Why did I decide to write a royalty series?
Well, the truth is… I didn’t. Not at first, anyway. I had this idea in my head, and it wouldn’t leave, like so many of them don’t until I write them down. This idea was about a Princess, who wasn’t meant to be Queen, dealing with a tragedy that puts her on the throne. On top of that, I knew this Princess was gay and had a secret girlfriend that she would lose in this tragedy. The book shaped itself after that, and I wrote the 1st book in the Royalty Series.
I’d never written anything about royalty or a monarchy, and being an American, I wanted to get it right. But even doing all sorts of research on how the monarchy works in certain countries, what I learned is that while many constitutional monarchies are similar, they’re also as unique as the countries they’re in. So, I made up my own country, wrote my own traditions and borrowed from countries that it made sense to borrow from, creating St. Rais. I had to give the nation a backstory, including some history and geography before adding traditions, but then the book was born.
After I finished writing it, though, I was in the zone when it came to royalty books, and I thought I might be able to write another one about a real country this time. So, I researched Norway and made my new character a Princess who, once again, wasn’t supposed to be next in line to take the throne. Only this time, instead of a tragedy, I wanted to make it a more lighthearted comedy. And that was supposed to be the end, but just like with FRESH START and THE BEST LINES, when I wasn’t going to write JUST TELL HER or LOVE WALK INTO THE LANTERN, I got another idea.
I made up another tiny island nation and another Princess, and at this point, I knew I would be writing a fourth book. I didn’t have the characters in mind for it when I set out with book three, but I felt like I could work my way up to a fictional UK with my own fictional Princess.
It always amazes me how I plan to write a stand-alone, tell my wife that it’ll only be one book, and then I end up writing a whole series. But once I told one Princess-to-Queen story, I wanted to write more. There’s something so interesting to me about having this duty that you’re supposed to put above everything else, but I wanted to twist it a little by making it so that three of these women weren’t meant to be Queens; and the one that was, because she happened to be born first, didn’t feel like she was the one her parents or her country would choose.
