. Spare, beautiful and for all that a survivor. Kinda like my hero...

I hope this little pictorial travel through some of the inspiration behind FALLING FOR THE REBEL HEIR has given you some hints as to how the story evolved from an idea about a girl, a guy and a pool into a full-fledged story.

The book is out now in the UK and North America and next month in Australia and New Zealand as part of the Mothers Day Gift Pack. You can also find it online here: UK, North America, Aus/NZ.