The Firefighter's Chosen Bride - Behind The Scenes

Due to popular demand  And since you seem to be enjoying these... we have the behind the scenes story of The Firefighter's Chosen Bride aka White-Hot when it was a Modern Extra in the UK and Ireland...

 (Oh and for anyone who might be interested in how cover art is created I have a piece on The Pink Heart Society today with illustrator and artist Lawrence Roibal who created the cover of Her One And Only Valentine! Fabulously interesting!) 

 The Firefighter's Chosen Bride as it is known in the USA and Canada had a gradual progression from a teensy little seed of an idea into a book with characters who took on a life of their own. Thankfully. Cos it was fairly new ground for me. 

It started with a film - which many of my stories often do - I see one I didn't like the ending of, or that had a scene in it that struck a chord in me - and an idea begins. With White-Hot! (as it was in the UK) it started whilst watching Ladder 49 - the film with Joaquin Phoenix - that followed a Firefighter through training and onto the job and, well, I'll not ruin the story for you... Anyway, apart from the fact that my initial reaction was - oh yeah - Firefighters!!! - I was very struck by the scene early on in the film where a set of dress uniformed Firefighter's came to someones house to tell them a loved one had died. How awful must that be? And it made me think about what it was like for the family of that person and how it would have changed their world...

Now we all experience loss at some stage, for me it was early on when I lost my Father in my teens - so we all know how traumatic it can be. So running on the theory of 'write what you know' - I knew I had emotions in there I could draw on. And hence, the seeds for White-Hot! were sown.

Then I thought conflict - a single line in the Firefighter series Rescue Me about dating ex-wives/ex-girlfriends/sisters and how it was breaking a code gave me another piece of inspiration - so I had Shane's conflict started. Then, me being me, my mind filled in another gap by jumping back to the scene in the film and I wondered what it would be like for the daughter of a Firefighter who died - and I had Finn's conflict started... Add some comedy in the form of Finn's disastrous love life and some Bridget Jones styled big-pants and we had the beginnings of a story I knew I was gonna love writing (since I'm amongst friends I'll confess that the burnt out candles on the fire thing is something I have PERSONAL experience of...thankfully big pants were nowhere near by...)

Now I should point out that when I started this book it wasn't contracted. I knew about Modern Extra as it was then and I loved the sound of it. So I thought I would have a go at one for the heck of it and then see what my editor thought. Chancy yes - especially since the line wasn't in print yet so I couldn;t read any to see what everyone else had done - but at that point in my writing career I had decided to start writing full time so I had more time on my hands... And once I started, the characters took on personalities of their own and the story flew off the keyboard!

You gotta love it when that happens.

Alright - So the picture with this blog helped...(I SO hope it loads!) 

It's so important to have a hero picture that inspires I feel. And with this one, we *had* Shane. We had the look, we had the FireFighter outfit and this was enough with the conflict I already had in place to lend life to my hero. And he remained Shane until I got the UK Modern Extra cover - That cover is just so addictive and so right that that guy IS Shane in my mind now.. Truly!!! Mind you - the USA Shane was pretty darn yummy too.

Oh and I stole Finn's name off a friend of mine...

Location when writing this book:

Ahhh... Now as I mentioned this one was one of the many I have done since I became a full time writer... Which I knew meant I was going to have a  year of virtual seclusion. I had a plan, kinda, well in theory you see - to write away like a hermit in a cave for a year and then the next year to travel to my first conference as my reward... And THANKFULLY it worked. Cos I got to go to Dallas!!!

So this book was written in my little log cabin, in the middle of the woods not far from the lakes... With my horses by my door and cats asleep on the sofa to keep me company.

The book itself was set in and around Dublin again (a fav place of mine) and was the first book I had to do some serious research on. The majority of my info came from The Dublin Fire Brigade site. Kudos to those brave men and their families and Firefighting families world-wide I say! It takes a very special kind of people for this job and having done the research I can now see why Firefighter's are so popular as hero's...apart from the obvious that is... (and the line about firefighter fatality stats and them being a pain to find - TRUE - cos I tried when I was doing my research and they WERE) 

As to Finn's job? Well that was another case of write what you know. Cos I did that job for nearly eight years in one form or another...

Soundtrack playing: 

For the scene when Shane watches Finn sleeping we had a track from the  album 'Il Divo' by Il Divo. Four amazing guys who can sing! I'M IN. And oh boy can they sing! The scene with Shane and Finn was inspired by Track 5 and if you ever get the album and listen to it you'll understand completely - The words say it all. You can even listen to a little snippet of it here by scrolling down and clicking on 'Every Time I Look At You'.

Now - as an end note - one thing I really hadn't expected with this book was the response I've gotten to it! The first page caused a bit of a debate on the Challenge Blogs last summer and we had some FABULOUS discussions! Thing is, sometimes authors just take a chance and we can but HOPE that the readers enjoy what we do. But it can be risky. THANKFULLY the over-all impression so far has been that Challenge bloggers have enjoyed it and I do think it's a fairly good book to ease my romance readers across to the new line. Mind you - I should maybe warn you that my Modern Heat's (as they're now called in the UK) get hotter from this book onwards...

One of my most successful in the UK and one of my ABSOLUTE FAV'S goes Stateside in May. So I hope you'll look out for it! Cos if you liked Shane then Rory??? OH-MY. And Cara is a HOOT. Overweight heroine with a smart mouth and sexy bodyguard turned personal trainer - various embarressing situations involving gym equipment and hotness in a swimming pool... Need I say more?

I'll finish up this rather long post by saying a HUGE THANKYOU to all of you who read and commented and are STILL commenting on your challenge blogs about The Firefighter's Chosen Bride. You have NO IDEA what it means to me. Truly. And that's not me sucking up. Promise. The worry with my Modern Heats for me has always been the fact they're so liberally dosed with my own sense of humour. And humour can be a very personal choice. Hence the fight for the Twister scene that almost got cut I spose.

SO THANKS GUYS!!!

And next time I'll do Bride Of The Emerald Isle as it's been requested too. Remember any questions or requests just yell!

H's & K's as always

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