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A Royal Wedding

A while I ago, at the invitation of Tule Books, I got together with three writing friends and we wrote a quartet of books set around a royal wedding.

It began with emails flying back and forth as we decided on locations.

The much travelled Sophie Weston found us the perfect spot for the prince. Tucked just below Italy on the Adriatic.

For the English setting, I’d recently been to Castle Combe – location for many films and used on many book covers – for a lunch with a bunch of romantic novelist mates and thought it would be perfect.

Four heroines

The first task was to decide on the roles of our heroines. Sophie, who’d already written a cracking royal romance – To Marry a Prince as Sophie Page, was off and running with the young English woman whose romance with a prince is never going to be easy in Falling for Charming

Jessica Hart – who in her alternative personna, Flora Harding, wrote the bestselling Before the Crown – opted for the caterer, tasked with providing the banquet for a royal wedding in a tiny English village in Best Made Plans.

My heroine, in If the Shoe Fits, was in charge of public relations – which meant mainly keeping a lid on the news until after the official announcement and the lovely Anne McAllister, who writes the sexiest cowboys – added the personal assistant to the royal Dowager – formerly married to the best man – in Miss You More.

Like love, the writing hit a few bumps in the road – literally!

The writing didn’t go without incident.

I slipped and broke my arm on some wintery mud, and then Anne had a fall and broke her wrist which slowed us down rather.

Typing one-handed is not great!

But then it was spring, the writing was going well and Anne flew over from the States so that we could get together and talk about the books.

There is nothing like talking face to face (this was before zoom was a thing) and sparking ideas of one another.

A cracking day out

We met up and had the most wonderful day in Castle Combe.

We walked the ground where our stories would take place, exploring the village, visiting the church and having lunch at the lovely hotel that we’d chosen as the somewhat crumbling manor house that was the heroine’s family home. (The hotel isn’t crumbling – as you can see it’s magnificent!)