Throwback: The Shameless Hour
Bella might be the heroine who’s the least like me. She was a challenge, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Bella is the young woman that I might have been if I were less fearful at 21.
Sometimes I would look up from the keyboard and shake my head like did I really just write that sentence? For example, in one chapter Bella says: I’m supposed to be writing a paper about women’s subjugation, but all I want is for someone to come along and give me a good pounding.
So that was different.
Even if her personality isn’t mine, I’ve always been interested in perceptions of femininity. At its core, this is a book about slut shaming. And I’d been wanting to write about that for a long time.
Every book I write tramples on some little convention in romance, but this one tramples on a bunch. Bella has some things happen to her in this book that you aren’t “supposed” to do to a heroine in romance. But I did it anyway.
True fact: The Shameless Hour was on the syllabus for a University of Michigan English Department seminar! The seminar covered modern romance novels. Also on the syllabus were Alexis Hall and Tiffany Reisz.
Rafe and Bella take a city planning course that’s a lot like one I took in college! #writewhatyouknow
The Ivy Years was the series where I finally figured out how to write a series. So I did a nice job of introducing Lianne for The Fifteenth Minute.