original cover art for Creatures of Habit
The mellow yet playful plot of Creatures of Habit popped into my head pretty much whole cloth while I was on my return flight from the 2019 Historical Romance Retreat. Plots don’t come to me in quantities, so when one shows up, I start taking notes! I spent the entire six hour flight writing the beginning of Lawrence and Eugenia’s story, filling up the small stenographer’s notebook I had brought along.
I admit that the cheery hours spent in Cherrybrook, the fictional late Regency or early Victorian country town where this young couple lives was a welcome distraction from my seventh or so edit of a medieval novel which I’m still working on.
It’s also fair to mention that reading and writing are havens from the fear and unrest that the current world conditions are bringing to the forefront. Without doubt, Cherrybrook gives me a place “away”.
Any lovers of Lisa Kleypas’ Love in the Afternoon here? It’s my favorite book in her Hathaway series. I think a seed of Lisa’s protagonist in that book, Beatrix, as well as Beatrix Potter, landed close to dreamy British actor Rupert Penry-Jones and they blossomed into animal loving Eugenia and quiet, steady Lawrence. I should warn you however, there are no dukes in Creatures of Habit, and while my lovers flirt when they’re smitten, the action stays at sitting room/kisses only level.
A small bit of Lawrence and Eugenia also subconsciously came from “Little Women”. Certainly I felt the boy-next-door energy coming from my Lawrence, as well as a bit of Jo’s tomboy nature in Eugenia.
Creatures of Habit is my first published story. I owe a debt of gratitude for the pleasure I get from writing to my mother, who resurrected my love of fiction by gifting me a vintage copy of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, and my loving husband, who bought me my very first genre historical romance written by a contemporary author, and all my writing friends who have given me community.
Lawrie was influenced by Rupert Penry-Jones as Captain Wentworth
