Believe it or not, the concept for Cynthia and Constantine, my new release from the Wild Rose press, sprang up during a season of American Idol.
I work for county government and we have several satellite offices around the county. Once a month seven of us get together to have lunch. We call it the Lusty Ladies Lunch Group. Other times we keep in touch via email.
During this particular season, Bo Bice and Constantine Maroulis were competing. Two of the Lusties choose these guys as their favorites. While we didn’t agree on who should win that season, we did all agree that they had ‘romance book cover’ hair; the long and flowing kind of hair usually depicted on Knights in Shinning Armor on historical romances.
After one particularly hot and heavy day of emailing (after our constituents were served, of course) I went home and wrote a small piece about a knight meeting his ladylove. The next day I sent it off to the Lusties and got requests for more. Well one thing lead to another and I began to serialize a story about Bo and Constantine as knights in the Arthurian days. I named my hero Constantine and his lady was Cynthia, one of the Lusties. I gave Sir Constantine a brother, Sir Braeden and named his lady, Jane, another Lustie.
The story just evolved on a weekly basis with email scenes going back and forth until I had 100 pages.
I thought that was the end of the adventure until I decided to flesh out Constantine and Cynthia’s story and turn it into a 55,000-word book. I was fortunate enough to have the Wild Rose Press expressed interest in the novel and then publish it.
And yes, you’ll either love this or hate this, but the antagonist of the story is named after one of the American Idol Judges. I’m sure you can guess which.
There will be a sequel to this book called Jane and Braeden because in the course of fleshing out the story so it would be long enough for a book, Jane’s character became an integral part of the story and now we need to hear her story also.
The moral of this story is that you never know when or where inspiration is going to sneak up and bop you on the side of your head. In my case it was with a microphone on Fox-TV.
Love it.
To this day, Constantine remains my favorite Knight in my romance fantasies…
For anyone who doesn’t know, Constantine’s starring in the lead role in Rock Of Ages, the new Broadway smash hit! Check it out if you can. It’s so much fun you won’t believe it until you experience it.
How nice, to make a story into another story! I’d love to read your book. Of course my hero would always have to be Constantine!
And yes, as Pamela above says, by all means beg, borrow or steal, but catch Rock of Ages on Broadway. See the hero in your book come alive on that stage!
Kitty and Pamela, thanks for stopping by. We Lusties alreadyhave a trip planned to NYC to do just that!!
KAQ
Kathye,
Great post. So interesting to hear how you came up with the idea for your book and how it evolved… Thanks for sharing!
I have to admit I’ve never watched American Idol (I don’t even keep the TV plugged in), but I got a kick out of reading how it inspired you. Having read just about everything else you’ve published, I’ve got to get to Wild Rose and get my Quick Fix
Thanks Christine and Chris. It was an adventure. One reviewer absolutely hated the character named after Simon Cowell and gave me a so-so review because of it, but others have called it a classic love story to read over and over. It’s all about what is going on in your life at the time.
But I had fun writing it.
Hi, Kathye,
I found it–finally! Sounds like something I’d end up doing…
Looking forward to both reads
Joanne
What a great story about inspiration! Can’t wait to read the book.