With: Eileen Dreyer
PRINCE OF A GUY
The first thing you need to know is that I love to research.
Like most authors, I'm insatiably curious, and writing gives me the excuse to
walk up to perfect strangers (or libraries), and say, “Tell me about your job
as firefighter/cop/scientist/masseuse/train conductor.” I get to learn about
picking locks, the Waterloo battle plan, the workings of a country house, how
to profile a serial killer. Anything
that interests me is available. And believe me. At one time or another, I've
been interested in just about everything.
I've also
traveled as many places as I could, not just because I love travel (I do), but
to make my settings realistic. I walked the streets of Mayfair, just as my
characters would in my Drake's Rakes series. I sailed off Hawaii, visited a
flower market in Calcutta, road gondolas and canal boats and bicycled along the
Atacama Desert in Bolivia (still don't have that in a book. It'll find its way
in something. Don't worry.).
But
sometimes, it's just much more fun to make stuff up. Well, more stuff than
characters, I mean. Towns, villages, countries. The lovely thing about
inventing your own country, is that nobody can come back to you and say, “How
dare you? Main Street goes east and west. Not north and south.” It does in my imaginary town, and nobody can
argue about it.
When I
decided to nestle a couple of stories within a royal family, I realized I
didn't want to use a real one. First of all, everybody knows way too much about
the real ones for me to slip a couple of members inside. A Crown Princess and
Prince, to be exact, the princess the heir to the throne. Yes, there are
families in which the daughter is the next heir. But I feel pretty certain they
didn't want me portraying that daughter as a spoiled brat.
So I
invented my own country. My own royal family. I have to say it was a kick. I
just love being in control of everybody, like a tiny god pulling strings. I
love building that world, from brick and stone to favorite cuisine. And I love
peopling it.
I peopled
mine with very well-educated people who speak multiple languages, but where
English has just been declared the national language. And since I have a
Brooklyn secretary stepping in to impersonate the real princess, that comes in
handy. Even if Casey Phillips's ancestors did come from Moritania, it is
unlikely she would speak the language. I set up my own heirarchy, traditions
and problems. And I put them together into A Prince of a Guy, and nobody can
say I'm wrong.
Well, one
lady tried. She sent me a very terse letter.
“Dear
author,
You
obviously know nothing about royal protocol.”
“Dear
madame,” I wrote back.
“It's my
country. It's my protocol.”
PRINCE OF A GUY
When New Yorker Casey Phillips visits the tiny country of Moritania, she simply wants to see where her ancestors came from. Instead, she's mistaken for a princess.
The real princess has been kidnapped, and Crown Prince Eric von Lieberhaven insists Casey—a dead ringer for the missing royal—step into the princess's shoes until she can be freed.
As Casey upends royal tradition, Eric finds himself hoping the cheeky American never returns home. But can a secretary from Brooklyn really find happiness with a prince?
REVIEWS:
"You don't want to miss this delight." ~RT Bookclub
"Not your average Cinderella story." ~Rendezvous
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KORBEL CLASSICS: HUMOROUS SERIES, in order
The Ice Cream Man
Isn't It Romantic?
A Prince of a Guy
The Princess and the Pea
A Fine Madness
ALSO by Eileen Dreyer:
Nothing Personal
Brain Dead
Bad Medicine
If Looks Could Kill
ABOUT EILEEN DREYER:
New York Times bestselling author Eileen Dreyer has been inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame, nominated for the Anthony Award and is a retired trauma nurse. Also trained in forensic nursing and death investigation, Eileen doesn't see herself actively working in those fields, unless this writing thing doesn't pan out.
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