THE BOUGHT-AND-PAID-FOR
WIFE
THE BOUGHT-AND-PAID-FOR-WIFE is part
of an editor-conceived continuity series
titled Secret Lives of Society
Wives. This means that the editor(s)
overseeing the series came up with
the story idea, the setting, the characters,
their conflict and shared history,
and a short synopsis of how my story
should play out. This may sound as
though I had little input into the
book, but that's not the entire picture.
There was still scope to develop the
characters' backstories and personalities,
and to find the best scenes through
which to tell their story.
The Secret Lives of Society Wives mini-series
is set in a posh Connecticut community,
and I must say it was a ton of fun researching
my heroine's home and creating detail
for the society wedding of Emma and Garrett
(from Jennifer Greene's book, THE SOON-TO-BE-DISINHERITED
WIFE) celebrated at the exclusive Eastwick
Country Club. I also needed a temporary
home for my hero and invented the Hotel
Marabella, setting for several key scenes,
nestled close to the water of Long Island
Sound. Then there's the charity benefit
polo match, which I could easily have
extended into a book of its own. Loved,
loved, loved the research on that one!
But the tastiest ingredient I brought
to this book was my hero. Although Tristan
Thorpe was born in Connecticut, he lived
his teenage and adult life in Australia.
He has the accent, he has the attitude,
and to top it all off nicely I gave him
a background as a former professional
footballer. We're talking Australian
football, a sport populated by tall,
well-built, rugged, athletic men in short
shorts and sleeveless jumpers (see picture.)
There is a lot to like about Australian
football, including those biceps!
Aesthetics aside, I fell in love with
the poignancy of an adolescent ripped
from his homeland and transplanted into
a strange country during his most vulnerable
formative years. I saw Tristan not only
striving to fit in, but determined to
better the locals at their own game.
He developed into a star player--I imagined
headlines making much of his American
upbringing, although Tristan sees himself
as undeniably Aussie. His success transferred
to the business world and in THE BOUGHT-AND-PAID-FOR
WIFE he returns to his birthplace of
Eastwick, Connecticut, as a self-made
millionaire.
And there, in the home where he spent
the first 12 years of his life, he meets
his feisty adversary for the first time.
Her name is Vanessa and she is his father's
beautiful and much-younger widow. Let
the fireworks begin!
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