Story Behind the Book With Elaine Cantrell

Today I have another great author talking about her book. Today's guest is Elaine Cantrell and if you haven't checked her out before now, you've been missing a lot.
Check out what she has to say about her latest release, Return Engagement.




1. Where did the idea for this story come from?

Return Engagement was born to showcase my perfect hero Richard Lovinggood. As time went by I noticed that most of my heros had certain characteristics in common even though each of them had different personalities and lifestyles. This is what I found out.

First, all of my heroes are kind. I've read some books where the hero wasn't a kind person, but I didn't like them at all. My heroes don't mind helping others whenever they can. In fact, they'd give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it.

Second, they have no patience with snobbery and pretension. Even those who come from wealthy families are totally grounded in the real world. In Return Engagement my hero's father tries to marry him off to a woman who's related to the Russian cazrs. He doesn't want any part of her because of her pretensions and haughty airs.

Third, in spite of having various occupations, all of my heroes are intelligent, competent, capable, confident people. They know what they want in life and don't mind working hard to achieve it.


Fourth, my heroes are all passionate, sensual men. And it may be shallow, but they're all drop dead gorgeous. Shoulders. I adore broad shoulders so all my heroes have broad shoulders.

Fifth, they may be passionate and sensual, but they're romantic as well. In Return Engagement my hero sends small gifts every hour on the hour from nine to five trying to soften his wife's heart after they've had a falling out. His favorite gift was a big Hershey's kiss. I know, it's corny, but so what?

Lastly, my heroes are all one woman men. In Return Engagement Richard's father broke him and my heroine up, and they didn't see each other for ten years, but once they reunite it's as if they were never separated.

Richard Lovinggood has all of these characteristics so he certainly isn't the anti-hero that you see in lots of books. Once I invented him the rest of the plot was simple.

2. How did your characters come to life?

I've pretty much already answered that for my hero Richard Lovinggood, and once I had him firmly in mind I set about creating a family for him. His father who's an important part of the story is a wealthy senator with ambitions to make his son the president. That makes him a little controlling. Richard's mother is a perfect foil for the logical, goal driven senator. She's passionate, emotional, and volatile, and her politics are exactly opposite those of Senator Lovinggood who's a conservative. I decided that Richard would be more like his mother-impulsive and prone to acting without thinking things through.

I didn't want Richard to be an only child so I created a sister for him, a beautiful girl more like Senator Lovinggood than her mother. She's headstrong, though, so she needed a strong man to balance her. That man is Richard's FBI partner Scott. Scott's as level-headed as they come, and he can hold his own with Joan.

Now for the fun part-creating a love interest for Richard. Her name is Elizabeth Lane. She couldn't be as high strung and impulsive as Richard, but she couldn't be as solid and level-headed as Scott. She had to be capable of a deep and abiding love that neither time nor distance could destroy. I wanted her to have a good life without Richard too, and she does. She's Hollywood's finest leading lady, but she has principles that she won't compromise even if she loses a good role. She's engaged to a fine man, a lawyer called Alex Crawford. Alex does free legal work for battered women at the shelter where Elizabeth volunteers.

So, Elizabeth has to choose between two good things. She loves both men, and no matter which man she picks she's going to break a good heart.

These characters all interacted so well that I have a sequel ready to go and am working on a third book.


Visit Elaine at: http://www.elainecantrell.com
http://www.elainepcantrell.blogspot.com

To buy Return Engagement: http://www.amazon.com/New-Leaf-Elaine-Cantrell/dp/1892343363/sr=8-1/qid=1162735131/ref=sr_1_1/102-3569484-1190506?ie=UTF8&s=books