Romance N Other Stuff
One of the hardest things for any author, I think, is writing within genre. Which probably sounds odd because a romance writer would naturally write a romance, right? But I write Harlequin Presents and they are short, fast-paced stories focused firmly on the Hero and Heroine. Which put me in a real bind when I began writing More Than A Convenient Marriage?
You see, the book opens when Adara, the heroine, arrives in Greece to find her brother, Nic. (I should interject here that if you live in North America, congratulations! You get a 2in1 with this release and the second story, No Longer Forbidden?, is Nic’s.)
Nic and Adara had very different childhoods, but they were both awful. Nic was rejected because his father found out he was the result of an affair. He was sent away to boarding school never to be heard from again. Adara, meanwhile, remained with their two younger brothers, her resentful, abusive father and their cheating, alcoholic mom. We won’t call it a home.
Adara survived, arranged her own marriage to a man she thought her father would accept, (Gideon is actually her perfect match, they just don’t realize it right away) and waited until her father died to look for the older brother she had never forgotten.
Nic was convinced he had been forgotten. He thought there was a terrible flaw in him that even he hadn’t identified. He grew into an isolated man who eventually formed a distant relationship with his biological father, but it was complicated by the man’s step-daughter, Rowan. She helps him locate his heart—oh, is that where I left it?—and they are building a very nice family when he gets word a strange woman is asking for him at his mansion in Greece.
Gideon, Adara’s husband, didn’t even know she had an older brother. Their marriage was a very convenient, even passionate union until they both thought the other was stepping out. He follows her to Greece convinced she’s meeting a romantic interest. Learning she kept such a huge secret from him is the beginning of a lot of bombshells that wind up clearing their path to love.
I won’t get into the heartbreaks that Gideon and Rowan had to carry. All four characters deserve to find love, but in the middle of that, Adara finds Nic. Her brother. That’s a big deal, right?
And I couldn’t put it on the page.
Not as much as I’d like, anyway. I snuck in quite a bit, all things considered. I didn’t outright cheat the reader of this important moment, but I know that Presents readers are looking for the highs and lows of falling in love. A sibling reconciliation is a different type of book altogether and that’s what I mean by it being hard to stay in genre.
In some ways it’s very freeing to simply allude to the intense emotions of such a moment. Writing those things out can be very cathartic, but also very draining. On the other hand, there’s a wistfulness on the writer’s part. You spend all that time setting up the background of the characters, you want the payoff, but it doesn’t belong. Kill that darling.
I’m actually writing the two younger brothers’ stories as well. The third has been accepted (An Heir To Bind Them, Jun 2013) and I have yet to start the fourth. I want a final bow on this broken family, but I already know it will be hard. Hard to let go, but hard to not write.
What are your thoughts? Do you find it adds depth if the main characters have complex relationships with secondary ones or is it a distraction for you? What are some of your favorite examples? Have you ever felt cheated by an author who glossed over something you thought was important?
*****
More Than A Convenient Marriage?
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It started with a signature…
Rich, powerful and with a beautiful wife to boot, it seems like Greek shipping magnate Gideon Vozaras has it all. But little does the world know his perfect life is all a façade…
After years of disguising her pain behind a flawless smile, untouchable heiress Adara Vozaras has reached breaking point. Her marriage, once held together by an undeniable passion, has become nothing more than a convenience.
But Gideon can’t afford the public scrutiny that a divorce would bring and if there’s one thing his harsh past has taught him, it’s how to fight dirty to keep what’s his…
EXCERPT:
Gideon Vozaras used all his discipline to keep his foot light on the accelerator as he followed the rented car, forcing himself to maintain an unhurried pace along the narrow island road while he gripped the wheel in white-knuckled fists. When the other car parked outside the palatial gate of an estate, he pulled his own rental onto the shoulder a discreet distance back then stayed in his vehicle to see if the other driver noticed. As he cut the engine, the AC stopped. Heat enveloped him.
Welcome to Hell.
He hated Greece at the best of times and today was predicted to be one of the hottest on record. The air shimmered under the relentless sun and it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. But the weather was barely worth noticing.
The gates of the estate were open. The other car could have driven straight through and up to the house, but stayed parked outside. He watched the female driver emerge and take a moment to consider the unguarded entrance. Her shoulders gave a lift and drop as though she screwed up her courage before she took action and walked in.
As she disappeared between imposing brick posts, Gideon left his own car and followed at a measured pace, gut knotting with every step. Outraged stung his veins.
He wanted to believe that wasn’t his wife, but there was no mistaking Adara Vozaras. Not for him. Maybe her tourist clothes of flip-flops, jeans chopped above the knees, a sleeveless top, and a pair of pigtails didn’t fit her usual professional élan, but he knew that backside. The tug it caused in his blood was indisputable. No other woman made an immediate sexual fire crackle awake in him like this. His relentless hunger for Adara had always been his cross to bear and today it was particularly unwelcome.
Spending the week with her mother. This ain’t Chatham, sweetheart.
He paused as he came alongside her car, glancing inside to see a map of the island on the passenger seat. A logo in its corner matched the hotel he’d been told she was booked into. And now she was advising her lover where to meet her? Walking bold as you please up his million-dollar drive to his billion-dollar house? The only clue to the estate’s ownership, the shields welded to the gate, were turned back against the brick wall that fenced the estate from the road.
Gideon’s entire body twitched with an urge to slip his reins of control. He was not a poor man. He’d got past envying other men their wealth once he’d acquired a level of his own.
Nevertheless, a niggle of his dock-rat inferiority complex wormed to life as he took in what he could see of the shoreline property that rolled into a vineyard and orange grove. The towering stone house, three stories with turrets on each corner, belonged on an English estate, not a Greek island. It was twenty bedrooms minimum. If this was the owner’s weekend retreat, he was an obscenely rich man.
Not that Adara needed a rich man. She had grown up wanting for nothing. She had a fortune in her own right plus half of Gideon’s so what was the attraction here?
Sex.
The insidious whisper formed a knot of betrayal behind his breastbone. Was this why she hadn’t shared that stacked body of hers with him for weeks? His hands curled into fists as he tried to swallow back his gall.
Dreading what he might see as he looked to the front door, he shifted for a full view. Adara had paused halfway to the house to speak with a gardener. A truck overflowing with landscaping tools was parked midway up the drive and workers were crawling like bees over the blooming gardens.
The sun seared the back of Gideon’s neck, strong enough to burn through his shirt to his shoulders, making sweat pool between his shoulder blades and tickle annoyingly down his spine.
They had arrived early this morning, Adara off the ferry, Gideon following in a power boat he was ‘test-piloting.’ She’d been driving a car she’d rented in Athens. His rental had been negotiated at the marina, but the island was small. It hadn’t surprised him when she’d driven right past the nose of his car as he had turned onto the main road.
No, the surprise had been the call thirty-six hours previously when their travel agent had dialed his mobile by mistake. Ever the survivor, Gideon had thought quickly. He’d mentioned that he’d like to surprise his wife by joining her and within seconds, Gideon had had all the details of Adara’s clandestine trip.
Well, not all. He didn’t know whom she was here to see or how she’d met her mystery man. Why was she doing this when he gave her everything she asked for?
He watched Adara’s slender neck bow in disappointment. Ha. The bastard wasn’t home. Grimly satisfied, Gideon folded his arms and waited for his wife.
A little about Dani:
Dani Collins spent twenty-five years dreaming of writing full time and finally made her first sale to Harlequin Mills & Boon in May of 2012. She’s still dreaming of making Romance Author her day job, but for now she writes around work, family, and enough exercise to keep her out of traction. For more information about Dani, you can visit her website at www.danicollins.com, listen to her interview with Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books, or watch her interview on GFTV.
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