Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings
The Charity Case Series was born from an idea for a book Elisabeth (Piper) had before we decided to form Piper Rayne. It was going to be called Divorcee Dating (did you catch the term in the book?) and she’d written the blurb and everything.
So, in order to turn her idea of one book into three, we had to find two more women. After writing The Manny and introducing you to Hannah Crowley, we knew she was born from Elisabeth’s idea and her book, Happy Hour (Book #3) would be the story Elisabeth had in mind originally. Not that it was Happy Hour at the time, we just knew she was our woman to take on the task.
The only thing we did want was three women who had been introduced in previous books to get their own. It’s easy to write snarky and quick witted secondary characters. We’re not in their heads. They can say a funny line and disappear into the darkness. Add on the fact, we needed them to be divorced. It was tricky to figure out who the other two women would be.
Let’s talk Victoria, since Manic Monday is her book. You’ll have to wait for Chelsea until Afternoon Delight. Sorry, but we can’t give you all the intel.
When Victoria was written in The Manny originally, you were given a short glimpse of her character as Jagger’s assistant. We didn’t know then that she would get her own book. The fact that she had a kid was just kind of thrown in there when Payne spilled his drink on her desk. Actually, the fact she was hiding having a kid was supposed to say more about Jagger than it was about Victoria.
By Jagger’s book, Chore Play, we thought Victoria might get her own book at some point. Her and Jagger sparring was just so fun to write. I think we didn’t want to say good-bye. We added an ex-husband and the decided the kid would be a seven-year-old daughter. All we had to do was get her to relocate from L.A. to Chicago. And that’s when we decided that she’d only do that if it were to help out someone she loved dearly.
Some of you are probably saying, yeah, yeah, we like Victoria, but give us the skinny on Reed.
Reed sure is dreamy, right? In our plotting, we knew we wanted the guys in Charity Case to be different than others we’ve written. We wanted to do another series with only the heroines POV (sorry dual POV lovers, but we’ll be writing some extra scenes in Reed’s POV as bonus material). We agreed he needed to be a good guy—not a player or a bad boy. Someone who would pull Victoria out of her self-imposed dating hibernation and make her realize how beautiful and strong she is.
Fun fact on how fast our stories can change. Reed was just going to be an attorney, but he was never going to be their best man until we were writing the blurb and realized what’s the conflict again? Since we’d never done an ex best friend storyline before it was a winner.
That’s about all the 411 on Manic Monday.
Our usual dream team plus a few new additions who need a round of applause.
Letitia from RBA Designs for the amazing covers. From the first Manic Monday she sent, we were in love. This series is actually Piper’s favorite of all of ours. So far anyway! ;)
Ellie from Love N Books for line editing. Thank you for dealing with our usual question, “we’ll have it next week, how fast can you turn it around?”
Shawna from Behind the Writer for her eagle eye proofreading skills and making sure everything flows.
Sarah Ferguson and Social Butterfly PR for their organization, patience and help on not only Charity Case Series but on a daily basis.
All the bloggers who carve out time to read and review our books. For the teasers you make, the word you spread, the messages you sent. It only spurs our excitement for the next book.
Our first readers of a really shitty, unedited copy—Heather, Angela and newbie, Tina.
This is the first time we reached out to some of our readers for help. Neither one us knew much about Multiple Sclerosis and we didn’t want to write something we knew nothing about. Thank you to Tina Morgan, Melissa Godwin Lane, Anna Fay and Heather Fueger. We are sorry that this disease has touched your life in either yourself being diagnosed or a close friend or family member. Your information was invaluable. Though it wasn’t the basis of the story itself, we did want to make sure we portrayed Victoria’s mother accurately.
All our early ARC readers, first for wanting to read our stuff early and for posting their reviews.
And of course, all our unicorns. <3 Your excitement and enthusiasm for our characters keep our inspiration on overdrive. We are thankful each day to have every one of you Unicorns in our corner.
Next up is Chelsea! It’s no surprise that according to the poll in our Unicorn Facebook group that Lennon and Jasper have to make an appearance. Now to weave that in…huh? We cannot wait for you to get Chelsea’s book because Dean might be the complete opposite of Reed except for the fact, he’s going to win her over whether she believes him or not.
xo,
Piper & Rayne
BTW – There was just something about Pete. Yeah, he wasn’t the best husband the first time around, but we think there’s something endearing about him. Should we straighten him out and make him deserving of his own book? We kinda want to write one…