Lady Mounthall's Lover

2010-02-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

This is the basic information for my Regencey romance. Like 'Having Her Best Friend's Baby' I'm writing this following Paula Roe's 'A Novel in 3 Months'. Each day I write an out line for one or two scenes before I start writing, so far it's working well, I've had no characters jumping ship or running for the hills.

Tile: Lady Mounthall’s Lover

Hook: Fake engagement to discourage suitors.

Setting: London, Derbyshire, Kent

Time frame: Regency England 1815 – summer

Target: Harlequin Historical

Blurb:
After the death of her husband in the arms of a harlot, Lady Josephine Mounthall decides she has had enough of the opposite sex. She is a wealthy independent woman, and has no need to remarry. Besides men could not be trusted.

When William Grey, the Duke of Chesterfield meets Lady Mounthall the first time, he is intrigued by her. She is nothing like the cold-hearted woman his brother Charles described. Instead, he finds a woman happy to spend time with his nephews either fishing or playing hide-n-seek.

With every available male seeking her hand in marriage, the Duke proposes they fake their engagement to ward off unwanted suitors for both of them. However, it is not long before William finds himself doing the one thing he swear he’d never do – he was falling in love with his fiancée.

HERO:
Name: William Grey – Duke of Chesterfield (Olando Bloom)

Age: 30

Height: 6’ 2”

Hair colour: Dark Brown

Eye colour: Brown

Physical description: Wide shoulders, narrow waist, full lips, hooded eyes.

Family Affiliations: Has a younger brother with a gambling problem. Both parents deceased.

Career: Gentleman

Basic traits: Trustworthy, helpful, and respected

HIS GOAL: To help his brother overcome his gambling. To help protect Lady Josephine Mounthall.

HIS MOTIVATION: Charles’ wife Henrietta has sworn she will leave him if he does not change his ways. He sees vulnerability in Josephine much like his mother.

HIS CONFLICT: His brother blames him for all his problems. He knows that wealthy independent women are all about themselves. His ex-fiancée is proof of that.

HIS CORE BELIEF: To fall in love gives the other person control over you completely.

HEROINE:
Name: Lady Josephine Mounthall (Keria Knightly)

Age: 24

Height: 5’ 4”

Hair colour: Blonde

Eye colour: Brown

Physical description: Slim figure, full lips, oval face and eyes.

Family: Affiliations: Has no family, her parents are deceased and she was an only child and is now a widow.

Career: Lady

Basic Traits: Caring, determined, strong willed.

HER GOAL: To lead a quiet and happy life on her own. To help the share farmers on her family estate.

HER MOTIVATION: She has had one unhappy marriage and does not plan to repeat the experience. The farmers are like family to her.

HER CONFLICT: She finds herself attracted to the Duke of Chesterfield even though she suspects he and her good friend Henrietta maybe having an affair. The overseer her husband employed to run
her family farm will do all he can to hold onto his power.

HER CORE BELIEF: That marriage for a woman, means being treated like a person of lesser value than her husband. Men cannot be trusted.

Sandie

Having Her Best Friend's Baby

2010-02-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

Australian Desire Author Paula Roe is blogging her steps in planning a novel 'A Novel in 3 Month'. As most of you know, I don't normally plan/plot my novels, however, in a desperate bid to cut down my editing time etc. layering, I'm giving this a go. Even if I have to trick my characters into thinking they are leading the way. It's a little bit like our men, we gently drop hints as to what we want to do, or get done, and over time they think it was all their brillant idea.

I've moved this from my original Novel blog on wordpress. I thought I may as well start fresh.

Title: Having Her Best Friend’s Baby

Hook: Best Friends become lovers – Marriage of Convenience

Setting: Newcastle or Sydney around the beach areas

Time Frame: Early Feb to late Nov

Target: HM&B Sexy or Sexy Sensation

Blurb:

Lexie Chambers and James Darcy have been friends since 1st grade and have a strong working and personal relationship. So it seemed natural to Lexie, that when she decided to have a child, that she would turn to her best friend and business partner for help.

James Darcy is less than impressed when Lexie tells him she wants to have a baby and wants him to be the father. He is even less impressed when she announces that it’s just his sperm she wants and not his body. The last thing James wants is to course problems with their friendship, so why is he so insistent that they conceive the baby the natural way?

What will taking the step from friend to lover mean to their friendship? Are they willing to pay the price?

HERO:
Name: James Darcy. (Antonio Bandaras)

Age: 34

Height: 6’

Hair colour: Black

Eye’s colour: Dark Brown

Physical description: Athletic, with toned muscled arms and legs. Oval face, full lips, tanned complexion.

Family Affiliations: Only child parents divorced: Mother has had a sting of younger lovers and his father has been married 4 times.

Career: CEO & Co-owner of Marketing Business

Basic Traits: Strong, reliable, trustworthy, ambitious, and determined. Can be suspicious of women and their motives.

HIS GOAL: To make his business a success and to have his partner Lexie look at him as something other than just a friend.

HIS MOTIVATION: James wants to prove to his father that he can make his own way without the help of family money.

He has loved Lexie for years and she is the only woman he would ever think of settling down with and give his children the stable home he never had growing up.

CONFLICT: His father can be over powering and believes his way is always the best.

He wants to help Lexie conceive a child, but NOT via AI.

HIS CORE BELIEF: That he will never make a good husband or father as he never had an example of how to act like one, plus he is often told he is like his father.

HEROINE:

Name: Lexie Chambers (Naomi Watts)

Age: 34

Height: 5’ 4”

Hair colour: Blonde – long & wavy

Eye’s colour: Blue

Physical description: Slim, toned body, almond shaped eyes, full bottom lip, high cheekbones, and long eyelashes.

Family Affiliations: The youngest of two girls, has always been treated as a blonde bimbo by her parents and her older sister.

Career: Co-owner of own Marketing business with James.

Basic Traits: Intelligent, funny, friendly, impulsive, stubborn, independent, lacks self-confidence around her family.

HER GOAL: To have a baby she can love and who will love her. Have her parent accept her for the person she is.

HER MOTIVATION: Wants to prove to her family that she is responsible.

CONFLICT: She wants to conceive her child by AI. She is afraid if she and James cross the line from friends to lovers she will lose him as a friend and a business partner.

HER CORE BELIEF: That sooner or later everyone she loves will turn his or her backs on her.

Step one completed.
Sandie

The Novels

Lady Mounthall's Lover

Having Her Best Friend's Baby