At The Billionaire's Bidding - Behind The Scenes

Ok. So you seemed to like a little behind the scenes info for the last one so here's another one for you  

And may I start by saying this one was a PIG to write...

The Return Of The Rebel, as it was named in the UK when it was released as a Modern Extra is a story that stemmed from the characters in a book I had already worked on. And ironically, due to scheduling the two books are being released 'back to front' in the USA and Canada - with the prequel (one of my absolute FAVS and my best seller in Modern Extra in the UK to date) Her Bedroom Surrender coming your way in May. 

That happens sometimes - one book stemming from another - and sometimes readers can even tempt me by emailing to ask about characters I didn't do follow up stories for. But this time it just seemed like the most natural thing in the world to do, because in Breathless! (aka Her Bedroom Surrender) Rory Flanagan's family became very real to me. And Rory was such an amazingly strong hero to write,  and turned out so very delicious, that the thought of telling his younger brother Connor's story was just too darn tempting!

I think the temptation also stemmed from my own reading preferences - I've always been a sucker for a family of brothers - especially if the brothers are all gorgeous and strong and sexy and a little on the arrogant side...

But Connor's story became a very different ball game from Rory's. For starters, after a chat with my editor about 'hooks' and 'themes' in the Modern Extra line, I changed his back story some. And then there's the fact that Rory had been the responsible one who made the choice to take on the welfare of all those around him, while Connor wasn't really given a choice - he was the one left behind to keep everything going while Rory was overseas - a fact he was quite vocal about in Breathless!

Both these facts meant that Connor's story was more of a challenge than I had initially thought it would be. He was darker than he had been in Breathless!, had more to tell me than I had known about him in Breathless! and for a long time the things he was trying to tell me were at odds with the character I had known. Which made it, erm, *a tough one to write*...And that was before I even touched on Shannon's story...

Thankfully however, during revisions Shannon's quirky personality helped pull everything together. Otherwise Connor's story might never have made it into print at all. And doubly as thankfully, the readers in the UK and Australia seemed to like the Flanaghan brothers so much that I'm toying with the idea of doing stories for the other two and their sister as well... time will tell... 

Locations in this book:

Everything in At The Billionaire's Bidding centres around the run down old building that Shannon leases from Devenish Enterprises - the fictional company Connor inherits... So the majority of the scenes happen there, and a lot of the arguments they have are because of it. I guess there are shades of the building in Two Weeks Notice - the Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock movie there - with all of Shannon's varying community groups and it's eclectic conglomeration of folks being so important to her that they lead her to butt heads with Connor... (watch out for Mario - he's my favourite!)

But we do get the very occasional reference to Galway itself, the City where the book is set... Another place I have visited and one that's very name can suggest a certain 'feel' without too much description. The thing with a Modern Extra or Modern Heat as it is now known in the UK is that it is more about the 'feel' than great long descriptive passages about places. The characters, their way of talking, their modern day thoughts and approaches to things are more important than the naming of specific streets or areas in the City they live in. Which was just as well with this particular story I think, cos Shannon and Connor had so much to deal with as it was that having to add a lot of descriptive 'atmosphere' would have made the book waaaayyyy too long for the allocated word count. And trust me when I tell you I was having enough problems with this one!

Sometimes I think books like this are sent to test us writers. So that we appreciate the *easy* ones more and so we never become complacent about what we do for a living. To give you an idea of how rough a ride this one was for me, if I tell you in the final set of revisions my Editor had to tell me to add humour - *cough* ME *cough* - then you'll get an idea of how much I struggled. 

Soundtrack playing: 

The music I was playing while writing At The Billionaire's Bidding even made it into the book itself, when Connor goes to see Shannon in her apartment and she has it playing in the background. It means if anyone reading it has listened to the Norah Jones album they will have a sense of the atmosphere in the room when Connor walks in... That slow, sensual tone to the music... that very beautiful voice... added to the soft lighting in the room... and the attraction already there between Connor and Shannon - SIGH.

It just adds an extra dimension for me. Sometimes I think these books should be sold with a 'soundtrack' you could listen to while reading. How cool would that be??  You can order a copy of the album here if you want to try out that theory - and if you do, then watch out for the track Feelin The Same Way - cos the words pretty much sum up Shannon's dilemma the whole way through this book I feel. OR you can go to the books page on my website and listen to it there... 

So there you go. Behind the scenes of At The Billionaire's Bidding. My March release - available here at Eharlequin from February.

The book can be got as an ebook here on eharlequin here: http://ebooks.eharlequin.com/8A911C5A-C863-42E3-91F7-A2C7F43DA6E5/10/126/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID={588FBAA3-0D2C-4377-B1DB-006B8811D299}

And if you have any questions about the book or the writing process or the Flanaghan Brothers or the 'prequel' Her Bedroom Surrender then just yell. Or pop by my Website: http://www.trishwylie.com or My Blog: http://www.trishwylie.blogspot.com to see what I'm up to... (currently it's fighting a deadline while being a media darling for Mills & Boons Centenary celebrations - no rest for the wicked they say)

Back to the cave I go.

Oooh and by the way. If there are any of the other books you'd like the Behind The Scenes story for just yell and I'll post them here too

H's & K's

Trish

RT REVIEWERS CHOICE AWARD WINNER 2008 for RESCUED: MOTHER-TO-BE

HER BEDROOM SURRENDER - Harlequin Presents - May - BOOKSELLERS BEST FINALIST as BREATHLESS!

http://www.trishwylie.com