Captain Jack's Woman (38 page)

An Interview by
Claire E. White

Claire E. White:
What was the inspiration for
Captain Jack’s Woman?

Stephanie Laurens:
If you mean was there something I saw or heard that triggered an idea that I then developed—well, that’s not how any of my stories come about. They literally simply appear in my head, sometimes virtually complete, other times less so, but always with the hero and heroine visually detailed and with their characters reasonably clear, and the focal point of the story, the central premise or conflict or whatever, also set.

I literally wake up with the story in my head, and I have to make time that day to get it down in sufficient detail so I won’t lose it—this may mean pushing something important aside, but I always do it, and then I can go back to it later. Sometimes years later, but that’s how my stories come about. Some writers call it the muse. I don’t have any particular name for it. It’s just that something up there that goes around putting ideas in novelists’ heads. I don’t need to understand it to be grateful and use it. This means, of course, that I always have this long list of stories waiting to be written. I’m always puzzled by authors who actually have to think up a story to write.

Claire E. White:
The love scenes in
Captain Jack’s Woman
are quite steamy. How do you approach writing those scenes? Are they difficult to write?

Stephanie Laurens:
Whenever someone asks how I write love scenes, I answer: “Slowly.” That’s true. I’m a pretty fast writer, but I always notice my speed reduces with the love scenes. I think that’s because there’s so much choreography involved, much more than in any other sort of scene. And not only physical choreography, either, but the emotional threads need to be both consistent with character development and also clear to the reader. There’s a lot going on in my love scenes!

But I don’t find them difficult to write—because by the time I get to them, I know the characters so well, and it is the characters that are driving the action by this point in the book. So to a large extent, the love scenes are written for me, by the hero and heroine, and I simply have to translate the action and emotion into words for the reader. That fact tends to eliminate unnecessary love scenes, too, as the hero and/or heroine will only instigate a love scene for a reason—a deeper reason than simply because they want a roll between the sheets. This means my love scenes are an integral part of the story, influencing character and/or plot development, rather than something that just happens along the way.

Claire E. White:
The heroine of
Captain Jack’s Woman
, Kit Cranmer, is spirited and intelligent. What or who was your inspiration for Kit?

Stephanie Laurens:
Kit wasn’t inspired by anyone or anything—she simply came as part of the whole. With my books, the heroine tends to have to be a certain sort of female, because of the hero. If you use over-the-top, they-know-they-are-irresistible, dominant-but-intelligent males as heroes, as I invariably do, then you really can’t have them brought to their knees by a weak female with more hair than wit who, when faced with a catastrophe, stands there wringing her hands.

Female readers are largely attracted to romance by the victory of love, a victory that leads to an emotional commitment from a male who would otherwise avoid the whole idea like the plague. So you are really looking for a heroine who is going to affect our strong-willed hero like an earthquake—and shake the damned man to his knees. No weak woman is going to be able to accomplish this. In short, Kit and all my other heroines are the type of women they are because of the males they have to “tame.”

Claire E. White:
Let’s talk, then, about Captain Jack—a.k.a. Lord Hendon. He is strong-willed, passionate, adventurous, yet kind and honorable. How did you create him?

Stephanie Laurens:
Jack popped into my head, a full-fledged hero ready for use, as it were. All my heroes arrive this way—always unheralded, I might add. It never ceases to amaze me that, despite this, they are each and every one different—not just physically but emotionally, too. They have different problems, different emotional backgrounds, a never ending variety. I guess that just goes to show how wonderfully diverse the human male truly is. (And, yes, I’m grinning here.)

Yet I have to admit that all my heroes all have the basic underlying characteristics you mentioned above: strong-willed, passionate, adventurous, yet honorable and inherently good—also trustworthy and decent. I suppose that’s my view of the ideal hero, and the muse only sends me the sort I’ll believe in and can therefore work with.

Interestingly, the only romance I have ever written that did not sell had a different sort of hero, a less-than-perfect one. This was also the only work where I tried to “think up” a romance, rather than just use what the muse sent ready-made.

The work simply wasn’t a “Stephanie Laurens.” The emotional pattern the readers (and editor) expected wasn’t there, so it didn’t fly. I learned a lot from that experience. Now I always stick to the heroes that I love, the gorgeous specimens the muse directs my way.

Excerpts from an interview with Stephanie Laurens by Claire E. White, editor-in-chief,
The Internet Writing Journal
®, http://www.writerswrite.com. Edited for this HarperCollins e-book edition.

New York Times
best-selling author Stephanie Laurens began writing as an escape from the dry world of professional science. Her hobby quickly became a career, and her series about the masterful Cynster cousins has captivated readers, making her one of the romance world’s most beloved and popular authors. She lives in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two teenage daughters.

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A
LL
A
BOUT
L
OVE

A
LL
A
BOUT
P
ASSION

C
APTAIN
J
ACK’S
W
OMAN

D
EVIL’S
B
RIDE

A R
AKE’S
V
OW

A R
OGUE’S
P
ROPOSAL

S
CANDAL’S
B
RIDE

A S
ECRET
L
OVE

S
ECRETS OF A
P
ERFECT
N
IGHT

(with Victoria Alexander and Rachel Gibson)

O
N A
W
ICKED
D
AWN

O
N A
W
ILD
N
IGHT

T
HE
P
ROMISE IN A
K
ISS

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

C
APTAIN
J
ACK’S
W
OMAN
. Copyright © 1997 by Savdek Management Proprietary LTD.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-book.

“The Gorgeous Specimens the Muse Directs My Way”: The questions are copyright © 1998 by Claire E. White,
The Internet Writing Journal
, http://www.writerswrite.com. Included with permission. The answers are copyright © 1998 by Savdek Management Proprietary Limited. Included with permission. The editorial notes are copyright © 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-93021

Epub Edition © July 2002 ISBN 9780061762574

FIRST EDITION

Avon Books: October 1997

10 9

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