Today, I’m thrilled to host this guest post by Heather Frost where she tells us more about how the story came to life. The book will be released on June 18th. Check it out!
Thank you, Heather Frost, for gifting a copy and FFBC Tours for having me on this tour.
Royal Decoy, The Story Behind The Story by Heather Frost
Hi! I’m excited to share some of the story-behind-the-story about Royal Decoy. This book has gone through many refining stages, and it’s been a long journey for me, but it all started with a few simple ideas.
Let me back up by saying I get inspiration from a lot of places. I’m inspired by what I read, what I watch; conversations I overhear, people I watch. Art I see, places I visit, legends I hear—all of these things give me seeds of ideas that I jot down in one of my notebooks. Sometimes I’ll be inspired by the smallest, simplest thing—something that leads me to ask, “What if?” And sometimes, a story literally drops into my head.
Royal Decoy was a combination of these things.
What if the main character of a story wasn’t the princess, but her decoy?
What if the decoy was forced into it?
What if the princess wasn’t even grateful for the risks her decoy took?
What if there was this creepy assassin . . .?
Finally, the ideas coalesced enough that I started getting the big picture and the details. Originally Clare’s story started in a totally different place; she worked in a tavern, not in the castle. She had a drunkard father, and a little sister in addition to the three brothers that actually survived all the revision cuts. But more on that later.
Since I’m one of those writers who discovers the story while writing, all I needed to get started was an understanding of the characters and where I wanted them to end up. I remember the exact day I started the first draft—March 26th, 2014. I only remember because it was the day my sister (AKA, my best friend) left the country for a year and a half to live in the Dominican Republic. Writing was the only thing that sort of distracted me from how much I already missed her.
It wasn’t very far into the story that I realized the decoy storyline wasn’t the only one I needed to follow, which brings me to the, “it fell into my lap” part of the story.
Grayson was born literally as I was writing. I started a new chapter, and it wasn’t in Clare’s head. (Which totally caught me off-guard, because I wasn’t going to have multiple POVs!) But I started writing, trusting the story. I learned this new character’s name was Grayson, and I seriously didn’t know anything else about him when I started writing that chapter. But within the first paragraph, the door to his life opened. I learned he was a prince and that his family was evil—and that Grayson was different. That first scene is actually still in the book; Grayson and his brother Tyrell are standing outside the throne room, awaiting their father’s summons. So, when you read that part, you can share a wink and a nod with me.
Another important character that helped steer the direction of Royal Decoy is a particularly creepy assassin that I won’t talk much about here, because due to my revisions over the years, I pushed back his entrance to book 2. So I’ll share more about him another time.
In the beginning, I was confident Royal Decoy would be one book, and I kept telling my writing group that, but the story grew, and it soon became clear it was going to be a series. (The lovely ladies in my writing group still bring that up, and we laugh about it!)
There was a lot going on during this time in my life. I’d finished publishing my Seers Trilogy in 2013, the same year I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, and to say I was a little burned out would be an understatement! So I promised myself I would write without feeling too much pressure to publish, and it was really good for me. I finished first drafts of a couple novels (as of yet unpublished—but not forever !) and then I started sending out queries for projects and getting rejections for some of my work. Meanwhile, I kept working on Royal Decoy.
And then, in 2016, my dad passed away unexpectedly.
His loss really threw me, and writing became tricky. Some days I didn’t want to touch any of my projects. Other days, writing was all I wanted to do. I needed the emotional outlet. I needed to feel something—or feel something else. Eventually, a lot of healing came through writing, but I didn’t feel like I was in a place to invite rejection, so I stopped querying for a while. I focused on the joy writing brought me, and I spent time with my family.
It was in 2018 that I started to really look at Royal Decoy and began the first serious revision. I had so many important people during this time that helped me talk through the plot and characters. I trimmed out scenes and characters that weren’t necessary and I made Clare a kitchen maid in the castle so we could get her closer to the action. I played with the pacing and changed the place of the ending so the character arcs worked better.
I’ve written many novels, but Royal Decoy has been the one that I’ve worked on the longest. I’ve been through more revisions with it than any other book, and I’m so proud of it!
Oddly enough, naming the book was one of the easier things for me. Anyone who knows me knows that I name pretty much every inanimate object in my house, but when it comes to naming books, I struggle. So having “Royal Decoy” come to me so easily was awesome.
The cover took a bit more work. I had an idea of what I wanted, but finding the right model took time. I was really picky about who I wanted to represent Clare, but I’m so happy with the final result. I think it turned out gorgeously! (My very talented sister, K.M. Frost, did the design!)
The writing, editing, and publishing journey of Royal Decoy has been a wild ride with lots of highs and lows, but I’m proud of the final version, and I’m so excited to share it with you! To my readers who have waited so patiently for me to publish something after the Seers Trilogy, I want to say thank you for bearing with me. I’m happy to say that even though I haven’t published anything for a few years, I wrote lots of material, and I’m looking forward to sharing new worlds and characters with you now.
Happy Reading!
THANK YOU SO MUCH, HEATHER FROST, FOR THIS LOVELY POST.
Royal Decoy by Heather Frost – Synopsis
A SERVANT blackmailed into becoming a princess’s decoy.
A BODYGUARD determined to keep her alive.
A PRINCE forced to execute his father’s brutal laws.
A PRISONER used to keep him compliant.
A WORLD on the brink of war.
In one horrible night, Clare goes from kitchen maid to royal decoy. She has three months to become the princess’s perfect double so she can ensure her betrothal to an enemy prince. Desperate to survive, Clare throws herself into self-defense training, taught by her distractingly attractive bodyguard. The danger increases when a ruthless assassin begins stalking her, intent on ending the tenuous peace.
Across the northern mountains, Prince Grayson is his father’s ultimate weapon. He carries out the king’s harsh orders because the one person he cares about is his father’s prisoner. Grayson’s silent obedience is tested when his father plans to exploit the marriage alliance between two of their greatest enemies. If Grayson submits, the blood of thousands will spill. If he resists, the girl who means everything to him will die.
The fate of Eyrinthia hangs in the balance. Some want peace. Some want war. All will be thrown into chaos.
BOOK DETAILS
- Author: Heather Frost
- Release Date: June 18, 2020
- Book Length: 370 pages
- Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
About the Author – Heather Frost
Heather Frost writes mostly YA fiction and has a soft spot for tortured characters, breath-stealing romance, and happy endings. She is the author of the Seers trilogy. She has a BS in Creative Writing and a minor in Folklore, which means she got to read fairy tales and ghost stories and call it homework.
When she’s not writing, Heather likes to read, travel, and hold Lord of the Rings movie marathons. She owns two typewriters, sings in the car, and dreams of living in a castle someday. She currently lives in a beautiful valley surrounded by towering mountains in the wilds of Utah.
GOODREADS | WEBSITE | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
Pre-Order Offer
Pre-order ROYAL DECOY and you can receive an exclusive bonus short story!
Grayson is his father’s ultimate weapon–but he wasn’t always. THE PRINCE AND THE PRISONER is the story of how a young Grayson met the little girl who would change his life forever.
To claim your gift, simply pre-order ROYAL DECOY and fill out the form linked below. (You will need to upload an image of your pre-order receipt.) After ROYAL DECOY releases, you will receive via email THE PRINCE AND THE PRISONER!
NOTE: Since you can only pre-order the Kindle edition of ROYAL DECOY at this time, I will also extend this to any physical copy purchases made on release day, June 18th!
Claim your pre-order gift here: https://forms.gle/u3PpeGAU5KPLFxKEA
International Giveaway
Prize: Win a Personalized/Signed ARC of Royal Decoy (softcover), 2 mood rings (for you and a friend!) and Signed bookmarks (INT)
June 12, 2020 – June 26, 2020
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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