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 Wedding Dare is your eighth release; can you tell us a little bit about the book and how you came to write it?
The starting idea for this book was a real life event. I first heard about it a couple of years ago and ever since, it teased my imagination...
A local woman was asked to pick up a stripper for her friend’s hen’s party, so she went to the Townsville mall, saw a man who fitted the description she’d been given, and asked him if he was ready to come to the party. As he was the type of guy who’s ready for anything, he went with her. It was only after they arrived at the party that they both realised her mistake! The real stripper was still waiting in the mall! How could I resist using something like that in a romance?
Then at the 2000 conferences in Brisbane and Auckland, the buzzword was "city girl" and the ideas of the girl in the city and a party stripper began to coalesce. When I got home, "The Wedding Dare" story virtually leapt onto my screen. The thematic thread in this story is similar to many of my stories - don’t judge people by their appearance. Look below the surface. Things are not as they seem. In this case, Laura makes assumptions about Nick that are quite misleading...
If the original concept was for a "chick lit" type novel, what happened along the way to change it to a straight romance?
I realised it wouldn’t work to write a completely "chick lit" style story for M&B Tender or Sweet romance. In chick lit, the hero is often off the page - sometimes out of the country - while the heroine embarks on a personal psychological journey. The readers of the romance category I write for have certain expectations about the romantic tone, the level of emotional intensity and the degree of interaction between the main players. I decided that I needed to stick to the traditional romantic convention of having my hero and heroine together, dealing with strong emotional issues, even though the circumstances that brought them together were light and funny - the kind of situation that might pop up in a chick lit story.
You have created two gorgeous (both physically and in personality) characters in Nick and Laura, where does the inspiration for your characters come from?
My characters spring entirely from my imagination. I can’t pin down specific sources of inspiration. I wanted a very strong contrast between Nick and Laura at the start - Laura the "do-gooder" and Nick the daredevil, but apart from that, I worked totally at gut level. Sometimes, if my characters are dealing with a particular issue, I read autobiographies of people who’ve faced similar challenges, but not in this story.
Nick is a Crown Prosecutor and Laura is a librarian, did you find you had to do much research on their professions and how do you normally handle research?
In this case, my regular trips to libraries, including working with students and teacher librarians in school libraries, seemed sufficient to write about a librarian, but I have to confess my research for Nick consisted of meeting the wife of a Crown Prosecutor at a (girls only) cocktail party and quizzing her shamelessly. Research can be tricky. Sometimes I do a lot of research reading around a topic and I unearth so much information that I try to force it into my stories. Later, during editing and revision, I have to take it out again because it gets in the way of the central romance.
You have said that you like heroes who are strong and sexy and also have a sense of fun, how do you think Nick, as a hero who can dress up as a clown and finds a dare an irresistible challenge, will be received by the readers?
I can only hope they will love him. As you’ve mentioned, I find men with a sense of humour very lovable and sexy. I’ve always loved the larrikin element that seems to be a characteristic of many Australian men. Remember Mel Gibson and his fellow Anzacs in
Gallipoli? They were facing the horror of WW1 and yet they played the fool and took the mickey out of the English officers. In this book, I enjoyed developing the contrast between the serious dilemmas of Nick’s personal life and his urge to be a bit of a rascal, but I was careful to keep these two very different facets of his character quite separate.
I think it was WC Fields who once said "Never act with small children and animals", how do you manage to achieve the balance between the hero and heroine and those two enchanting small girls?
Fliss and Kate are the only (fictional) children with more than a walk on part that I’ve created so far. It was a bit of an experiment. I need to keep experimenting in my writing... taking risks. I’m pleased to hear that you think it’s worked. The girls’ distinct personalities came through very clearly to me, but if the balance is right, it would be because I was very aware of the need to keep the romance as the primary focus.
You seem to write two completely different styles of book, the "Outback" series aimed at the American Market and the more conventional romances aimed at the UK market. Which do you prefer writing and is there any difference in your approach to the two styles?
I haven’t consciously aimed my books at markets in specific countries. I believe that both UK and US readers like outback settings, but as I’m primarily an urban animal, I find it refreshing to take a break from writing outback stories. However, I must admit that when I returned to the outback for the books that followed "The Wedding Dare", I was very conscious of the way the setting became a third main character, adding a very strong flavour to every element of the story. I think this must be what makes these stories feel so different. It’s certainly nothing I set out to achieve. I enjoy writing romance in any setting and don’t have a strong preference.
In how much detail do you plan your novels before you start writing?
This varies. Some stories spring into my head in a quite well developed state and others emerge more slowly. Before I was published, I used the snakes and ladders style plot planner in Valerie Parv’s book to help me plan. These days, I think I’m more of an intuitive writer than I am a planner. I like to have a sketchy road map, a few signposts and a reasonable sense of destination, but I also like to wait and see what might happen along the way... what lies around the next corner... so each story feels like an adventure.
Do you have a regular writing routine?
Yes. I can’t wait to start writing each day. But I force myself to walk or swim for an hour first and to do some housework, shopping or whatever (otherwise it would never get done.) ... before I hit the computer.
How do you cope with the pressure of having to produce at least two novels a year and do you feel the quality of your writing suffers because of it?
I have a very professional approach to my writing. If I felt it might suffer, I’d renegotiate my deadlines. However, I’m comfortable with my current workload. I think writing too slowly can be as detrimental to the outcome as writing too quickly, so a steady flow suits me fine.
Find out more about Barbara on her website at
www.barbarahannay.com
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The
Wedding Dare