Let’s talk about the fun stuff. The inside scoop on my release, Deliciously Wicked, because while the day itself might have felt anticlimactic, the fact that it’s in stores is still very cool. When I first came up with the Ladies’ Amateur Sleuth Society series idea, I had originally had only 3 women, but my brilliant critique partner suggested 4. Meg was the last added and truth be told the book of the series I was least excited about. Because Meg, herself, takes me out of my usual type of character. She’s spunky, well, that’s not out of the ordinary for me. But she’s really impulsive, which was new (although I have had heroines behave that way, they were a bit more aware of consequences). She’s one of those people who’s always late, no matter where they’re going, which is so NOT me. I’m habitually early. In any case, in the beginning, she felt different enough, outside of my character arsenal enough (I talked about this in my archetype blog back in April). Meg is a Free Spirit and I’m mostly equipped to write Spunky Kids and Librarians and Nurturers.

Once I dug in, though, and forced myself to deal with her head-on, I think I nailed it. I think she still feels like a Robyn DeHart heroine, but she’s different. I can honestly say that Deliciously Wicked was the most difficult book I’ve ever written. It presented challenges to me at every turn; completely changing the hero, which then changed parts of the heroine, then had to essentially rewrite the entire thing in 28 days. It was grueling and really difficult, and for months I’ve been unsure if I really pulled it off. But as the reviews started coming in and The Professor read it, I began to see the book, not in fits and bursts like you do when you’re writing, not in the pieces you had to put together or the sharp edges you had to smooth, but as the completed project, the book, the finished story.

Gareth was different for me as well – and I know some of you are out there going, “well, duh, shouldn’t all your characters be different?” Well, yes. And no. Different, but within the writer’s realm. It’s safe to say the characters in this book really pushed me as a writer, pushed my abilities. Gareth is angry and while he is not angsty in the way that a lot of dark alpha heroes are, he was pretty gritty – for a Robyn DeHart hero. I think the one thing that makes my heroes the way they are is their unrelenting need for the heroine, and their unwanted desire to protect them. Gareth has those qualities in spades. He’s different than what you might find in other books too because he’s poor. And he’s a layman. He’s a factory worker. But he’s a hard worker, and I hope his integrity and inner struggle win you over and you fall in love with him the way I did.

(by the way, I save most of the insider info for my website and those updates should be up on the 1st). The research for this book was rather interesting – and tasty.  It took a while to find the appropriate type of books for the research though because most books on chocolate are cookbooks. What I needed was the inside scoop of how chocolate had progressed. I finally found what I needed on eBay. It was a dry read, but if I ate it while enjoying a bit of chocolate, then it was far more enjoyable.

Did you know that they the chocolate Easter egg had already been invented by early 1800′s? Now keep in mind that none of the chocolate manufactured then tastes like the milk chocolate we have now. It was more similar to bakers chocolate, only the consistency was a little different. For the most part, when chocolate was introduced, it was used in the form of a drink, a warm drink, like hot chocolate. Spaniards were the ones to introduce the modern world to chocolate in the 16th Century. It was they who developed it as a drink. Countries like Sweden and France began experimenting with the chocolate to try to put it in solid form so that one could eat it as well as drink it. England quickly followed suit and confectionaries found their rank among other factories in the Industrial Revolution. In fact they were among the leaders in social awareness and instrumental in creating holiday hours, shorter hours, and other much needed benefits for England’s tired, and wildly overworked people.

I knew from the beginning that Meg’s father was in some sort of industry, wealthy, but from hard work, not inheritance. I originally thought I’d do some sort of shipping and have it set on docks, but that seemed like it would get Meg into the kind of trouble neither of us were prepared for. Consequently, I’d always wanted to set a book at the backdrop of the progressive chocolate factories, and voila, a perfect fit. I worried a lot in the beginning about not making this Willy Wonka: the romance. There was no place for Mr. Slugworth in my sexy romance.

Speaking of sexy, I do believe that Deliciously Wicked is the sexiest book I’ve ever written. These characters pushed and pushed and I think the end result will please (and satisfy) readers. And to celebrate this release, I will give away two signed copies of A Study in Scandal to the first two readers who can email me with the correct answer to the following question: What are the first names of the members of the Ladies’ Amateur Sleuth Society? (hint: if you don’t know, you can find this info on my website).