After The First Wife, I was casting around for ideas for another stand-alone novel, when my editor asked if I’d consider another trilogy. I wasn’t so sure, and got even more wary when she went on to say they were looking for one set in exotic locations, with both past and present stories, (therefore essentially six books, not three) that meshed together, and it should have a little mystery and a little romance and . . .
By this time I was trying to figure out how to say no without sounding like a Bad And Uncooperative Author. I said I’d think about it, not intending to try very hard.
Except . . . there’s something about an author-brain given a challenge like that. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, you’re given all these pieces and have to come up with a way to make a beautiful whole out of them. My mind started going, and before I knew it (okay, no, it took weeks), I had a barebones sketch of what became the trilogy Women of Consequence.
As requested, there are past and present stories in each book. For my “exotic” locations, set in the 1970s, I chose Paris, where I lived for a year in high school, Cairo, where my family spent time when my older brother was a journalist there, and Crete, where my husband and I visited only a few years ago. It makes a real difference writing about a place you’ve been. I’d love to say my travel budget allows me to leap about the globe doing research like some authors can, but, well, it doesn’t.
That took care of the past. The setting for the modern half of The Paris Affair grew out of a fantastic weekend my husband and I spent with friends who own a ranch in Lawrence, Kansas. Seeing them there, so in tune with the land and the animals they were raising, and experiencing even briefly the rhythms of their days—I was so captured. Their animals star in the book, including their cockatoo who really can whistle Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
The modern setting for The Jewel of Cairo, Book #2, is Vermont, where my husband and I traveled recently to visit other dear friends! (It’s great to have them scattered in gorgeous places). We are such fans of living in Maine, but were really taken with the beauty and tranquility of the Green Mountain State. In the final book, The Temptations of Crete, I chose Juneau Alaska. My kids and I visited there on an Alaskan cruise and were struck by its charm, stunning scenery, and isolation. More than that I cannot say without giving away a crucial bit of the mystery.
Enjoy the series!
