A Slice of Orange

By Nancy Farrier

Holidays are about family and friends. This past Christmas, my daughter and her boyfriend drove down to spend the week with us. They literally fought their way through snow and ice to get to our house, but they were glad they came. Moreover, I was glad they came. We had a wonderful visit, and a very good Christmas.

My son and grandson didn’t get to come for Christmas, so my husband suggested we take off on New Year’s Day and go to see them for a couple of days. Driving from Southern California to Tucson, Arizona takes about eight hours. I do not like driving. The constant vibration of the car, although minimal to most people, is hard on me. However, the excitement of spending time with my son and grandson offset any trepidation I had about the travel.

The night before we were to leave, our church had a New Year’s Eve service. I didn’t get home until after one in the morning, so I wasn’t ready to roll out of bed early the next day. As we drove toward Arizona I was tired. I kept falling asleep and missing parts of our book on tape. By the time we arrived, I was ready to get out of that car. My body ached from the constant sitting. I was tired and desperately wanted to be cranky.

All the discomfort disappeared with the first hug from my grandson. His excitement at seeing me made my day. My son had fixed a delicious home made Mexican meal for us. He even made sure to make part of it that dovetailed with my special diet.

The next two days were wonderful. We played games on the XBOX 360, went hiking, had a Guitar Hero battle, laughed and talked, and caught up as a family. Even though the trip home was long, I was very glad to have gone. All the discomfort was worth the end result of spending time with my family.

I couldn’t help thinking about how my writing is often like this. The writing and editing can be long and painful. There are bumps in the road of writing that are discouraging. You get tired of working on the story. However, when you see the finished book, when your reader tells you how much the story meant to them; then you know the hard work was worthwhile.

Nancy Farrier

My blog this month is inspired by a discussion running on eHarlequin about that most traditional of romance novel storylines, the marriage of convenience. I love marriages of convenience (in books, that is, not in real life 🙂 )! A marriage of convenience is more likely than any other plot to get me reading books in a line or series I don’t normally read.

What’s so great about them? For me, I think it’s the larger-than-life situation that “forces” two people into marriage. These days, you’ve got to have a pretty compelling reason to get married, so as a writer it’s a real challenge to think up a marriage of convenience story that my editor believes readers will accept. But once you’ve managed to force your couple into marriage, there are endless opportunities for wonderful banter and fun situations.

In my new book out next week from Superromance, The Groom Came Back, the hero and heroine got married when the heroine, Callie, was a schoolgirl, to rescue her from a custody battle. Callie’s dying mother approved the marriage so Callie could go on living with the “groom’s” family, who were fostering her, rather than being forced to live with her estranged grandparents. The hero, Jack, was back in town to support his parents through a difficult time, but wanted to escape back to his budding career as a neurosurgeon. He figured he could help Callie, and at the same time ensure his parents, who loved her like a daughter, got to keep her with them. Apart from Callie’s mom, no one else knew anything about the wedding…until eight years later, when Jack comes home to get a divorce and discovers Callie is definitely no longer a schoolgirl!

Yvonne Lindsay has a book out from Desire next month called Convenient Marriage, Inconvenient Husband (great title, I’ll definitely be buying that one!). She’s hosting the current discussion at eHarlequin about the appeal of the marriage of convenience. Yvonne says, “I love seeing people forced into a situation outside of their control” – hehe, that’s mean, Yvonne! Mean, but true…all we MoC fans love to see that.

A couple of weeks ago I read a book by Tessa Radley called Pregnancy Proposal. The marriage of convenience was actually an engagement of convenience in this book (which was released from Desire in December and is still available online), and it was a lovely story. These days, people don’t necessarily believe pregnancy is a good reason to get married, but Tessa creates her characters so well, I easily believed neither of them had any alternative but to agree to a convenient marriage.

I’m putting the finishing touches to my own “engagement of convenience” story (Her So-Called Fiancé, Sept 09), and it’s been a challenge to make it convincing, but I think (I hope!), I’ve nailed it.

So, tell me, do you like to read a marriage of convenience story? If you can remember some of your favorites, let me know!
Abby