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Rebecca Paula Samples In Want of a Wife
[00:00:00] Katherine Grant: Welcome to the Historical Romance Sampler Podcast. The place for you to find new historical romance books and authors to fan over. I'm award winning historical romance author Katherine Grant, and each week I'm inviting fellow authors to come on and share a little bit of their work and themselves.
They'll read a sample of one of their books, and then I'm going to ask them a bunch of questions. By the end of the episode, you'll have a sense of what they write and who they are. Hopefully, you and I both will have something new to read. So what are we waiting for? Let's get into this week's episode.
All right, well today I'm joined by USA Today best selling author Rebecca Paula. Rebecca writes steamy, emotional, historical romances featuring strong heroines and brooding heroes
with a penchant for talking dirty. Her
stories are full of witty banter, scorching chemistry, and wouldn't be complete without a touch of angst.
Rebecca is a former journalist and news editor who once lived in a Dutch castle haunted by a ghost named Sophie. Luckily, she never met said ghost. She fell in love with writing at 10 years old and secretly wrote romance for years before publishing her first book in 2014. She now lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two young daughters, and two kittens in a nearly 200 year old farmhouse where you can always find a Taylor Swift dance party in the kitchen.
Welcome, Rebecca.
[00:01:34] Rebecca Paula: Thank you for having me.
[00:01:36] Katherine Grant: I'm so excited, and later I want to hear more about this ghost in a Dutch castle.
[00:01:40] Rebecca Paula: Oh, sure. So, what are you reading for us today? I'm going to be reading an excerpt from In Want of a Wife, which is the first book in my debut with Wolf Publishing. It's part of the Society of Scandalous Brides series.
[00:01:55] Katherine Grant: Exciting. Well, would you like to set up the scene, take it away?
[00:02:00] Rebecca Paula: Sure. This is from the middle of the book where Rafe, our hero who played a prank on his brother by putting in an ad for a bride, now has Decided to escort this woman, the heroine Lily, across England, and now he's realized that he is in deep for her, and they are on their journey across England, and he doesn't know quite what to do now that they've had their first kiss.
So there's kind of at the point of like no turning back right now. Nice. Let's hear it. Rafe set the cat down and turned his attention back toward Lily, who was gazing through her telescope and taking notes. She lived for the stars as much as he lived for the sea, and he couldn't look away as the fireflies darted in the long grass.
The sweet fragrance of moonflowers by the door flooded his senses and he longed for a good cigar. He longed to touch her more and to kiss her. That's all he could think of when they were sailing earlier. The wind had tossed her hair about and that beautiful full smile of hers was nearly as bright as the late June sun.
She hadn't sat by either but asked for him to teach her to sail. So he had. They had spent hours out in the ocean together before the sun dropped heavy and orange in the sky, and it was time to return for dinner. And he still wished to kiss her. "Are you ever going to come outside," she called to him at last, "or do you plan only on keeping watch?"
He laughed in spite of himself. He would miss her when he left, and he had to leave. But until then, they could share what little they could, right? Was it wrong to kiss? Was it only going to be one? But what happens when one kiss is not enough? That way led to trouble. But he gathered he had heaped it upon himself the moment he had read her letter.
She needed a husband, but he could never be that for her. Especially when Henry didn't have a wife. Rafe would only disappoint Lily. She needed a stable, honest husband. He knew he should have said goodnight and left, knew as he stepped out of the cottage and walked toward her, knew it as he approached, and she looked up from the telescope and flashed a smile in his direction that made him forget his name.
Trouble. "Are you looking for something?" He asked, stopping short of touching her. "Aren't we all?" "I suppose, I mean, in that," and he pointed toward the telescope. "Oh yes, I'm looking for, oh wait, do you truly wish to know? I don't want to bore you." "You never bore me, Lily." "You say that now, but given enough time." He sighed, then chuckled.
"What are you studying up in the sky this evening?" "Well, it was documented in England's star catalogue that several stars are part of a constellation, but they were marked incorrectly. And I'm sure of it. I've been charting them over the past several months to cross reference them before I write a letter to the Royal Society."
"Can I see?" "Of course." She steps aside. Waving her arm for him to move forward, she was gorgeous, and perfect, and utterly brilliant. Whether she believed him or not, he could listen to her talk about the stars forever, and he gazed into the telescope, scanning the night sky. It was remarkable. He navigated ships by these same stars for years, but he never knew they would lead him to Lily.
"If you look to the right," Lily said, her voice a warm whisper by his ear. "That's the cluster of stars. A few were never documented, and others charted incorrectly." Rafe turned his head to meet her brown eyes gazing at him in anticipation. "You love the stars, Lily. I love that about you." Even in the pale light of the full moon, he saw the flesh gather on her cheeks.
"People fall in love with the stars, but they're foolish to do so. It's thought they're dead, you see. Astronomers have noticed stars are fickle. Some fade and others suddenly shine bright. That's because they think we see from Earth is a memory of light. We fall in love with that, with a memory. As if our hearts need the extra burden of being tricked by the heavens as well as in love."
He stood back and studied her for a moment, twiddling a blade of grass between his thumb and forefinger. "I think you're wrong." "I assure you I'm not." "What we see, if it is true, and those celestial bodies do die, they still guide us home.
They are beacons and memories, whether good or bad, can do the same. Like how you returned home, good or bad, Lily, I am here to--" "fetch your grandmother's ring. Yes, so I've heard." And again, he chuckled. "It's not as if I can forget. You continue to remind me better to be off and on your way." And he stepped closer, dropping his head down so she could hear.
And only she could hear what he was about to say. "I'm reminding myself because when I am with you, I feel as if I will forget why we are on this journey that I don't wish to bring you to my brother's estate any longer. I wish for you to be mine and mine only." "And yet you only say so." And he didn't miss the tremble in her voice.
"What do you want, Lily?" She pushed him aside, or so he thought, but her hand remained on his chest, and her fingers curled into his shirt, keeping him close. "I wish to be wanted. Truly, I wish to be loved for me as I am. I wish to be allowed to live my life without being used for another's gain. But I do want you."
"Only until we reach the island, right? Lily?" She refused to look up at him. Let's take a walk on the beach. Lily pulled away, but I'm looking at the star's eye, and he shook his head and backed away toward the path down the cliffside. He wasn't about to kiss her for his family to see, but he wished to kiss her thoroughly and well.
He was finished acting the gentleman. He was never good at that role anyhow. She would hate him soon enough if he confessed the truth. Rafe waited for her at the bottom of the steps. He kicked off his boots and rolled up the cuffs of his trousers. It was glorious to have his feet in the sand once more.
Lily slowly descended the steps. Her gaze fixed firmly on her feet. She had let her hair down, and in the moonlight, it had made him nearly feral. She might as well have been made of the heavens, for she looks just as lovely and just as out of reach.
He grabbed her hand and pressed a courtly kiss on the top, just a soft press of his lips against her soft skin, but it made his chest ache all the same. "Really, Rafe, what are we doing?" He had no earthly idea, to be honest. That was the very devil of it. Something within him could no longer untangle himself from her.
Maybe it was the full moon. Maybe he didn't wish to say goodnight to her just yet. Maybe it was simply that he wished to hear his very favorite sound in the world, her laugh. "Sit down, please." Lily narrowed her eyes and lifted her nose playfully before sitting down on the bottom step. Tall grass waved back and forth as a soft breeze swept over the beach.
Lily reached out and ran her fingers over the dancing blades, mesmerized. He loved the way she moved through each day full of wonder, how she never stopped asking questions. He sank to his knees and reached for her feet. She made a soft noise in the back of her throat as he lifted the hem of her dress and reached for her right slipper.
His hand skirted up the back of her soft calf before he removed her slipper, then slowly the next. What he would do if he could lay her back here by the dunes, pushing up her skirts and taste her. "Rafe," she whispered. He stood, holding out his hand for hers once again, and pulled her to stand. "Are you going to talk?"
She asked, backing away from him. "Or do you plan on being broody and mysterious for the rest of the evening? I have important business to see to." She spun and dashed around him. He sprinted after her and the two chased each other into the surf. She reached down and splashed him. He did the same until their clothes were damp and the air in his lungs burned.
And he only wanted her, here on this beach, dancing under the stars. "I'm quite excellent at broody," he mumbled as soon as they stopped to catch their breath. "No, no you're not," she laughed again. And he couldn't stop himself as he laughed as well. He didn't recognize the big booming sound reverberating through his chest, shaking him awake.
This is what it felt like to be alive. He hadn't realized until now how numb he had been to it all. "Come here and kiss me, love," he said, his voice a low rumble. "Kiss you?" Lily pursed her lips and looked upward. "But I might miss a comet." "Make a wish first, then." "I wouldn't know where to start." "Then start with me."
And she sighed, throwing her hands down to her sides. "You make it so difficult, Rafe. Do you know that? I wish I could hate you. I wish I couldn't stand the sight of you, but I can't help but..." he licked his lips waiting. "I think that is, I have never experienced this before. There is this feeling within me, like this warm buzzing and it consumes me whenever you are around or when I think of you."
"Do you think of me often?" She reached for his half untied cravat and pulled him close. "Only every other minute. It's quite unfortunate." "Sounds terrible." "Oh, it's horrible. I'm sure that I'm losing my mind." "But it's such a lovely mind. It would be a grave loss to science." Lily laughed and blinked hard, puzzling over what he had just said.
"I don't believe anyone has ever said something like that to me before. You keep doing that, keep surprising me. You're not what I planned on." When he had started this whole scheme, he only thought to aggravate Henry, to push and prod until his brother finally snapped and told him to leave. But his brother hadn't, and instead, Rafe had done the right thing and wrote back to each letter apologizing, all except for Lily's.
He couldn't turn her away. Her letter had been special. Rafe knew Lily was what Henry needed in life. Someone who could bring in the sunshine, someone who could stand by him and do what was expected. But that's where the plan went wrong, because Lily needed to do anything other than what was expected. She had spent far too much time doing that already, and he couldn't stand to see her dreams crushed.
"You're thinking too much." She pushed up onto her feet and kissed him until, for a moment, everything made sense. They made sense, and that voice in the back of his mind telling him to leave quieted.
[00:11:51] Katherine Grant: That's such a beautiful scene. Oh, thank you. Yeah, oh my gosh, so much imagery. It just felt strong vibes of nighttime and also of angst. Really beautiful.
[00:12:02] Rebecca Paula: Thank you.
[00:12:03] Katherine Grant: Yeah, I have a lot of questions for you, but first we're going to take a quick break for our sponsors. Sure.
[00:12:09] Annie R McEwen: [musical interlude].
[00:13:00] Katherine Grant: Hey samplers! It's Katherine Grant. I am interrupting this episode to tell you how to get a free book, the Viscount Without Virtue. First, go to bit.ly/hrs fan, go through the checkout process. This is where you add the promo code, HR SFAN as your last step. Just download your free ebook to your ereader.
Alright, well let's get back to this week's episode.
So we are back with USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Paula, who just read a sample from her beautiful book, In Want of a Wife.
And there were several things in that scene that stood out to me. There was so much imagery about the nighttime, but there was also that conversation about astronomy. And there was just kind of tucked away in there. I'm assuming it's more in the book, this idea that Rafe has a sailor's knowledge of stars compared with Lily's you know, scientific astronomy.
So I'm curious, was that an intentional theme to kind of compare common versus like intellectual knowledge?
[00:14:19] Rebecca Paula: So it really wasn't, it's just Rafe, originally his name was Royal, and he was always like the The roguish, rakish second son. But when I sat down to work on this book, I was like, he needs, he needs something like he needs to be competent, really, then Lily will respect him.
And so it just worked out to be that he was going to be this sailor.
[00:14:42] Katherine Grant: Yeah. That's so interesting. And when it comes to the astronomy, like, do you know astronomy? Did you do a lot of research to figure that part out for Lily?
[00:14:52] Rebecca Paula: No, I do an old journalism trick and I do TK when I'm drafting because I hate drafting books.
There's like, so painful. I can edit for years. But I hate drafting. So when I'm drafting, I'm usually just like, TK, TK, TK. So I have to go back and research later. And I also have to be careful because I love researching so I could like get sucked into research. Yes. Very easily. So the research for this book happened after the fact that this was written.
So I had to basically fill everything in and then go back and verify.
[00:15:24] Katherine Grant: Yes, yeah. And is there, is the idea that there's a constellation that was misidentified, is that based on something that really happened?
[00:15:30] Rebecca Paula: Yes, yeah. That is something that did happen.
[00:15:33] Katherine Grant: Oh, that's cool. What are some of your favorite ways to get into that research?
Like, do you go straight to primary sources, or do you go to like, you know, tomes about astronomy?
[00:15:44] Rebecca Paula: So, I usually go to academic articles, and I kind of dig in there, and then I, I go from there, yeah. Yeah, I love a good academic article. I know. I could read them all day. It's like, nerdy as that sounds.
[00:15:56] Katherine Grant: So you mentioned that you have this journalism background that informs how you do your research.
I'm curious, as you've transitioned from journalism to romance writing, or maybe you do them both at the same time as part of your life do you feel that there are any strengths from journalism that have informed the strength of your romance writing?
[00:16:15] Rebecca Paula: That's a great question. So I was I've been a journalist for a very long time.
I started when I was 16. I worked at my local paper and then I was editor before I went even went to college for journalism. Wow. So I feel like my mind is worked in like deadlines. And and I'm very disciplined when it comes to writing and I feel like that is a strong asset to have when you're trying to write romance.
Definitely. Also the curiosity part, like I love to write and get to know my characters and I think that's why I love editing so much is because that's usually where I fall in love with my characters and I get to ask why a lot and like wonder like and poke and prod and like see like how they tick.
Yeah.
[00:16:59] Katherine Grant: Oh, that's cool. That makes a lot of sense. So, kind of, I guess you're saying you draft first, and then you're getting to know your characters in the edit. So, when you sit down to draft, what's your entry point?
Do you have the plot first, a theme,
something you want to research, dialogue, something else?
[00:17:18] Rebecca Paula: Usually it's always dialogue. And I, I credit my love of like old movies, especially with the series, the banter in the series is great. And I, I credit like 1940 Cary Grant movies for that, like back and forth, like the singing banter. I love that so much. So I'll hear my characters talk back and forth and I usually will know like one or two scenes in my head.
And then I just kind of reverse engineer my book. This book was interesting because this book, I stumbled upon an old marriage advertisement while I was researching one of my first series. And I had put it on the back burner for a really, really, really long time. I wrote my other series. I had two kids and I just came back into writing.
I was like, Oh, I should revisit that idea. And so that's how this, this story was born was from this old, absolutely ridiculous. marriage advertisement. I love that.
[00:18:11] Katherine Grant: I, I love the trope of a marriage advertisement like that. I'm going to auto buy any book about that. So
[00:18:17] Rebecca Paula: I wanted to...
when I read the original, I was like, who would answer this? Like, and that's how this story came about because I was like, who is this character? Because this is a really ridiculous. ask for someone. So I want to know like what happened. So yeah.
[00:18:34] Katherine Grant: Yeah, that's really cool. So in your bio, you mentioned that you wrote romance in secret for a long time before publishing.
Why was it secret? I
[00:18:43] Rebecca Paula: think for the start I was writing romance without even realizing I was writing romance. Like the very first romance I wrote was in eighth grade and I have it and it will never, ever, ever, ever, ever see the light of day. But You know, I had those when I wrote in high school, I was sick a lot when I was growing up, so I, and we didn't have a lot of TV, so I would just spend my nights sitting up in my room writing on this old laptop my uncle gave me.
And I would write all these crazy stories, and I loved it, and I was like, but that's for me. And so I kept it to myself, partly because I had a teacher who told me that I couldn't spell, so I would never be a writer. I know.
[00:19:17] Katherine Grant: Well, they were clearly from 1917. So,
[00:19:20] Rebecca Paula: so, I mean, I had other teachers after that who were like, no, you, you should, you can still consider it.
But I was like, no, I'll be a journalist. It's fine. So I really did. I just like kind of went through journalism and I kept writing as like my own secret outlet. And it really wasn't until me and my husband were married. When I was like, I need to do something other than like, repaint this deck for like, the 50th time.
So I started writing again and the first book I wrote, it was like, it came to me in this like, flood and it was like, 12 days of this like, crazy, like, here we go. And it proved to myself that I could do it again and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna actually pursue this. Like, there's not something I want to be kept secret because it's a big part of me and I feel like I wasn't being like, very honest with myself for keeping it secret.
[00:20:08] Katherine Grant: Yeah, I resonate with that. I started writing also when I was young and I had this old laptop that my dad gave me and I would spend my Saturday mornings just like writing my novels, which again, I didn't classify as romance, but looking back, it's very clear to me why I became a romance novelist because I always just was interested in the love
[00:20:28] Rebecca Paula: stories.
Yes. Yeah.
[00:20:30] Katherine Grant: Were you reading romance during this whole time?
[00:20:32] Rebecca Paula: No, I wasn't. I wasn't even reading romance. I didn't find, I didn't read my first romance until, gosh, I was in my 20s. I read Julia Quinn. Okay. But, during that time, I was in love with Edith Wharton, so I was reading like a lot of classics. And Wuthering Heights, whether you love it or not, I adored that book.
Yeah. A really bad obsession with that book in high school. Like, there was just something about it as, like, twisted and tortured as it was. It was just very, like, poetic. And I loved the angst of that story. Yeah. So I read a lot of classics during that time while I was trying to, you know, write without even realizing what I was writing.
[00:21:13] Katherine Grant: Yeah, I also didn't read romance until in my 20s. My first was, I think, Mary Balogh. Did you, was Julia Quinn your, like, Is she your diehard? She's the author that influenced you most or are there other authors that you feel like you emulate?
[00:21:28] Rebecca Paula: Meredith Duran is like my all time. She and Joanna Schupe and Lisa Kleypas are my diehards.
It's like if you look in the back, that's all their books. I have like multiple copies of their books in the back there.
[00:21:43] Katherine Grant: Yeah, and you don't write Regency, right? You write these are like Victorian and Gilded Age books that you write?
[00:21:48] Rebecca Paula: This series is Regency. Okay. But I do normally write late Victorian Gilded Age.
I have a Gilded Age series coming out this summer.
[00:21:57] Katherine Grant: Ooh, exciting. What's the name of that
[00:21:59] Rebecca Paula: for our readers? Gilded Hearts, and the first book is A Daring Proposal.
[00:22:04] Katherine Grant: So you, in your bio, you say you lived in a Dutch castle. Yes. Please tell us more about that.
[00:22:11] Rebecca Paula: Of course. So I went to Emerson College. Classic. And we were able to go over and live in this Dutch castle for a semester.
And so I was really lucky to go live in this small Dutch town called Well and live in this castle. And it was amazing. I had like a, you could open your windows like a princess moment and there was like swans and a moat. Wow. It was, it was amazing. And then we would travel Europe every weekend. We'd have like three or four days off.
So I got to go everywhere and it was amazing. Yeah.
[00:22:47] Katherine Grant: Do you feel like any of that feeds the stories that you're writing?
[00:22:51] Rebecca Paula: I think a lot of that, yes, yeah, it does. I'm, I miss traveling. I traveled a lot with my husband for a long time and then. We had kids, so we kind of like settled down for a little bit.
Yeah. But we're starting to like slowly creep out of our little, like nest and go back out and go on adventure. So, yeah, I think traveling is really important. And when I was there, I was studying art history at the time. So I was able to go see a lot of art, which also inspires a lot of my writing. So yeah.
[00:23:20] Katherine Grant: Yeah. What do you say you're a visual? Like, do you do Pinterest boards and like character stuff?
[00:23:27] Rebecca Paula: So one of the first steps to a book when I write before I draft is Pinterest and then Spotify. I like build a list and I listen to that same playlist. until the book is done and then I never want to hear those songs ever again.
So, but I'll listen to it like for hours and hours and hours and hours because it just like has like an emotion, right? And it fuels the character and their story. So that's usually how I, I go about setting up character. Yeah.
[00:23:52] Katherine Grant: That's so interesting. I'm always intrigued by visual imaginations because mine, I just,
that it's, I'm the opposite.
I can't
look at visuals. So, yeah, that's very interesting. And it tracks that you were studying art history. So you have that
in your toolbox already. Yes.
Great. Well, I would love to move us into our fun segment.
Are you a romantic?
Which do
you trust more? Your heart, your gut, or your brain?
[00:24:21] Rebecca Paula: I'm learning to trust my gut more, but I usually go with my head.
[00:24:26] Katherine Grant: Do you believe in love at first sight?
[00:24:27] Rebecca Paula: I do. I fell in love with my husband first sight.
I knew the first week I met him that we were getting married. We've been together for 20 years, so.
[00:24:36] Katherine Grant: Wow. Alright. Is there a difference between lust and love?
[00:24:40] Rebecca Paula: Yes. I think so, yeah.
[00:24:44] Katherine Grant: Do you believe in soulmates? I
[00:24:47] Rebecca Paula: do.
[00:24:48] Katherine Grant: Do you believe in true love and is it different than soulmates?
[00:24:53] Rebecca Paula: I think they're both kind of related, but I think the one caveat is that I think there's also friends can be soulmates.
I think you don't have to necessarily like be in love with someone to be a soulmate.
[00:25:07] Katherine Grant: Yeah, yeah. Alright, and why is romantic love important?
[00:25:12] Rebecca Paula: Gosh, I think at the end of the day, everyone just really wants to be seen and understood, and I think romantic love in particular is important. Like basically laying down all of your vulnerabilities and being with that person and you can't really hide the bad and they get to see your good and celebrate the good, but there's also, you know, those insecurities your weaknesses, and they have to love you for that unconditionally.
And there's, Just as a vulnerability in that that I think is extremely important and being seen Accepting like who you are. Yeah, I love that. You're definitely a romantic. I am Yes,
[00:25:59] Katherine Grant: I Love it. Well before we close out we know that your Gilded Age series is coming out this summer. How can readers follow along with you and find out about your other books, including In Want of a Wife?
[00:26:10] Rebecca Paula: So the best way to do that is just to check out my website. It's RebeccaPaula. com and it has signups for my newsletter, all my social media, my email. So I love to hear from readers. So feel free to drop me a line. Nice. Well, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Oh, thank you for having me.
This was great.
[00:26:28] Katherine Grant: That's it for this week. Check out the show notes where I put links for my guests, myself, and the podcast. Until next week, happy reading.