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Sri Savita Samples The Deed With The Duke

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.

 Well, I am super excited to be joined today by my internet pal, Sri Savita. Sri loves to write about love, and she also believes in the magic of a good story with romance and humor.

And heartwarming goodness. And I'm super excited because she just released her debut historical romance The Deed with the Duke. And she's here today to read us a sample of it. Sri, thank you so much for joining.

Sri Savita: Thank you so much for having me. So the sample I'm going to read is from the opening chapter.

It's basically the meet cute. We start pretty early with that. And I, I really love this section for many reasons, and it stayed the same through all of my edits, basically. And I'm just really happy to have kind of nailed that down right from the start. And I think it showcases a lot of the, the character's chemistry.

So, without further ado. Robin Hood's Bay, May 1817. Robin Hood's Bay welcomed Raaz Panchal with a breeze that carried the sharp scent of the sea up to the cliffs. On this pristine spring day, the sun beamed bright in cloudless blue skies. The wind whipped across the long grass, creating waves that rippled through the blades.

Beyond the crooked lines of cottages and narrow alleyways, wildflowers dotted the hillsides with color and sheep grazed over the rolling green in puffs of white like little clouds. The entire Halcyon landscape was too perfect, and surely anything so charming was never to be believed. Of course, he could understand the appeal of such a hamlet, if one were enamored by both the picturesque and the sublime in equal measure, then, yes, the marshy moors, the cliffs, and the sea presented a wonderland.

Perhaps that explained why his father had been so fond of the place, though Raaz, his younger brother, and his three younger sisters had never visited before, as obscure and out of the way as it was from their life in London. But his father and mother had loved, rusticating at their cottage ornée as often as they could when they were newly married.

The deed had gone missing several months ago, but his father died before it could be recovered, so his was a solitary sojourn in the countryside to regain possession of the deed and bring it back where it belonged, the Wednesbury estate, for both his parents. Raaz had assured his mother he knew it had meant a great deal to his father to have the cottage deed within the Wednesbury estate again, and since the late duke couldn't fulfill his wish before his death, Raaz would honor him by doing it now.

He led his mount, Shandar, up the final stretch of the long, steep hill on which the Wensbury Cottage perched. Raaz had arrived ahead of the hack he'd paid to bring his luggage, but fortunately his steward had managed to track down a spare key, which Raaz now had on his person. Where the original had disappeared to was a mystery, but not one he could solve at the moment.

He had a much more concerning problem on his hands right now. Linens drying on a line outside. A buckskin gelding grazing. Windows open to let the breeze in. Someone, it seemed, had been living here. Possibly for a good while, by the looks of it. Raaz had not expected to find the cottage occupied when he arrived to assess the state of it.

But perhaps this was nothing more than a simple misunderstanding. He would explain he was a duke and that this property belonged with the Wednesbury estate. Once he had the deed, he'd send the poor confused chap on his way, with some silver perhaps, for added persuasion. With that plan in place, Raaz dismounted and tied Shandar to the hitching post near the fence.

He opened the front gate and ventured up the stone path. When he reached the door, he raised his hand and rapped sharply with a W shaped brass knocker. After a long pause, the door opened a crack. A voice said, "Sorry, we're not interested in whatever wares you're selling." "I'm not selling anything," Raaz said.

"I'm-" But then, he lost his words as the door opened all the way. The most beautiful woman Raaz had ever laid eyes on stood before him. Her sable hair cascaded over one shoulder in loose waves. As she swept her hair back with one hand, Raaz followed the line of those long fingers. The delicate skin at her wrist was gold, as warm as the whiskey amber glow in her irises.

His eyes followed the natural path of her shoulder upward to assess the curve of her neck. And, despite his best intentions, his gaze dropped to the swell of her breasts as she stepped closer to him. Raaz sucked in a sharp breath at her sudden nearness. He didn't want to have her so close. He didn't want to catch the scent of her, which he searched for with the ferocity of a hound hunting a fox.

Would it be the fragrance of fresh country air? The bright zing of lemons and sunshine? Would she carry with her the clean softness of laundry? Or lavender and soap? If he pressed his lips to the hollow of her throat and swiped his tongue there, would she have the sweetness of oranges? The spice of musk?

God damned infernal whimsy. It plagued him, pushing him further on a path to fantasy. This woman was a stranger, for heaven's sake, living in his house. He should not want to know what her skin smelled like, much less tasted like, and yet he wanted it too much. The sudden rush of desire surging in his blood shocked Raaz.

He reflexively took a step backward to put more space between him and this mystifying woman. Raaz tried to anchor himself to something else, anything other than the thought of dipping his head to the curve of her shoulder and inhaling the scent of her hair deep into his lungs before grazing her skin with his teeth. His eyes fixed on the nip of her waist. It was then that he wrote he was aware of the clothes she wore. A man's shirt altered expressly for her form and buckskin breeches that clung to the curves of her hips and thighs. It took all his effort to drag his gaze back up to her face and with a panicked start he realized that she was studying him too.

She scrutinized him with less subtlety than he did her, raking her intense gaze from his head down to his boots. And then back up again. Should he avert his eyes? Raise an eyebrow and ask if he passed mustard? Did she like what she saw? Why did he want her to? That last question was the one that heated his face.

The charms of women were not lost on him. But she should not have affected him as such. Raaz was not the green lad of his youth. He'd been all over England. Traversed the entire continent, in fact. Perhaps it had simply been too long since he'd last been with a woman. This might have been a convincing argument, if not for the stubborn refusal of his memory to furnish a single one of those encounters.

He could not remember the last time, or indeed any of the times. In that moment, it seemed there was no one he had ever desired. Not like this, until now, until her, and he didn't even know her name. Nor was he able to ask, it seemed. Raaz's words tangled on his tongue under her gaze. And for the first time in his four and thirty years, his thoughts staggered to a standstill.

He held his breath, waiting for her to say something. Do something. Finally, she smiled, apparently finished with her assessment. "You'll do." The words flooded him with a sense of relief that warmed his blood, as if he had been basking in the sun's glow instead of her gaze. He should not care. Who was this stranger in his house, acting like she owned it?

She took him by the wrist and slapped an apple into his palm. "Follow me," she said, withdrawing her touch and leading him into the cottage. Surely he was addled by the bold contact of her skin against his. Instead of declaring who he was and telling her to leave right then and there, he did follow her inside.

They walked through the immaculate front hall, which boasted a large vase of daisies and cornflowers on a round brass and rosewood side table, and came to the drawing room. The woman held one slender index finger against her rosy lips before they entered. He kept his footsteps light as they approached the boarded up hearth.

There was a small gap between two loose slats, and out of this opening came a distinct meow, a cat. She wanted his help to rescue her cat. So why was he holding an apple? "Here, hold this," he said, giving the apple back to the woman before kneeling at the hearth to investigate. After a few moments, one golden eye peered out, and then a feline head materialized.

The dapper black and white cat looked at Raaz like Raaz was disturbing his home as well as the woman's. And then he strutted out of the hearth as if he were wearing the finest tailcoat. Raaz stood and the cat circled back. He rubbed against Raaz's legs, weaving between them and purring. Then sauntered from the room to find someplace else to nap in peace.

"I knew it." The woman beamed at him. "I could tell Billi would like you." Why? But he didn't ask her that, because he had no idea why he again cared for her opinion. She explained anyway. "You seem steady, observant, controlled. I think Billi trusts that in a man." Raaz snorted at the flattery. She apparently trusted him too.

Enough to let him in without asking who he was first. A thought that reminded him. The entire reason he was here was to inform her of who he was. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a single word out, he was interrupted by a bleat from behind him. He turned back toward the drawing room entrance.

Of course, a goat lived in his cottage too. Considering she had named her cat the hi the Hindi word for cat, he took a guess at the creature's name. "I suppose the apple is for our friend Bakri then?" Raaz asked in a wry tone, watching her face as they both walked over to the stout black, white, and gray goat.

He caught a flash of recognition and surprise in her whiskey amber eyes at the gujarati word for goat. "Yes," she said. Her relaxed manner returned. "Will you help me lead Bakri back outside to graze?" So she was controlled too. Interesting. Especially when combined with that effervescent optimism. "Why not?" Raaz drawled. What else were Dukes good for? Once they'd coaxed Bakri into the grass, she dusted the apple off on her breeches and reached her hand out to the goat. "They do better with smaller pieces," raaz muttered. He pulled out a pen knife and handkerchief from his trouser pocket. He unfolded the blade and wiped it on a handkerchief.

"Allow me." She handed him the apple, and he strived to ignore the warmth of her fingers yet again. He sliced off a small piece of the fruit and held it out for the goat. "Here you are, Bakri. We'll need to find another name for you, though. It's a shame the lady couldn't do any better than a goat." "It's a placeholder," she said with a frown, taking the remainder of the apple from Raaz and holding out her other hand for his knife.

Something pensive filled her expression. "I'm told he was quite the troublemaker, and the people trying to rid themselves of him didn't have the decency to give him any name at all. I haven't had much time to become better acquainted with the animals, but it was the least I could do to make sure the poor deer had a name from the start."

And she wouldn't get more time, because she had to leave, of course. He was supposed to be telling her that. Right now, in fact. And yet, he gave her his penknife to slice the rest of the apple for the goat.

Katherine Grant: Aww, what a delightful opening. It's so reminiscent of Tessa Dare in the best way, with the like, adorable animals, and the mistaken identities, and the hidden identities, and all of that. I have questions for you, but first, we're going to take a break for our sponsors.

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Katherine Grant: We are back with Sri Savita, who just read a sample of The Deed with the Duke. I have had the pleasure of reading that already and one of the things that stood out to me hearing you read it again was the beautiful setup of Robin Hood's Bay as they're walking in. And we didn't get too much about the town in this scene, but it's this kind of idyllic place that you have created for your characters to enjoy.

So can you tell, tell me about how you went about ideating and then creating the world of Robin Hood's Bay?

Sri Savita: So I'm planning to sort of write future books about Raaz's siblings and I kind of wanted it to be a twist on that classic small town idea of people coming from a big city and reestablishing, you know, their lives in that sort of quirky, fun, comforting, small town environment, but that's different for them.

There's still some adjustment there. And so that's why it's, you know, it's set away from London. I knew I wanted to have a summer festival. And the other thing about this particular location is that you know, it's, it is a real place and Robin Hood's Bay gets its name for not the storybook figure, which there's not an obvious connection there, but a lot of the research that I found showed that there wasn't really a reason for why they chose that name because, you know, the, the actual storybook characters associated with, you know, You know, other places, Nottingham, Sherwood, and things like that.

But it was a haven for smugglers. And I have some other books that are sort of associated with some of that smuggling for lack of a better word, industry. And so this was a way that I thought I'd kind of create this in world connection. And I knew that I kind of wanted it to be this really picturesque, kind of coastal place.

But I like the idea of there being like an element of mischief or something that you can't really trust about a place that does look too charming, which is exactly what Raaz thinks of immediately. And I think for both characters, one of the internal things for them is kind of learning to trust the things that are really good that are in front of them and like, getting over or, or trying to really, you know, actively work against some of the things that are in their past that maybe make them a little bit more suspicious or not as trusting.

And so I really liked the backdrop of this place. It does seem really perfect. It allows that closeness and community, but it also tests some of their vulnerabilities.

Katherine Grant: I didn't realize that Robin Hood's Bay was a real place.

Sri Savita: Yeah, it's a real place. And they do have a summer festival. And, you know, it's more dancing and like music and things like that.

But there are elements of that that I sort of wanted to use. But yes, yeah, it's a real place.

Katherine Grant: So what was your research process for learning more about that place specifically and then Like where's your line of accuracy versus your own version of it?

Sri Savita: So there's definitely more of my own version of it in terms of the people that are there in the businesses.

You know, the one that's, that's featured a lot in this book is the inn the Bay Blossom Inn. And so that's sort of modeled off a different in that isn't quite in Robin Hood's Bay, but is still on that post and I think it was the Bay Horse Inn, so I kind of based it off of, you know, seeing some examples of what these older inns look like, they're still used today as pubs or, you know, places for the locals and tourists to visit alike.

And then I just read some, you know, touristy websites and articles about Robin Hood's Bay and that's how I learned about some of the, the role that that place had in smuggling and what was going on with you know, everybody in the town kind of making it a group effort to help these smuggling endeavors because people could more directly profit from those kinds of things.

And so yeah, I read some things about the place. I really wanted to kind of. A little bit of my own spin in terms of the businesses and things like that. But the description, you know, when we're seeing the alleyways and the crooked cottages and stuff in the intro that that I just kind of read, that's all based off of looking at pictures of what the place looks like.

And so I think in appearance and it's sort of setting up the scene and things like that. The descriptions are pretty. You know, I tried my best to be factual to what I've seen of the place, and then some of the other elements in terms of how I'm bringing about the businesses and things like that, my version of the festival, those are things that I've, I've created.

Katherine Grant: That's so interesting. And in general where would you say the historical research part comes into your process? Is it a place that you begin before writing or does it come in after you've started drafting?

Sri Savita: I think both. I do a lot early on to sort of set up, you know, where, where I'm locating this you know, what might be important for the characters in terms of like, you know, Raaz's getting there before the hack and his luggage and things like that, some of the logistical things, you know, what does the cottage look like which you helped with some feedback on that, and so, you know, some of that like set up kind of stuff is early, but I think I layer through in subsequent drafts too, like there are things that, you know, May not be specific to the town, but just things that I have to look up. I know I added a lot of details about their outfits and the clothing and materials

cause one of the things that I wanted to do as somebody that's Indian that's writing about Indian characters, but hasn't really had that experience of living in Regency England, right? So I'm not, you know, whether you want to call it own voices or not, there's some differences there.

And the way that I like to do this is just sort of, bring in the touches of culture and, and, and Indian experience in ways that feel very lived in and every day. So, you know, I'm describing the kinds of materials or day dresses or morning dresses or whatever that would be talked about in other books as well.

But there's a highlight on some of the materials, or there's a highlight of some of the things that, you know, they might be eating or drinking or whatever it might be in a way where I'm not getting so close to the stereotype of like, "Every day we eat a mango," but like, you know, it's still representing the kinds of things that are realistic for you know, the kinds of goods and wares that were there during the Regency, but might have a special impact for it being involved with my characters.

Like, I spend a lot of time kind of talking about their, their clothing in a way where, I don't want to necessarily make it forced on a reader that I'm trying to emphasize that these are Indian imports here. But I'm doing it in a way where, hopefully, it fits the way that the character might be picking up on these things.

Because those things are just things they can identify or things that they're aware of, right? The idea of being familiar with more of these textiles or something like that.

Katherine Grant: Yeah, it reminds me in a way... I just had a conversation with my husband where he can't tell the difference between a bath towel and a kitchen towel.

Yeah. And I was like, one of them has high pile. And he was like, I don't know what that means. And so we went through this exercise where I was like, Describe the differences. And I, I noticed that because that's a filter that I've been given in my life and he doesn't. And so that's a filter that your characters have.

Yeah. They know that it's coming from this specific city because they under, they have a connection to that textile industry.

Sri Savita: Yeah. And that's still something that like, Is part of I know, like when I would go and visit my family in India, like a lot of clothes are made custom still to this day. So you go and actually see the bolts of fabric and you pick out the textiles.

And so something that you could definitely get some experience with you know, yeah. A lot of people might be apprentices in tailor shops and things like that. My dad actually mentioned that he did something like that when he was younger and growing up. So it's not just something that's like, you know, you would think there's some gender difference there on the familiarity, but not as much.

I mean, especially if it's like part of what the economy might be at that time, or, you know, if you're wealthy and you have some familiarity with this, which, you know, Raaz is a Duke. And so there's some added familiarity with that. There's other elements of that too. Like, you know, I, I have this I, I mean this isn't the passage that I read, but I have a very prominent hair braiding section

and

hair oiling because that's a cultural element that I wanted to showcase in a way where, you know, my biggest thing is to show that, that Indian people can be romantic leads in this genre and that they find each other desirable and it's the, the elements of the culture, it's the element of being

indian that I want to highlight in a very loving way between the characters and also just because that's something I haven't seen a lot of and I want to do that for myself. And so that was a really special passage to write because again, it's something that's cultural but brought into the dynamic of the characters in a way that I think adds to their like growing intimacy.

Katherine Grant: Yeah, it's a great scene. Now your day job is as a cognitive psychologist. And so I'm curious, a lot of writing is psychology, do you find yourself applying cognitive psychology at any point in your writing process?

Sri Savita: I think, so my research area is reading memory and language, and so some of that involves, you know, what are the things that, that we store in memory about what we're reading, because we know that you can't hold every single detail about an entire novel active in your mind at all times.

What are the things that are kind of pulling your attention as you read? How do we sort of summarize or get the gist of things? And also some other elements, you know, the way that we read about how characters interact or elements of a scene or a world how much of our real world processing are we bringing to that?

You know, do you try to envision what people's accents sound like provided that you maybe have an Understanding of what a british accent sounds like and you can kind of bring that to the forefront while you're reading You know, what are you kind of visualizing some of the sensory things? I think for me Those things are there.

I'm definitely pretty visual when I'm drafting for certain things. I don't really see a lot of my characters faces as much. That sort of evolves for me over time. And we've talked about this because I know sometimes I'm not as heavy with the description of people early on because that's something I do have to layer in.

I have to either find a reference photo or just think a little bit about how I'm visualizing the scene. Faces. I can do a little bit more of that I'm definitely dialogue first in some ways, and I think when I'm line editing, that's another place where it comes through, like the language, or the way that I actually feel like I'm kind of laying down the words, and how changing just one element of the sentence could, you know, alter the way that that's landing, that's where I sort of bring in the, the kind of close analysis that I would give for the type of research that I do, But otherwise, I think, in general, I'm thinking about the way that the character psychology is going to impact their interactions, but not, you know, I'm not a clinician, so it's not always the most dominant part of the way that I'm thinking.

It's really more about, like, is the language conveying what I want to convey. And I would say that's probably the big thing. I do sort of think about some of the ways that I love, you know, maintaining tension throughout a story or sort of building that up. And especially when you're telling a romance story, you know, people know where that's going to end up.

Or there might be times where like, okay, they've already had a first kiss, but you have to sort of ramp up to get to whatever the next moment might be. If there's another kiss or whatever it might be, how do you make that feel different? And so I really do like playing with like the emotional tension. So I guess.

You know, yes and no. Sometimes that's in my mind, sometimes it's not in a very obvious way, but it might still be part of the way that I'm thinking about it. Does that make sense?

Katherine Grant: Yeah, it really consciously is something that you're pulling on when you're revising at the line editing.

Sri Savita: I agree. Yeah, I would say I'm thinking about it more at that point, possibly when I'm drafting too.

I do, like I said, I do like to think about you know, the prose and what it's making people feel, and so I would say I think that's probably where I'm thinking about that, but it's not always you know, not pulling out like a personality test or something like that to run on my characters. I'm sure, you know, that might glean some information, but I haven't really thought about it at that level.

Katherine Grant: Yeah. If I start out being like, let me fill out a check box about my character, like, are they introverted or extroverted? I think I know. And I have done this at the beginning of a drafting process. And then I go back to that when I'm like in the middle of the first round of drafting and I'm stuck and I'm like, okay, I'm going to go back to my character research and that's going to tell me what to do.

And I'm like, none of that's correct. I completely did not know this character.

Sri Savita: Yeah. Yeah. I can't remember who but I know there were a couple of people who as I was talking about this process or I remember reading some articles about like other authors processes and things like that.

I think that's where the psychology comes out too because I like to just understand how people think about their writing or what they think about when they're reading. That's kind of how I decided to merge like English literature with psychology and why I went in the path that I went. But I remember that there's other people who also feel that way, where it takes them a little bit of time to feel like they know the characters, and that's definitely true for me.

Like, early on, I'm trying some things out. It might be like, you know, a few chapters in that I feel like we're really gaining momentum. And then, of course, you know, you go and you fix the start of it, but then there's things to fix for continuity later, and, you know, all of the cascading changes. That, that was definitely an experience for this book, too, to kind of learn how that revision process goes, and that, Most of the time, so far, even if things feel broken, there is a way to stitch them back together and fix them.

And, you know, it's just words. You're going to find another way to bridge things. Something's got to be trimmed. So that, that has definitely been a learning experience.

Katherine Grant: Yeah, it always feels impossible until you start doing it, and then you're like, oh, okay, I get it. Yeah, exactly. I understand universe.

Sri Savita: Yeah, or, you know, just kind of trusting that, like, you'll come up with something that'll work, or something you like better, right?

Like, the idea of going back to your character sheets and realizing, well, that's not who they are, but you know, hopefully you don't feel as bad about that because you like where they've ended up, right? So just kind of allowing that evolution to happen and not being so resistant to feeling like, I want to get it right the first time so I don't have to take all these different detours.

Unfortunately, that's not how it works.

Katherine Grant: No, it is not.

Well, I think it's time for our game. Love it or leave it.

Katherine Grant: All right. Love it or leave it. Protagonists meet in the first 10 percent of the story.

Sri Savita: I love it. I think I could go either way on it, but I definitely, I do enjoy it, you know, when they've met, they're, you know, hitting the ground running.

I feel like, yeah, that feels pretty good.

Katherine Grant: All right. Love it or leave it. Dual point of view narration.

Sri Savita: Love it. I love mutual pining. Like that's something that I love being able to see. That I think is a place where the psychology definitely comes out because I want to like, you know, get in their heads.

I want to experience the sort of angst and the tension and all that stuff. So yeah, that I, I love.

Katherine Grant: All right. All for the mutual pining. Love it or leave it third person past tense?

Sri Savita: I love it. I don't mind first person POVs. I think it depends on what's right for the story. You know, I also read contemporary and other genres, so I know that it's not always in third person.

But yeah, I, I do love it. I think I prefer writing in third as a writer, too.

Katherine Grant: Mm hmm. Yeah. Love it or leave it, third act, breakup, or dark moment?

Sri Savita: Love reading them, depending on, you know, how it's done. I can leave writing them sometimes because I feel like, for me, I like to load up on the angst so much that it feels stressful for me as a writer to feel like I'm going to really balance it out with something very optimistic to reach that HEA at the end.

And so, I can sort of get myself into a corner where I feel like, okay, I've made this so hard and now I need to make sure that I deliver something that is like equally emotional and optimistic in a way that sort of balances things out and doesn't feel rushed. And, and so that can definitely be challenging on the writer's side.

But I do, I do like reading them.

Katherine Grant: So it's not so much that you don't like writing the breakup part of it. It's the reunion happily ever after that stresses you out.

Sri Savita: Yes, that's exactly it. It's like for me. Yeah, I think you really hit the nail on the head there because I've said this too where I'm like I feel like the love confession that comes at the end like the final sort of like, "okay We are in it."

That is hard for me to do which I know is maybe a little nuts as a romance writer and reader, but yeah. It's like it's the actual like I have to make this like sincere and believable Optimistic that's the part that's hard to keep fresh because it feels like you know Eventually everybody's kind of getting to that point Anyway, the rest of it Yeah, I think that I don't find that as difficult.

It's the end of sort of like, all right, I gotta give you the thing that you're wanting in a way that feels fresh and believable and optimistic. And that's a lot. And

Katherine Grant: in fewer than 10, 000 words. Yeah,

Sri Savita: exactly.

Katherine Grant: Yeah, no, I relate to that. I often, I think for the last few books, every time I get halfway through, I'm like, I have convinced myself why they shouldn't be together.

Yeah.

Sri Savita: Yeah, exactly. Like, because that's the other thing too, is like, you want to create enough obstacles, right? The whole premise question is like, why can't they be together now? And so then we do that, and then it's like, well, how do I convince you that all of that doesn't matter? It's done now. Yeah, exactly.

They've sorted everything out. They need to.

Katherine Grant: All right. Love it or leave it. Always end with an epilogue.

Sri Savita: I do love these. I know. Not all stories need them. So I think, you know, whatever's right for the story. I read them when an author has written them. I know some people don't, which is definitely wild to me.

I'm like, if it's, if there's, however much story you give me is how much I'm gonna read. And I'm a person that'll go and look up those bonus scenes and like, get the newsletter or whatever. So I like to just get the full picture. I do like them. Yeah.

Katherine Grant: It is interesting. I've heard that there are readers who don't read prologues or epilogues.

I guess there's some concept that they are optional. Yeah. I don't consider it when I'm writing them. I do not consider them to be optional, story wise. Like, I assume that you know what I've told you in the prologue, and I could make something happen in the epilogue. It's a romance, so I'm not gonna, like, kill someone, but I could.

And, you as the reader, like, you should be reading the entire book.

Sri Savita: You should be reading the entire book, and there's some authors, like, I've talked about how I love Lorraine Heath's books and the epilogues that she does are like part of her brand. Like to me, I know those epilogues are going to wreck me in some way, and she does some amazing things where she moves like far into the future or, you know, whatever it might be.

There's something there that's like, yeah, the writer put it in with intention, you know, so I'm going to read it. Yeah.

Katherine Grant: All right. And love it or leave it, share research in an author's note.

Sri Savita: Love it. As we've talked about, I'm an academic by day. So my readers are going to get one, whether they want it or not.

The real question is how long is that author's note going to be? And are they going to read it?

Katherine Grant: The author's note, I do think is optional. But I agree. I have found it hard to get them short enough. And so then I, I have moved most of my research into a different place, but yeah, the author's note is a great place to continue learning about the story world.

Sri Savita: Yes, and just a little plug for The Deed with the Duke, I have one there as well. And it is sort of a letter to the reader almost, I think for me, like where I'm talking about, you know, the plans for the future books and also a little bit about why I wanted to write this story and in this genre, and we've had conversations about, I think, you know, there's been a lot of sort of internal doubt for myself to sort of enter into a genre as somebody that, you know, is underrepresented in the genre and writing about characters that aren't always represented.

And so, the author's note for me is a way to Just kind of say hi and hello and like, I'm going to be doing this and I hope you'll want to join, you know, for as long as I'm doing this. And so to me, that's like one of the ways of kind of getting to know the reader a little bit more.

Like, it feels a little bit more of a personal touch than the story, obviously, is my way of introducing myself to the reader. But it's different, right? It's a way of kind of breaking down a little bit of that fourth wall, or whatever you want to call it, between the reader and the writer. So I, I appreciate those, because sometimes, That's what other writers are doing as well, right?

Other authors are trying to showcase something that they've worked on or just some of their like motivation. Yeah, I know Courtney Milan does a lot of those too and I love reading those as well. So I do, I do enjoy those.

Katherine Grant: Yeah. All right. And are there any romance rules I didn't ask about that you like to break or at least push boundaries with?

Sri Savita: I'm sure there are. I can't think of something like off the top of my head. You know, obviously I'm going to adhere to the eventual happily ever after, happy for now. But like I said, I'm more of a discovery writer, so I kind of put them into situations and away we go, and I'm sure there are things that'll come up that I'll say, oh, I don't really know if I want to do this.

You know, I think even with beats and things like that that are expected, I think it really depends on the tropes or the plot that you're going for. So I think there's times where I'm learning at least to be a little bit more flexible with allowing the story or the characters to eventually take over and even if I have all these notes about how I thought it was going to go, I'm going to try to listen to whatever that momentum is saying in the moment.

Katherine Grant: Yeah. I like that. Well Sri, I really appreciate you coming on. This has been fantastic. Where can our listeners find you and your books?

Sri Savita: So my author website is sri-savita.Com. I am on Instagram at sri_writes_here and I have a sub stack newsletter Sri Savita stack and you can sign up for that on my author website as well.

My books and other writings are on my author website, and The Deed with the Duke is available on Amazon, in paperback, and to read with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Katherine Grant: Awesome. Well, I'm going to put your website in the show notes. And thank you again. This has been so awesome.

Sri Savita: Thank you. I had a lot of fun.

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.