Why Do Dukes Fall In Love by Megan Frampton
Series: Dukes Behaving Badly, #4
Historical Romance
Released: July 26, 2016
Avon
In Megan
Frampton’s captivating new Dukes Behaving
Badly novel, we learn the answer to the question:
Why do dukes
fall in love?
Michael, the
Duke of Hadlow, has the liberty of enjoying an indiscretion . . . or several. But
when it comes time for him to take a proper bride, he ultimately realizes he
wants only one woman: Edwina Cheltam. He’d hired her as his secretary, only to
quickly discover she was sensuous and intelligent.
They embark on
a passionate affair, and when she breaks it off, he accepts her decision as the
logical one . . . but only at first. Then he decides to pursue her. Michael is
brilliant, single-minded, and utterly indifferent to being the talk of the ton.
It’s even said his only true friend is his dog. Edwina had begged him to marry
someone appropriate–—someone aristocratic . . . someone high-born . . . someone
else. But the only thing more persuasive than a duke intent on seduction is one
who has fallen irrevocably in love.
Something I have talked about before is that I can not (as
in CAN NOT) write a book without knowing precisely whom the hero looks like.
Not just that; the person I have in mind has to be a) relatively in his prime
and b) tall and c) is usually an actor, although I have made an exception for
British supermodel David Gandy (because duh).
I use the image in my head as an anchor to figure out what
the hero might do or say at any given time. I don’t print pictures out or
create a Pinterest board or any of that actual visual stuff; as long as I have
the guy in my head, I’m good.
Generally, what ends up happening is that the actor’s
personality seeps out through my hero as well (or maybe a role the actor played
that I particularly enjoyed). So, for example, the hero of Put Up Your Duke was
modeled after Game of Thrones’s Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, so a bit of Jaime got
included, particularly the effortless charm and incredible good looks.
Why Do Dukes Fall in Love?’s hero was someone I like, but I
sometimes feel uncomfortable liking. That’s because some of the roles he’s
played—and played well—have been despicable, and also because in real life he
seems as though he is not the nicest person in the world.
This hero is modeled after German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender,
and in particular I kept his portrayal of Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre in mind
while I wrote. I know some people find Mr. Rochester—and likely Fassbender as
well—overbearing, autocratic, and sometimes sneering, and that attitude was
definitely part of my hero Michael (yeah, I named the hero Michael. I have no
imagination when it comes to names). I took that attitude and wrote Michael as
though he were on the spectrum, keenly intelligent, but not very tolerant of
social niceties.
Fassbender’s presence—that commanding stalk of a walk (which
sounds funny when you say it aloud—maybe don’t try that), his low, rumbling
voice, the way he stares so intently at the person he’s talking to. All of that
went into my writing of Michael, and made him come alive in my head, and
hopefully on the page.
I am sometimes reluctant to share the image of the hero in
my head, since readers will bring their own vision of the hero, and I wouldn’t
want to tamper with that (the author can only impose so much of her viewpoint
on the book—after it’s been printed, it’s up to readers to figure out what they
think about it, and who they see when they read). But it is such a crucial part
of my process I think it can be fun to know, too.
Do you see people when you read?
Megan Frampton writes historical romance under her own
name and romantic women’s fiction as Megan Caldwell. She likes the color black,
gin, dark-haired British men, and huge earrings, not in that order. She lives
in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son. You can visit her website at
www.meganframpton.com. She tweets as @meganf, and is at
facebook.com/meganframptonbooks.
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