Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Story Behind the Story - Bound Forever

I haven't done a Story Behind the Story post in quite a while, so I figured since I'm on a break until May 1 (when I'll get started on Sharp Love) now would be a good time to do another one. 


StatsSent in partial manuscript 7/2/2010. Received offer 7/9/2010. Published 3/8/2011.

That summer, I went on a contracting binge. I had started Bound Forever, then got the idea for His Client and started that book. I ended up contracting both on partials, and also contracting Convincing Leopold. 3 books in the space of about 6 weeks. Of course, I then spent the next 8 months writing all the books and going through edits/revisions.

Little Known Fact – Arthur Barrington from Convincing Arthur and Convincing Leopold makes an appearance. He is Vincent’s solicitor and makes the changes to Vincent’s will for him. Arthur’s one of the best solicitors in London, and since Vincent would certainly hire the best, I gave him Arthur. Bound Forever takes place 10 months after Convincing Leopold, so Arthur and Leopold are living their HEA during the book.

Extremely Little Known Fact – My original plan was for it to be a shorter book, to the point where I worried if it’d meet the 20,000 word minimum length for Loose Id. Then I added the bit about the widow, and realized how that tied into my plan for the book. Then my editor nudged me to strengthen the ending, and in adding chapters 8 & 9, I realized my original plan hadn’t tied up all the loose ends in the series. Hence, a very good example of why authors need editors :)

How did I get the idea for the book? – I knew as I was writing Bound to Him that Vincent would need a third book before I could get him to that place where Oliver realizes Vincent loves him as much as Oliver loves Vincent. In fact, back in early 2009, when I got the edits for Bound to Him, my editor asked if there would be a 3rd book. Took two years between books #2 and #3, but I finally gave the guys a 3rd book.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? I really love how the book turned out and I wouldn’t change anything about it.

Will there be a sequel? – Nope. The Bound Series is complete. I will admit, I do miss writing books with Oliver and Vincent. They're one of my favorite couples.

Misc Stuff – First, I love the cover. I think it perfectly captures the feel of the book, with a more confident Oliver in the forefront and Vincent holding him (thank you, April Martinez – love your work). Second, this song wasn’t the inspiration for the book, but I listened to it as I was writing Bound Forever and it captures that feeling of established love I was going for in the book – ‘….love is the little things.’

5 comments:

  1. Oh, I totally missed that "Little Known Fact" when I was reading!

    And looking at your sidebar, I'm now wondering how Prince Phillip and The Prince have been faring of late...

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    1. Vincent thinks of him as 'Mr. Barrington', so if it's any consolation, it wasn't super obvious or anything. Figured Vincent wouldn't think of him as 'Arthur Barrington', since he's his solicitor.

      The Princes are currently nekkid in Kidlet's barbie bin ;)

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  2. Ha! I didn't know that either about Arthur and I was your CP. LOL

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    1. Maybe I should have made that one the 'extremely little known fact'. LOL

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Barbara