The Ultimate Romantic Challenge
When I sat down to write The Ultimate Romantic Challenge (Brava, 12/06), I knew two things. The first that I wanted to set it in the South since I was homesick for my native Florida. The second was that I wanted to write a really romantic story.
I picked Charleston for the setting and started the story from there. Since Charleston is a place steeped in traditions and history I knew it would suite Alexandra Haughton. She is a woman who has frozen herself. She doesn’t spend a lot of time looking back but the past really influences her and the choices she’s made in her life.
I modeled the Haughton House after the Wentworth Mansion but moved the location to being on the water. I used my knowledge of how a resort works from my time at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort located in Walt Disney World in Florida. I had a lot of fun creating just the right details for Haughton House. Here’s a link to Charleston, SC.
A lot of the key scenes in the book take place on or near the water. I was playing with the symbolism of water equaling love. I know this dates all the way back to medieval times. It’s a favorite symbol of mine because I’m practically a fish. I learned to swim before I could walk and there is no water sport that I don’t enjoy. In the book Alexandra has shut herself off from the water sports she used to enjoy. She hasn’t been out on a Jet Ski in years or even on a boat. She stands on the shore or on the balcony of her hotel and looks at the water but stays away from actually going in it.
This mirrors the way she will indulge in affairs with me who aren’t interested in anything more than a vacation fling. Sterling Powell is the first man to actually want more than her body for a long time. Something that puts her off guard. She doesn’t know how to deal with him and hates to let any man get the better of her.
Sterling really pulls out all the stops, romancing Alexandra. I was inspired with Sterling’s actions by my own husband. From the very beginning Matt has always been the kind of man straight from a romance. On our first date he brought me flowers and candy.
During our courtship he’d send flowers to me at work during the week and he was always thinking of special things to do for me that I liked. I was (this will show my age!) enamored with the musical The Phantom of the Opera during our courtship and when Matt took me to dinner to ask me to marry him, he did it while a live group performed All I Ask Of You. So you can understand that romance from a man is just a huge part of my reality. The reality that I think every woman should have.
And romance is exactly what Alexandra needs to shake her out of the routine she’s found herself in. She wears the same style of clothing every day until Sterling points out it’s almost a uniform–challenging her to prove him wrong. Realizing that she’s a tad too predictable she falls easily into changing her wardrobe but changing her habits of a lifetime are harder. She’s afraid to trust Sterling and the romance he’s showered on her.
I’m giving away prizes during these two weeks for someone who participates in the discussion. I have a holiday mug as well as an autographed copy of The Night Before Christmas, a Brava holiday anthology, as well as a copy of Cinderella’s Christmas Affair.
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