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Ally Hudson Samples The Scottish Scheme
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Katherine Grant: Welcome to the historical romance sampler podcast. I'm your host, Katherine Grant, and each week I introduce you to another amazing historical romance author. My guest reads a little sample of their work, and then we move into a free ranging interview. If you like these episodes, don't forget to subscribe to the historical romance sampler, wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Now let's get into this week's episode. I am super excited to be joined today by Ally Hudson. Ally is an Amazon bestselling author of Steamy Regency Romance crafting captivating Tales of Love, healing, hope, and Family. Her debut series Most Imprudent Matches, weaves Together eight unforgettable love stories spanning decades blending humor and heart with devoted heroes and capable heroines.[00:01:00]
Ally's stories celebrate the countless forms love can take, each one deserving its moment to shine. Beautiful sentiment. And Ally, I'm so excited to have you.
Ally Hudson: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. So which of these amazing stories are you reading for us today?
Ally Hudson: I am reading my new release. It comes out June 3rd.
It's called The Scottish Scheme.
I'm starting with the prologue.
But one thing to know about my books is that I tend to interweave the stories, so it's actually set in the wedding of the characters from book three. Very fun. So you get a little, a couple cameos and a little bit of hint of what's going on there. So this is the prologue. It's set in 1813. All right.
And we're starting with Tom.
The ceremony hadn't been beautiful, nor was the wedding breakfast, any sort of improvement? No. The best that could be said was that it was expensive. My new sister recited her vows with barely restrained tears, a tensile note in her [00:02:00] voice. I could not blame her for the reaction, not with the twisted set of my brother's mouth when he had
to glance her way. Hugh really could be an ass when he set his mind to it. With the other failure of Hugh's marital prospects, my mother's eye turned towards me. I was barely eight and 10, hardly in society at all, but she had already thrust three frippery covered misses in my direction that morning.
Every single one had been as indistinguishable as the last. This one had light hair with an oversized bow in it. Every time her head bobbed, which was often as she seemed determined to agree with everything I said, it flapped about despondently. Surely it was intended to match the bow on her dress, but that had been severely starched and sat like two stiff peaks directly atop her ample bosom.
Certainly the intended effect. The lady and I had already exhausted the readily all available topics, the ceremony and the weather. And no person of any taste could compliment the decorations the Duchess of Sutton had chosen on the occasion of her niece's wedding. "Your dress is very fine, miss Kensington."
It [00:03:00] was a safe enough topic. Ladies liked compliments, and I knew little enough about her to compliment anything else. "Thank you, Mr. Grayson. My maid said that it suited my coloring, but I wasn't certain." Her voice could not possibly be that naturally high pitched, could it? "Yes. It looks lovely with your eyes." It was the wrong choice. Her head tilted to the side and puzzlement and her brow dipped low. "It does?" "Yes."
Christ. I hated speaking to ladies. And why was my cravat so tight? "My dress is orange. My eyes are blue." "Yes." Damn. I wouldn't have guessed orange on the dress. It had taken years to recognize that my eyes worked, or rather, didn't work differently than other people's. And it was even longer before I understood precisely how, where everyone else saw distinct colors,
I saw shades of what I now knew was brown. I could identify the tone ,and there were a few colors I was better at guessing than others, but I could never be sure. "You have unusual tastes, Mr. Grayson, if you'll excuse me, my mother is in need of me." I bowed, resisting the accompanying eye roll. She was probably envisioning our [00:04:00] future home entirely too garish to abide.
It wasn't my first fumble with a lady, and I rather suspected it wouldn't be the last. I couldn't lament my failure, and I wouldn't miss her company. My condition hadn't been a serious concern yet, nor my utter inability to converse with eligible misses. I certainly hadn't found one that I had any interest in actually impressing, but at some point it might prove an impediment.
Mother had thrown a fair few ladies in my direction after Hugh announced that he meant to honor his fraudulently brought about engagement to the deceitful scheming strumpet, so she needed a daughter who wouldn't shame the entire family. It stood to reason with the sheer volume of options that mother was shoving in front of me,
there would be at least one that caught my eye, but thus far, such a lady had proved elusive. Each of the ladies have been perfectly pretty in a rather bland sort of way. Their gowns were fine, decorated with laces and ribbons and bobbles. They were tiny, delicate, fragile things with even temperaments and banal conversations.
Topics were restricted to the recent weather, the present weather, the upcoming weather, recent balls, present balls, upcoming balls. It [00:05:00] was a slow Sisyphean kind of torture. I ducked behind a potted plant to extend my reprieve. Mother was in the center of the tulle covered hell, too busy feigning a preening delight for the guests to be occupied with matchmaking.
She smiled and thanked as though she had not but two hours ago begged Hugh to leave the new lady Grayson at the altar. Her present efforts were impressive. If I hadn't caught each and every glower at the bride, I would've thought her pleased with the match. She wasn't though. No, it seemed our hostess, the Dowager Duchess of Sutton was the only one pleased with this turn events.
It was a fair victory to Crow over. She'd secured a viscount for her unfortunate miss of a niece. A bony hand grasped my elbow, yanking me forward. Somehow I'd missed mother's distinctive scent of lilacs and decay, and she'd found some time in her schedule between artificial gratitude and seething vicious flowers to return to her matchmaking. "His grace, the Duke of Rose Hill."
She hissed as she dragged me along. " He has an unwed sister and a widowed former sister-in-law under his charge. You met them once last year." "Mother." It was a half-hearted protest. I'd learned long ago to choose my battles with her and making nice with [00:06:00] the Duke sister for a few moments or chatting with a lonely widow
wasn't worth the argument. She pulled me along, claws digging into the wool of my coat until she paused in front of. Oh. Dimly, under the rushing of my ears, I heard mother rattling on. "Lady Grayson, your mother introduced us at her annual ball a few years ago. It's a tragedy she stopped hosting." The gentleman was clearly distracted.
He offered mother a brief glance before his gaze flicked back to the crowd. He was... beautiful. Dark hair swept off his wide forehead. Matching thick black brows, topped equally dark eyes. His skin was pale, and his jaw hinted at the ease with which he could grow a beard. He was shorter than me, shorter than Hugh, too, and stocky, but the cut of his crisp black and white waist coat hinted at the muscled form beneath.
There was nothing delicate about him. His expression, his appearance, his grooming, his apparel was all severe sparing and breathtaking. This. This was what all the stories talked about, the swirling fluttering tightening of my chest, the dampness blooming on my palms, the way the air had thickened to a soup consistency that made breathing [00:07:00] difficult.
Somehow when I inhaled, it was still fleeting and substantial. There was too much air in the room and not enough in my lungs. "She's still," he started, his voice was a musical tenor. His hand gestured between us for a moment, flicking to one side before clenching in a fist at his waist.
The gesture was enough to ensure I noticed sturdy, strong fingers beneath a white glove. "She's still mourning my father," he finished his lips twisting all the way to one corner of his mouth by the end. "Oh, and please once again, pass along my deepest condolences. I lost my dear Henry some years ago, but the grief as sharp as it ever was,"
mother simpered. "I will. I'm certain she will be grateful." His gaze flicked about the room, still distracted. "Your grace, may I have the pleasure of introducing my youngest son, Thomas Grayson?" Mother followed the request with proper curtsy deeper than I thought her capable of. She excused herself, slipping off with a significant look.
I was supposed to do something, but what was anyone's guess? Because with mother's away, the air filled with an overwhelming masculine cedar scent. It shoved useful thoughts clean from my head. "Pleasure," he [00:08:00] murmured in my direction, still glancing uneasily about the room. "The honor is all mine," I replied automatically.
His silence settled like a wall between us. Several gulps of his woody scent left me painfully aware that I was gaping like a dolt, but I was still too overcome for intelligent conversation. "It was a lovely ceremony," I added trying again. It was inane and entirely false. I'd never seen two people less enthused with the prospect of wedded bliss.
" Yes, quite," he returned as his attention shifted back to me. "Remind me again of your relation to the bride." I blinked, head of leather. "She is my sister of, but a few hours." "Oh, right. Yes, of course. So you are not familiar with the layer out of the house, then?" He asked, his eyes
returning to the crowd. I was fully gaping. "No, not any more so than anyone else. Are you looking for something, your Grace?" His gaze finally found mine, catching there for a moment. His eyes were so dark. I was absolutely certain that they were brown, near black, and not some other color I only assumed was brown for reasons I couldn't name.
It was essential to me that I know what color they were. Truly. "No, yes." He broke off [00:09:00] studying my entire forum with a critical eye. "No," he finally settled. Dismissed. Thoroughly, completely, unambiguously. "Right? I'll just be on my way, then," I muttered a forlorn note creeping in, but I was unwilling to force my company on him. Rosehill sighed, as he shifted his weight back on his heels. Then he tipped his head back to the ceiling,
eyelids shut. When he finished his ritual, his gaze found mine pinning me in place. "You haven't noticed any escape routes, have you?" "Escape routes?" "Nevermind. It's Davina." He called out to someone behind me, beckoning them forward with both hands. A lovely girl in a fine frock of an indeterminate color
return to his side, arms crossed an expression, unimpressed. "You summoned?" She asked, mouth twisted in a pout and then her gaze flicked towards me. "Who is this little cricket?" I- what? Cricket? "He is not..." his grace said, trailing off, waving away the thought with one hand. "Mr. Timothy Gregerson. Mr. Gregerson, lady Davina," he gestured between us not taking his gaze from the lady.
"It's Tom-" "and where have you been?" His grace demanded of the [00:10:00] lady. His lady. My heart ached in pathetic agony at the thought. "I was with C," She insisted. And then she turned towards me. "Mr. Gregerson, it is an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance." There was something flirtatious in her tone that had me stepping back.
"It's Mr.-" "No, absolutely not," Rosehill asserted in her direction once again ignoring my attempted correction. "Xander, don't be rude," she retorted with a petty stomp of her foot. Xander. He dragged a rough hand through his hair and mussing the perfectly coiffed strands enticingly. "Get in the carriage," he ordered. Lady Davina grumbled but still made to follow his instructions, floating past him.
One step. Two. "Freeze," he demanded. She obeyed, pausing mid step without so much as a huff. "Turn." The pivot on her heels was slow, deliberate. When she finally faced us, her eyes were wide with false innocence and her lips were parted. Rosehill's hand shot out in front of him,
palm up. "Reticule." She rolled her eyes and answered before plopping the beaded bag in his palm with the previously foregone Huff. He loosened the drawstring, pulling out a glinting decorative snuff [00:11:00] box. Rosehill sighed, handing the box aloft for me to take. I raised my palm unthinkingly, and he dropped it in, gloved fingers brushing against my hand.
My heart tripped a beat or two. "Can you see this returned to its rightful place? Thank you so much, Mr. Granger." "I don't-" He was already shooing the lady I was beginning to suspect with some relief was the sister and not a romantic prospect towards the door "-live here, and it's Grayson. Tom Grayson!" I called after them, pathetically. The snuff box, lay in my open palm, delicate gold flowers and vines wrapping around and a refined agate lid.
Without considering the implications, I curled my fingers around it and slipped it into my pocket. I thought no more of it. At least not until that night when I snuck it into my bedside table where it would remain for some time.
Katherine Grant: Ooh, what an intriguing prologue. I am very excited to talk to you about this scene, but first, we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors.
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Katherine Grant: Well, I am back with Ally Hudson who just read a sample of the Scottish scheme and the very first thing that stood out to me as you started reading is this is in first person. We talk about that a lot on the podcast, but I've never actually had a first person story.
So can you tell me about your creative decision to, to do that?
Ally Hudson: So I. My entire series is in first person and heads up for my readers. I am switching to third [00:14:00] person for the next series. I originally set out to write a romantasy with reincarnation and had a set one, one reincarnation was set in 1814, and it took over, and so I ended up
scrapping the majority of it and starting with the bones of that reincarnation. A lot of things changed from that. Our love interest here, Xander was actually originally a villain and he was straight. So a lot got scrapped. Wow. But that is why I set off in first person. It was actually first person present tense
originally. I did switch it to past tense but I decided to keep it in first person, partially because I think historical romance readers love third person, but it's growing in other genres that we see first person a lot. And it's actually kind of preferred by a lot of readers of contemporary and romantasy.
And I think we need to try and reach out to some of those readers. I think that, especially romantasy, I think there's a lot of overlap. And things they like about romantasy, the [00:15:00] Forbidden Love that has actual stakes. The enemies to lovers where they're actual enemies. And you know, in contemporary romance, if you don't really get real enemies, it's like a workplace enemies to lovers and it's just an HR violation.
So one of the ways that I'm trying to reach out to those readers is by trying first person, but I am having, you know, a hard time with some of the traditional historical romance readers. They're not interested in first person. It's jarring for them. So I am caving to peer pressure on that.
Katherine Grant: Well that's really interesting. And I was gonna ask you know, you set up this series as love stories spanning decades, and now you've mentioned that originally it was whole reincarnation, which Yes. Something different. So for the series as it exists Yes. Can you tell us about your vision for it and how you came to this series idea?
Ally Hudson: So I started writing it and I fell in love with two characters in that little section that I had created, and they [00:16:00] just screamed that they needed their own story. It was Augie, who has book two, and Celine, who has book four and five, which is a little, little teaser of something different that I do. Both of them screamed that they needed their own book, at which point I was like, there's no way to write this as a reasonable length fantasy novel with what I'm trying to do. The scope just got too big. And then it kind of took on a life of its own. And I'm half planner, half pantser, so I know who's gonna end up with whom and how.
They're like, like a one sentence description of how they're gonna do it, and then it's all flying by the seat of my pants. So they, they kind of take a life on, take on a life of their own. And I've kind of had to reign in new characters that I introduced so that they don't get their own book.
Katherine Grant: Too many books.
And so it's, and it's, it started as you wanted to write fantasy. Mm-hmm. This is historical romance without fantasy element. No fantasy element. Right.
Ally Hudson: There's, there's a little bit of hint of it [00:17:00] occasionally, but it's not officially fantasy. There's like a little. Little bird that flips through a few books that is.
Hinted at being a deceased loved one, so,
Katherine Grant: oh yeah. And will you return to writing fantasy, do you think?
Ally Hudson: I have a couple of ideas, so I'm not opposed to it, but at this point I have so many historical romance ideas that I don't, I. See, having time for it. Unfortunately I don't have the capability to write full-time.
So I have to work a day job and it's distracting, unfortunately.
Katherine Grant: And so you were originally driven to write fantasy. Were you reading a lot of fantasy and when you decided to make it historical romance, had you already been reading historical romance? What was your transition like for that?
Ally Hudson: So I was a latchkey kid and I stole my mom's library books before we had a good internet connection. I am dating myself a little bit and she was reading historical romance always. So I was reading a lot of things I probably shouldn't have been reading, [00:18:00] which have been bodice rippers here. But I would steal her library books.
So I've been reading historical romance forever and I actually started when I was young reading historical fiction. I was a big American girl fan. So I'd been reading historical fiction my whole life, and I actually read that more than fantasy. I think the fantasy idea had just been percolating. When I finally sat down to write it, it'd been percolating for so long
that I wanted to give it a shot, but I wasn't sad about scrapping it.
Katherine Grant: Okay. And which American Girl doll do you identify with the most?
Ally Hudson: Kirsten. I was blonde with the bangs and everything too. My hair got darker as I got older, but I actually looked quite a bit like her too.
So I dressed as her for Halloween and everything.
Katherine Grant: Did you have hair long enough to try to approximate her braid?
Ally Hudson: It was long enough and my mom would do it in the little, little braids and everything, and she sewed me the whole blue dress with the red apron and the bonnet and the whole thing.
Katherine Grant: Amazing.
Amazing.
Ally Hudson: It was, it was [00:19:00] delightful.
Yeah, my love of reading and, everything was due to my mom. She passed away in December, but she was my first, my first beta reader for everything. So she's read my, she's read the smutty scenes. Yeah, so it's been a little bit hard to write now that she passed, but I have a few friends who've stepped up to be my first I, as we go chapter readers.
So,
Katherine Grant: yeah. Oh, I'm sorry for your loss. That's, thank you. Really hard.
Ally Hudson: But it's, it's nice, it feel, it feels close to her though still to keep writing and reading. So, yeah. Every time I read a book I'm like, she would've loved that. She probably already read it and I just don't know it.
Katherine Grant: So which of the historical romance authors that you read then or now would you say have influenced your work the most?
Ally Hudson: I love a romping, fun time. So I tend to veer towards Tessa Dare, Sarah McLean. I read a lot of the Bridgerton novels before I got a little annoyed with the Duke and [00:20:00] I kind of rape scene, that really bothered me. But before that, I read a lot of Bridgerton. I also really like some of the indie authors Aydra Richards-
i'm hoping I'm pronouncing that correctly- does not get enough love. I work closely with Laura, who also breaks the rules a little bit and throws a male, male book... laura Linn throws a male, male book in the middle of a male, female series as well. That's kind of how we became friends. And we also are willing to kill a main character.
That's, that's my other rule breaking, ooh book four is a novella. And the character is a widow in books one through three, and it's the story of her first love, and then Book five is her Happily Ever After. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I, I am willing to kill a main character. That one's not a romance. It's historical fiction, but it's in the middle of my romance series.
Which is one of the things I like about being an indie author. I'm allowed to throw in a male male and throw in not happily ever after into the middle of my series, and no one can tell me no. So.
Katherine Grant: Yes. Absolutely. [00:21:00] Absolutely. And then what's your approach towards research in the historical romance genre?
Ally Hudson: I do as much research as I can. Sometimes I find myself in a corner where something I thought I knew was correct is not. But I, if I think it's correct, I assume everyone else thinks it's correct. And so every once in a while you're on a subreddit, like the Historical Romance sub Reddit, and someone's complaining about something being historically inaccurate and you're like, actually, you are wrong.
But I don't wanna get that post about my book. So sometimes I'll fudge it a little bit. But I do try and do a lot of research. I do like... one of my books star is a baker, so I was doing a lot of historical research into some of the recipes they were making then, and then I tried to make them myself with the,
Katherine Grant: oh, that's fun.
Ally Hudson: I'm not, I'm not doing it by hand. But so that, there's a little bit in my blog where I was trying different recipes.
Katherine Grant: Were they good?
Ally Hudson: No. I don't [00:22:00] know if it was a me problem or a lack of sugar problem, but yeah, some of 'em were okay. Some of them were real dry and very bland. Let's see what else.
I have kind of accidentally curated a YouTube algorithm that is just historical clothing and historical food. Which is delightful. I'm very happy there. But my, my YouTube algorithm is a little strange. The book that comes after this one is a road trip book. So I am following through actual historical coaching ends and we're, we're following an actual road through that journey.
So I try to be as historically accurate as possible. There's obviously things that you don't know that you don't know, so I'm sure I'm making mistakes. But I do my best. I keep a little dictionary that gives me the origin of every word that I think might be too new handy. So [00:23:00] I try and catch the language and things, but yeah.
Katherine Grant: Well, I love the idea of baking and I. I don't understand historical dress until I see somebody like explaining it to me in video form or preferably in person. Understand.
Well, we have touched on it already, but it is time to find out how many romance rules you break with love it or leave it?
[Musical Interlude]
Katherine Grant: So Ally Hudson, love it or leave it? Protagonists meet in the first 10% of the story.
Ally Hudson: I love it, but I don't get mad if they don't. So most of my protagonists meet in the first 10%, but book one I'm setting up a lot and they don't meet for a little bit.
It's probably 30, 40%, which is pretty late.
Katherine Grant: Hmm. All right. Love it or leave it? Dual point of [00:24:00] view narration.
Ally Hudson: I like both as a reader. As a writer, I try to be really, thoughtful about which point of view I'm using. So some books are single point of view, some are dual. The one I'm currently drafting is single for the first three quarter or first little over a third.
And then I'm switching to dual POV because somebody has a secret. And I don't want everybody to know it yet.
Katherine Grant: Wow. Okay.
Ally Hudson: Yeah. Secret motivations and people don't need to know who they are yet.
Katherine Grant: That's so creative. I love that. Love it or leave it? Third person, past tense.
Ally Hudson: I love it as a reader, but I, as we said, write first person past tense, and I am switching to third person
past tense. I read a lot of, lots of genres, so it doesn't bother me either way, but I understand it can be jarring for people who only read third person past tense to switch to first person. So I hear the complaints, I acknowledge them.
Katherine Grant: [00:25:00] Love it or leave it? Third act breakup or dark moment
Ally Hudson: I. I love it actually.
I love that feeling that I get. It might be a medical condition where you get like a pain down your arm when something awful has happened in the book. I don't know, I should probably see a doctor,
Katherine Grant: I think it's called a heart attack,
Ally Hudson: probably a medical condition, but I only get it when I read like the heart breaking moment where they're devastated and they're never gonna be happy again.
I crave that.
Katherine Grant: Yes, because you know there's a catharsis at the end of it. Yeah. Love it or leave it? Always end with an epilogue.
Ally Hudson: I love a good epilogue. I won't complain if it's not there, but my books always have an epilogue thus far, and I don't see that changing, so...
Katherine Grant: all right, love it or leave it?
Always share research in your author's note.
Ally Hudson: I don't always share research in my author's note. I actually almost never do. I probably should, but I don't really write much of an author's note. Honestly. I, I write them on [00:26:00] books that I think need like a little warning. So the book that is not a happily ever after Devil of mine has an author's note that's like, Hey, this is not a happily ever after.
Don't read if you don't. want That's my attempt to get out of the flaming reviews for yelling at me for killing a main character and not quite romance novel. So they can't say they weren't warned.
Katherine Grant: All right. So let's talk about this rule and many others maybe that you break that I didn't ask about.
So what made you decide to write it as its own novel rather than putting it in the form of a happy ever after romance novel?
Ally Hudson: We have a lot of widows in historical romance, which I think is accurate. People died a lot younger you know, throughout history than they do now. And every single one that I'd seen either had a really unhappy, unhappy marriage, which I also do in a different book.
Or they had a happy marriage, but if you got to experience that with them at all, it was a couple chapters tops. [00:27:00] And so you didn't get to know this character. You're just mourning through the, if it's a widow, a female man character, but you yourself are not mourning them. And I always wanted to explore what that would look like. And that
character was one of the ones I mentioned that I fell in love with and decided needed her own book. That's Celine. I'm obsessed with her. And I wanted this kind of love triangle, but not a love triangle. Also like I feel like because I loved her so much, I wanted her to have two great love stories.
And so, and I knew I could end it on a happily ever after. There in the author's note, there's, here's where you can stop for a happily ever after. But like so much of her story in the next book is about her grief journey, and I wanted readers who wanted to experience that to be able to, you don't have to have read it to enjoy the next book, but it's there if you're curious about why she loved this man so much and why his death has affected her in the way that it has.[00:28:00]
Katherine Grant: And have you, what, what have you heard from readers who have decided to read both books?
Ally Hudson: Readers who have read it, love both books. They are probably where I got the most fans from.
Katherine Grant: Yeah.
Ally Hudson: But there's a lot of readers who won't read it, and I knew that going in. I, I fully expected to not have a lot of readers for that and to potentially lose some readers for it.
I don't know that I've lost readers, but I do know that that book doesn't get picked up as often, nor should it, or it'll get like two page reads on Kindle Unlimited and then disappear. I'm like, yep. The authors note worked. Yeah. You didn't read the book. That wasn't for you. Perfect. So, yeah, I just wanted to explore that and I think there is an audience for it.
It's just a small audience. But they really enjoyed it and I'm glad that I did it. And it's one of the reasons I'm happy that I decided to go indie because I would never have been allowed to do that as a traditionally published author.
Katherine Grant: So yeah, I love to see artists being true to their own [00:29:00] artistic soul and taking the
risks that you wanna take. And you know, there are always readers out there for your stories. Yeah. And there are plenty of readers out there who love a sad ending to love story. Just look at Nicholas Sparks fans. Yes, exactly. Are there any other rules that you like to break?
Ally Hudson: Well the first person and then I did throw my male male book in the middle of my traditionally male female series, and I am still figuring out the pairings exactly for the next series, but I'm thinking there's probably going to be a, sapphic pairing in that one that, that one of the characters is kind of hinting that to me.
Yeah, I just don't wanna segregate my characters. It is not real life like. There's, there's no rule that says that you have to do it. So,
Katherine Grant: yeah. So the rule that you're referencing, just to clarify, is not that you're adding the existence of LGBTQ Characters.
Ally Hudson: No. They're there. They've always been there.
Katherine Grant: There's a like publishing rule or [00:30:00] Yes. Like rule of thumb that like, oh, well you have to publish that as a separate line. There should be a whole series of gay characters. Yes. And a whole series of straight characters
Ally Hudson: and never the two shall mix. Yes. You can't, you can't mix them in the same series.
And I just don't think that we're giving readers enough credit. You know, I, I read all pairings, and I think that I'm not alone in that. So we'll find out in June. But I, I think that I've had a couple readers ask for Tom and Xander. It's, it's been hinted and building in previous books, so that was really exciting when somebody specifically asked for that.
'cause Tom has, Tom has been a fan favorite since book one. People have been asking for Tom and I was like, oh no, they're gonna be really upset if they're looking for Tom and a lady. But so far no one has outwardly complained about the hints that Tom is gay. So Xander is kind of out in my books, not not in wide society, but [00:31:00]
Katherine Grant: the readers know.
Ally Hudson: But the readers know
Katherine Grant: Well, I love, I didn't even get to mentioning, but I loved the clenched fist that we see and this whole prologue setup that is clearly a bad first impression and how that, I mean, you know, there's just so much pride and prejudice resonance there.
I'm excited for readers to get to follow through and see what happens.
Ally Hudson: Me too. The whole Rosehill family has always been a little bit Schitt's Creek coded if anyone's ever seen, seen that show. So the moms a lot, the sister is a lot. Xander can be a lot. So I, I kind of wanted to create a little a little Schitt's Creek world for them, for Tom and Xander to live happily ever after.
And so I hope everybody's kind of excited to see how I managed to create a happy little bubble for them.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Well, Ally, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Where can readers find you and your books?
Ally Hudson: They can find me on Ally [00:32:00] hudson.com. I am on Facebook and Instagram.
Not on TikTok, not on YouTube, except for this and obviously Amazon. My paperbacks are available wide release though.
Katherine Grant: Great, and I will put a link to your website in the show notes. So listeners, you can just click right on through.
Ally Hudson: Thank you.
Katherine Grant: Thank you for coming on. This has been really fun.
Ally Hudson: Thank you.
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