ANSWERS FROM LISA KLEYPAS

Answer to comment # 13 (Andreina)

Dear Andreina (what a beautiful name),

it is a pleasure and honor for me as well! I am so happy to hear that you enjoy my books, and I would love to meet you when I eventually come to Italy. About covers--I am able to give my opinion about what I think would be appropriate, and I think my new publisher St. Martins does a beautiful job. I love rich, intense colors because I think they reflect the emotion and passion I try to put into my writing. My husband definitely influences my books, because he is very masculine, and he also has a great sense of humor, and (he would be embarrassed if he knew I was telling you this!) he is very good at kissing. So I think there is some of him in all my heroes.

Answer to comment # 16 and 17 (Silvietta)

Dear Silvietta,

I am so thrilled by your comments--you are making it difficult for me to stay modest! Thank you so much. So far I have not sold the film rights for any of my books, but I hope someday that one of my contemporary novels might be made into a movie. I have an American reader who has become a very dear friend, and she says that the British actor Richard Armitage could be one of my heroes. And I think Gerard Butler and Clive Owen have the kind of qualities that would work very well for any of my stories. For actresses, I think Kate Winslet or Keira Knightley are wonderful in historical roles.

My husband actually does not read most of my books, because he is a rather modest man, and I think he doesn't want to find out if I put any of our private life into the pages. (So I don't tell him.) He has read "Sugar Daddy," and I think he enjoyed that one, because the heroine of that book, Liberty Jones, is very much like me.

I prefer people on the covers of my books more than landscapes, and my publisher tries to take my preference into account, which makes me very happy. Usually when I am plotting a novel, I start with one character and I try to build a situation around that person. Sometimes when the chemistry between the hero and heroine doesn't feel very intense, I realize that I need to make them more different from each other, to give them a sense of conflict and challenge. So I love to pair opposite personalities, or to give them opposing goals. I usually know before I begin a book if I want to make it darker or lighter, sweeter or sexier. For example, when I wrote Scandal In Spring, the last of my Wallflower series, I knew that because the heroine, Daisy, was a very young and sweet character, the love scenes had to focus more on romance than sensuality. In Lady Sophia's Lover, however, I thought that the maturity of the characters would lead them to have much hotter and more passionate love scenes.

To any aspiring writer, I would say to follow your dream and not be afraid of making mistakes or being rejected! The only failure is not to try. And in the romance novels that I have most loved to read, there is always a passion and intensity that leaps off the page. I don't like reading anything that is tepid or bland . . . even if something is a little over-the-top, or overdone, I prefer that to something that is boring or timid. The most difficult book I have ever written was "Blue Eyed Devil" because the heroine goes on a very dramatic emotional journey, and confronts a lot of difficulty and danger. I was very drained and tired after it was finished, and I needed to rest for several days.

When I go to Italy, I want to visit several cities, but I would definitely start with Florence because that is where my friend Eloisa stays, and she has told me so much about it. I love to meet my readers and find out what their lives are like, and what their experiences have been . . . that is always interesting and refreshing to me, and sometimes I get wonderful ideas for stories!

Thank you for your thoughtful questions . . . I have enjoyed them very much.

Answer to comment # 18 (Raffaella)

Dear Raffaella,

Thank you, now I am giggling too! I came up with the idea for the Bow Street Runner series because I wanted to show a different side of London than the typical ballrooms and estates and soirees. It occurred to me that in exploring the underworld of London, the crime and back streets and the lower classes, I could create a very new kind of hero : a man of action, tough and rugged and a bit rough around the edges. I felt a little like the anti-Jane-Austen . . . and I had so much fun! I think my favorite of the Bow Street Runner heroes was definitely Sir Ross, because he is so solitary and inwardly passionate, and authoritative, and a bit eccentric. I have always loved the idea of a man who is very self-controlled in public, but behind closed doors, absolutely unrestrained.

Answer to comment # 20 (Cristiana)

Dear Cristiana,

I can't express how happy you have just made me . . . thank you for such a beautiful compliment.

Unfortunately "Prince Of Dreams" never turned out the way I had hoped . . . in the middle of writing it, I had a tug-of-war with my editor over the plotting, and after the compromises we both made, the story did not fit together in a way that satisfied me at all. So if I could write it over again, I would remove the time-travel elements, and focus only on the love story between Nikolas and Emma.

I get ideas from many different sources, from friends and music and daydreams . . . but it always starts with a character, and trying to understand what kind of journey I want him or her to go on . . . and how real love could change a person's life and alter all the choices they make. When I started to plot "Lady Sophia's Lover," I had one main idea in mind, and that was to portray a completely honorable hero. At the time, I was tired of reading books about rakes and dishonorable heroes, but I had some friends who said that they didn't think a truly nice, moral, thoroughly good hero could be as sexy as a "bad boy." So I set out to prove them wrong . . . and they told me afterward that Sir Ross was one of the sexiest heroes I had ever created. I think they found his celibacy to be quite intriguing . . . maybe we women like the idea of being too alluring for a man like Sir Ross to resist!