Apologies if you’re receiving this a second time. Gremlins invaded my machine and an unedited version went out.
Betrayal is Anna Turner’s story. You may have met her in Masquerade (Bk 1) or Quinn, by design (Bk 2). She’s an identical twin and fiercely loyal to her sister Kate, the Quinn brothers and select friends. She doesn’t like entitled men, men who see her as a collection of appealing body parts, or men who lie, and she’s encountered too many who do. Anna believes in women having choices in life.
So, it was tough crafting her individual back story and then finding a male lead who’d match her.
Anna’s a fighter, but not an activist. She makes a difference where she can. As a senior staffer in a Marketing/Advertising company, she adds her voice to calls for a staff childcare centre. It was easy to pick this as a goal, both because of Anna’s history and because the price and availability of affordable childcare is a hot topic in Australia. We even have areas that we call childcare deserts because the shortage of childcare places is so great. Couples, where both partners work can struggle to find a suitable placement. The situation gets tougher when you add layers, a single mum struggling to balance childcare and work, or who has no family to help out, or whose childcare is in one suburb, their job in another, and they’re dependent on public transport to cover the distance.
Liaising over premises for a childcare centre is how Anna met her male lead.
I know that editors and publishers discourage you from using the names of well-known people in your novels.
I also know Hunter S. Thompson is a famous, dead American journalist and author, who wrote hundreds of articles and many books. The S. stands for Stockton. His style was known as ‘gonzo journalism’, which puts the writer in the middle of events. Hell’s Angels, his first published book details a year of living with a Hell’s Angels chapter.
But I can’t help myself, so when the name Hunter popped into my head, I went with the whole shebang. There’s a story behind my character being called Hunter S. Thompson. And his middle name is Samuel, not Stockton, so I haven’t exactly stolen the name.
Betrayal is the thread that weaves this story together. I love words and teasing out words, so with betrayal comes disloyalty, treachery, duplicity, double-dealing, deception and bad faith—all powerful words to create conflict in a romance. But a definition doesn’t fully capture the emotional devastation of betrayal. Betrayal is the deep emotional wound my characters strive to move past.
“Kim” Philby (Harold Adrian Russell) the famous British intelligence officer and spy for the Soviet Union, who shared British secrets with the Soviets during World War II and in the early stages of the Cold War, was exposed in 1963. In 1967 in a Sunday Times article he was quoted as saying To betray, you must first belong.
Where does a person’s wariness start? When do they grow antennae and start waiting for attack? Some people spend a lifetime and can’t escape the crippling influence of betrayal. Where is our first place of belonging? Family betrayal can scar long before we consider taking a lover. But belonging is a human need, so it’s worth fighting for.
I hope you read Betrayal—Choosing Family Book 3, and I’d love to hear what you think of it.
A Romantic Rendezvous March 2025
Meet me in Sydney.
Tickets go on sale 15 September 2024. Follow on Facebook
The Australian Romance Readers Association will again host A Romantic Rendezvous in Brisbane (22 March) Sydney (23 March) Melbourne (29 March) and Perth (30 March). Special guests will be Nalini Singh & Julie Ann Walker There will be panels, an author luncheon and a signing in each city. You can nominate the sessions you’d like to attend.
Find me on
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/romanceauthorjen/
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jenniferrainesauthor
- Goodreads—https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22577889.Jennifer_Raines
- Bookbub – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jennifer-raines
- Diana Kathryn Penn’s Indie Reads Aloud podcast has recordings of me reading the opening 20 mins of my books:
- Masquerade—Choosing Family Book 1 (episode 188)
- Lela’s Choice (episode 143)
- Planting Hope (episode 101)
- The Anderson Sisters (episode 54 Taylor’s Law and 80 Grace Under Fire) http://www.dkpwriter.com/indie-reads-aloud-podcast.html
You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any other questions.
Jennifer Raines 