“Women either ran from Lord Ravenscar or ran to him.”
A Wild Lords and Innocent Ladies story
Alan Rothwell, Marquess of Ravenscar, is furious when unconventional heiress Lily Wallace refuses him purchase of her property. He can’t even win her over with his infamous charm. But when fever seizes him and they’re trapped together, horrified, Alan realizes Lily’s attentions will compromise them both! His solution: take Lily as his betrothed before desire consumes them completely…
Purchase Link: myBook.to/Ravenscar
Author Spotlight
‘Where do you get your inspiration?’ Is always a tough question for me: it never follows the same path and it can truly come out of nowhere (or everywhere). One of my books was inspired by watching a rather elderly pug waddle down the street, pausing to plump itself down every few yards with all the gravitas of a dog who has decided the world would have to move before he did. That moment the image came into my mind of a young woman charged with exercising a portly pug trying to beg, bribe, berate him into action (he became Marmaduke in my third book – The Duke’s Unexpected Bride).
Another was inspired by a scene that came to me, literally, at 4am (some of my best inspiration times, which is hard on my sleep patterns). I woke up with an image of a man entering a library where a young woman brandishing a mace is standing amidst a pile of scattered books (this became the opening scene in my current Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal).
These flashes of images and scenes often start me on a path that I have to follow. I am, quite simply, hooked and I put all my creative juices to work so I can find out ‘what happened next.’ In this sense I am really inspired by curiosity about my own characters. I am a complete pantser (vs. plotter). I love not knowing what my characters are going to do next – some of my best scenes (I think) are those that were a complete surprise to me and I actually go back to them and wonder a little where they came from. It’s like I sometimes look at my kids and am a little dumbfounded at how amazing they are (when they aren’t driving me up a wall, of course) and I wonder – could they possibly have come from me?
But though I’m guided by these moments of inspiration, now that I write professionally there are always several points in my writing when I stop and take stock – when the story and characters are strong enough already to stand up to criticism and then I sit down and write an outline and begin to see what is working and what isn’t and then I go back to some more (now informed) pantsing. This is often the hardest part of my writing – it is stepping outside the fun and the flow and taking a deep and responsible look at what I am trying to say. This is also the stage when I sit down and start doing the research that the story requires. I studied history and specialized in 19th century history and read history books all the time so I draw on my general knowledge but there is always more I need to uncover – what types of looms, names of racing horses, diplomatic intrigues and causes of political unrest, current gothic novels, what paintings were exhibited during the Summer Exhibition that year, and a million other esoteric facts. This is a dangerous phase – I disappear down so many fascinating rabbit holes, it’s a miracle I find my way back to doing the actual writing!
There is one last thing I’d like to say about inspiration: if you really want to write, don’t wait for inspiration! For years I thought I would have to wait for a grand idea to become a decent author and as a result I did nothing with my writing. It was only when I had a gun to my head that I actually competed a book. Prodded by my mother I found myself committed to submit a compete manuscript for the SYTYCW writing contest. There was no time to wait for inspiration – I just gritted my teeth and wrote, wrote, wrote. I think inspiration is not a reliable driver for writing, but a wagon that tags along once you are going at full speed. If you have something interesting to say, it will (eventually) come out in your writing.
Author Bio
Lara Temple writes strong, sexy regency romances about complex individuals who give no quarter but do so with plenty of passion. Her fifth book with Harlequin Mills & Boon, 'Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal,' will be published in March 2018, and is the second in her Wild Lords series. Her four previous books are: Lord Hunter's Cinderella Heiress, The Duke’s Unexpected Bride, The Reluctant Viscount, and Lord Crayle’s Secret World.
When she was fifteen Lara found a very grubby copy of Georgette Heyer’s Faro’s Daughter in an equally grubby book store. Several blissful hours later she emerged, blinking, into the light of day completely in love with Regency Romance but it took three decades of various fascinating but completely unrelated careers in finance and high tech before she returned to her first love.
Lara lives with her husband and two children who are very good about her taking over the kitchen table for her writing (so she can look out over the garden and dream). She loves to travel (especially to places steeped in history) and read as many books as possible. She recently went looking for that crowded little bookstore but couldn’t quite remember around what corner it was…hopefully it is still there and another girl is in the corner by the window, reading and dreaming…
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