Before I go into this post, I want to give a quick shout out to Cheryl R. for her help over the past week.  🙂

Also, I tried to gift a copy of Bride by Arrangement to Sarah S. and kept getting a reply back from Yahoo telling me the email didn’t go through.  Sarah, if you’re reading this, please leave a comment beneath this post so I can figure out a way to get in touch with you.  🙂

***

Tonight, I thought I’d do a fun post.  I found a list of questions authors can use when thinking of how to develop a plot.  I thought it’d be fun to use some of these with my characters.

Tonight, I’m going to start with Perry from The Earl’s Scandalous Wife.  It’s still in the editing process but should be out later this month.

Ruth: We’ll start with the most pressing question of all…  Perry, what is it you want most?

Perry: I’d love it if Christopher left me alone in this book.  Can you delete his parts in it while you’re still editing it?

Ruth: I meant, what did you want most during the actual story.

Perry: That is what I wanted while you were writing the story.

Ruth: Hmm…

Perry: Hmm what?

Ruth: I thought you would have said you wanted to get married.

Perry: But that’s a given since this is a romance and I’m finally the hero.

Ruth: Since you are the hero, I’d like true love would be what you want most.

Perry: I do want true love.  I just don’t want Christopher to be a part of the journey that gets me there.

Christopher: Well, you wouldn’t take my advice and create a scandal.

Perry: Who invited you here?

Christopher: No one.  Unlike you, I don’t stand on formalities.  Sometimes you have to go out and make life happen instead of sitting back and letting life just happen to you.  I mean, look at you.  You spent three Regency novels moaning on and on about how much you want to get married but you don’t.  If I didn’t do something in The Earl’s Scandalous Wife, someone else would be the hero.

Perry: That’s not true.

Ruth: Christopher, I brought Perry in to ask the questions to.  I can ask you questions in another post.  At that time, you can congratulate yourself on ensuring that Perry gets married in this book.

Perry Ambrose (aka Lord Clement)

Christopher: You didn’t have to come bail me out of trouble.

Perry: If I hadn’t, you might not be here today.  You’d be surprised how many death threats you received over the years.  Running interference for you was a full time job.  But that’s besides the point, what other questions do you have for me, Ruth?

Ruth: When you think of The Earl’s Scandalous Wife, what do you consider to be “your bleakest moment”?

Perry: That one is easy.  It’s when Christopher gave me that so-called gift.

Christopher: First of all, that wasn’t a gift for you.  It was for Paula.  Second, if there’s anyone who needs that kind of book, it’s you.  We all know you’re clueless when it comes to the bedchamber.  Quite frankly, I don’t even know what you’re supposed to do with…it.

Perry: It?

Christopher: Well, this is a PG-rated blog.  I’m not really sure I can get away with saying the actual word.

Perry: Christopher, it seems to be your life’s mission to annoy me.  Ruth, do you really have to wonder why I want him removed from the book?  He’s like a constant thorn in my side.  I have done everything I can think of so he turns out to be a respectable gentleman, and no matter what I do, he refuses to act appropriately.

Christopher: Being “appropriate” is boring.

Perry: Well, I’d rather be boring than annoying.

Christopher Robinson

Christopher: All I can say is thank goodness you end up with a lady who isn’t stuffy and uptight.  If she didn’t have a scandalous side to her, there’d be no hope for you.

Perry: Sometimes I feel sorry for myself.

Christopher: I would too if I were you.

Perry: I feel sorry for myself because I have you constantly saying and doing things to get under my skin.  You intentionally try to bother me.

Christopher: If you weren’t so funny, I wouldn’t do it.  Your problem is that you take everything too seriously.

Ruth: Perry, if you feel that Christopher is doing this, then you need to act like whatever he says doesn’t bother you.  That’s how you resolve that conflict in your story.

Perry: I’ve tried.  But it’s not so easy when I found out he told everyone at White’s that he caught one of the maids leaving my bedchamber very early in the morning.

Christopher: No one believed me.   They did, however, believe you were faking the limp.  We had a good bet going on that one.

Perry: Just the fact that you even say stuff like that is why I don’t want you in my book.  I honestly don’t know how Agatha can stand to be in the same townhouse as you.

Christopher: It’s because I read that book.  You should, too, unless you want Paula to ditch you in favor of a lover.

Perry: I can’t take this anymore.  I’m done with this post.  *leaves*

Ruth: You know, Christopher, you don’t have to be so hard on him.  He did take care of you after your parents died.

Christopher:  All I’m trying to get him to do is have some fun with life.  The poor man needs help.  If I didn’t intervene in this book, he would be going to London at the age of 60 without a wife and no heir.  Instead of making me the bad guy, he should be thanking me.  And you should too.  If it weren’t for me, there would be no book.  When everyone reads it, they’ll know what I mean.  I expect lots of emails thanking me for finally making Perry happy.

Ruth: I think that you’ll be waiting a long time for those emails to come in, just like you’re still waiting to hear that you’re a better hero than Dave Larson.

Christopher: I am better.  I think you’ve deleted those so I never see them when they come in.

Ruth: Nope.  Not a single one has come in.  Not a single one.  Dave is still the most popular hero of all time.  Maybe if you gave Perry a break, someone would actually like you.

Christopher:  No, I don’t think so.  I’m fun and lovable as I am.  Nice try, Ruth, but I’m going to make sure Perry gets a wife, no matter what it takes.  People will read the book and realize the course I chose was the best one.

Ruth: We’ll see.

***

Photo credits:

Perry: © Serrnovik | Dreamstime.com

Christopher: © Vanessa Van Rensburg | Dreamstime.com