The main thing about that book was that it was in me. I did not have to find it. It was there and it was demanding to be written.

The characters were in my mind very clearly from the beginning and that never happens.

I'm always struggling. I'm always fumbling. It takes me a while to get to know who they are and what do they want and what's the goal etc etc

In this case it was all very clear to me I saw this

The main thing I saw in the beginning was this child who had had this horrible childhood badly traumatized that turned him into this person who's sort of monstrous.

And I thought how do you, what do you do for this person or what, what's needed here for some kind of a balance and the heroin was there instantly it was like okay

she's someone who just gets it she gets the thinking she gets the guy thinking

she gets whatever it is and how is why is she that way because she grew up with boys all the time and she's just smart and paying attention

so I needed someone who could see through him and she

Jessica just came to my mind as so so they really formed themselves on the

stage and the rest of it the rest of that So they really formed themselves on the stage.

And the rest of it, the rest of that book,

I know it sounds mystical.

And it's like, writers shouldn't wait for this

to happen because it doesn't usually. But it just wrote itself. It was like a movie and all I had to do was write it.

That was the voice of Loretta Chase, author of Regency romances, single title, historical romances,

and as everyone knows, Lord of Scoundrels.

This is Fate of Mates.

I'm Sarah McClain.

I read romance novels and I write them.

And I'm Jennifer Kopp, a romance reader and editor.

You are about to hear our Trailblazer episode with Loretta where she talks

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