So here’s the deal. It didn’t decide to write the Rose Family Chronicles on a whim. To be honest, I didn’t particularly want to write it. While I’ve read them, historicals aren’t my favorite. Too many rules. Too many things that have to happen to match up to reality. Those of you who’ve read my books might have gotten the hint that I’m not all that fond of reality. I’m big on escapism.

But they insisted. The Heaven Sent boys aren’t ever very far from my thoughts. I’m rather fond of them and like to think about them. I guess it was just a matter of time before I started thinking about them in alternate settings. This isn’t new. My characters get to wear all sorts of crazy hats and costumes in my head while I’m trying to think up stories. But when I started seeing Tyler and Reese in particular all dressed up in Regency-type clothing, the images stuck. Can you blame me? And if the images were in my head, that meant that Johnnie and Luc saw them. Because, yeah, if you put out juicy bait like that, the wolves will descend. From there, the premise wrote itself. What better parallel to rock gods then a noble family? I thought it’d end up being the band that were related, but that just didn’t pan out. What came up naturally was Reese and Brent as twins. Why not? I’d already established that they looked a lot alike. How about exactly alike? Johnnie, of course, had to be the head of the household. Luc and Darien didn’t quite fit as brothers, but boy did Gretchen just fall in place as his sister. That was the family. Right and proper Chris had to be the butler. Darien was a cousin for awhile, but he was more interesting as newbie to the family. Luc and Hell’s places are still forming, but I think you’ll like their places in the world.

Okay, so the idea caught on. It amused me, but I didn’t think I’d write it. Because I’d already written those characters. It was cheesy to write them again, right? Cheating? But the more I thought about it, the more I thought “why not?” They’re my characters and people enjoy them. I’m not going to write any more Heaven Sent, but I could still use the boys. Yes, it’s fanfic of my own story. I’ll admit it. But let’s face it, different setting makes them slightly different, which makes it a different story. So that’s been kind of fun.

What isn’t fun is the setting. Ugh. As I said above, historicals aren’t my favorite. They can be fascinating and lots of fun to read, but I am not a history buff. I am not exceedingly detail oriented and I had no desire to put in the work on research. Oh, I’ve done some. More than I’ve done for most of my books, but I haven’t done a fraction of what dedicated historical writers do. My hat’s off to them for what they do. It’s flipping HARD! I made the decision early on to give myself and break and not even try to match up to actual history. I thought I was being even easier on myself by changing things up — multiple gods, homosexuality being okay, woman with a stronger role in society, etc. And, to be honest, these changes have made things easier. But it’s still HARD! So many details. The bible for this series is exponentially bigger than the ones for my other series. Okay, maybe the Dark Elves bible is almost as big, but still not.

And the setup! The details it takes to maneuver these relationships is atrocious. Easier with the modern day, cut the bullshit attitude.

So this, my lovely readers, is among the reasons it takes me so long to write these books. There are other reasons certainly, but the flipping details and time line of this series are beating me to a pulp. Thank everything holy that I have terrific crit partners, beta readers and a saint of an editor (who happens to really like historicals and is into that thing. Lucky me!).

As for the future, I’m pretty sure I’m done with Regency-type stories. Well… unless some pretty boy catches my eye and decides I need to tell his story.