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Bonnie Rock caught up with Brenda Joyce in April to chat about her current release, DEADLY CARESS. Bestselling author Brenda Joyce was first published in 1988 to great acclaim with INNOCENT FIRE, the first in the popular Bragg Saga. She has since written 26 novels and four novellas, which include the De Warenne Dynasty and the Delanzas. She has recently started a new romantic mystery series set in turn-of-the-century New York City with Deadly Love. Last summer Brenda, a native New Yorker, moved to a small town in the mountains of Colorado with her son, two dogs and cat. There she trains her horses, hikes and bikes and is working on her next novel— very, very happily. Visit Brenda's website at www.BrendaJoyce.com. |
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DEADLY CARESS St. Martin April 2003 Buy Now
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Writerspace: Could you tell readers a bit about your Francisca Cahill series and your latest release, DEADLY CARESS? Brenda Joyce: I have so much fun writing the Francesca Cahill series. I am so enamored with Francesca Cahill, who has turned out to be the most intrepid, determined and funny of heroines. Francesca Cahill is the heiress to a Carnegie-like fortune in 1902 New York City. She is not like other young, unwed society women her age. She is an eccentric-she attends Barnard College and is a political activist, much to her formidable mother’s dismay. Marriage, teas and shopping are NOT on her mind or even in her vocabulary, although her mother is determined to see her safely and correctly wed! Instead, Francesca is a woman who cannot turn her back on anyone in need, who is resolved to save the world-and who always upends a part of that world while trying to fight injustice! To make matters even more interesting, Francesca is torn between two very different men-the city’s newly appointed Police Commissioner, Rick Bragg, a man as bent on reform and justice as she is, and his worst rival, his notorious half-brother, Calder Hart. In Deadly Love, the very first in the series, Francesca meets Rick, falls in love, and discovers a ransom note. As the abductee is her neighbor’s child, she cannot refrain from trying to find the child; the notion of interfering in an official police investigation is one she easily dismisses. Francesca quickly learns that she has a terrible talent for crime solving, and officially hangs out her shingle at the end of the book-
Francesca Cahill, Crime-Solver Extraordinaire
However, Francesca is quickly intrigued by Bragg’s half-brother, a very successful, wealthy businessman, Calder Hart-who is also a notorious womanizer. And Bragg turns out to be very unhappily married-and separated for four years. So the series quickly becomes a love triangle. And that is the series in a nutshell: our clever, overly passionate heroine, solving crimes and torn between two very different men.
DEADLY CARESS begins with Francesca having just received Calder’s shocking proposal of marriage. (And this from a man sworn against marriage at all costs!) In DC, Francesca is determined to fend him off, but before she can go debate him on this topic, she gets a telephone call from Bragg and learns that an artist has been found murdered in her studio-and this after a violent incident in Sarah Channing’s studio in Deadly Desire. Francesca arrives at the scene only to learn that the murdered woman isn’t an artist but a famous actress who is also her brother’s mistress. As Evan Cahill quickly becomes the police’s number one suspect, Francesca and Rick take up the case together to prove him innocent. As Bragg tries to avoid entanglements with his seductive wife, Francesca is equally intent on fending off Hart-and navigating her way through the stormy seas of her relationships with both Hart and Bragg.
Writerspace: I have to say, I LOVE Francisca's character. What inspired her? Did any historical women influence the development of her character?
Brenda Joyce: It’s always hard for me to explain how I am inspired, period. I would have to say a previous character of mine was a partial inspiration, the suffragette Grace Bragg from Violet Fire. But basically, the ideas for the series and the heroine came to me while hiking in the winter up a snow-blasted mountain-it was typical of all my inspirations-a Eureka kind of phenomenon. It hit me right out of the Colorado blue-why not do a mystery series set in turn of the century New York with a wealthy heiress as the heroine?! Of course, the hero would have to be a Bragg-at the time I did not realize there would be two heroes. I did quickly realize that the series would be very much a soap opera, with a wonderful, zany, lovable and dysfunctional supporting cast, all up to their own necks in their personal lives and problems.
Writerspace: Why did you choose turn of the century New York as your setting? You focus greatly on the reform movement - why does this appeal to you? How do you do your research, and how does historical accuracy challenge you?
Brenda Joyce: Turn-of-the-century NYC is my favorite period and place. There’s something so romantic about it, as if by closing your eyes-or reading a Deadly-you can be transported back in time to that deceptively glamorous era. Because Francesca had to be interesting, she told me she was a reformer no matter what! (Yes, my characters do take over their stories.) Therefore reform had to be a major issue in the series. And as the discrepancy between rich and poor was so vast, as reform was actually a huge and hot topic among the educated, the press, the clergy and the elite, Francesca fit right into a very volatile slice of NYC’s world. I chose 1902 specifically because it was the year of a brief reform administration. Seth Low, the mayor, was elected on a reform platform to fight the Tamany Hall machine, and the police commissioner he appointed took some of the actions Bragg has taken and faced many of the same difficult issues he faces in attempting to reform the terribly corrupt police department. If the series goes past 1903, which I intend for it to do, Bragg will be out of a job as the next administration is a Tammany beast.
Doing the research is easy. I focus on the year and even specific months I am in. If I can, I try to incorporate real historical figures like the Reverend Charles Parkhurst, Seth Low, Robert Fulton Cutting, etc, into an occasional scene. I also use an occasional real headline or news event.
Writerspace: You've set up a delicious love triangle with Rick Bragg and his brother Calder Hart. What inspired these two luscious men? Was this a development that you originally intended when you started the series?
Brenda Joyce: When I started the series, the hero was Rick Bragg, the illegitimate son of Rathe Bragg (Violet Fire), and the heroine was Francesca. The series was to be their love affair, with each book being a stand alone mystery. But that plan quickly fell by the wayside.
Rick is a typical Bragg-golden skin, amber eyes, tawny hair, strikingly handsome. As he was the city’s police commissioner, appointed to reform the corrupt PD, he had to be a man of high moral fiber, a man who would fight for justice against all odds. As it turned out, he and Francesca were very alike-morally, almost the same. By the end of DL, I realized that if I didn’t do something, they would get married in a couple of books and live happily ever after solving crimes and helping others, all behind a white picket fence. That is a recipe for a very boring series! So Rick and Fran had to be kept apart…
The obvious solution was that Rick had a wife, a woman he was estranged from, a terrible woman living in Europe, taking lovers as casually as one picks flowers, a woman we would all hate. Leigh Anne, however, has not turned out exactly as I planned, as there are two sides to every story, no pun intended! In Deadly Desire she returns to NYC to reclaim her husband and her marriage…
Around the time I realized Rick and Fran needed a huge obstacle in their path, a man who is the antithesis of Rick presented himself to me-Calder Hart. I simply knew he was Rick’s half-brother, and as amoral and selfish as Rick was not. I had no idea he would become one of the sexiest (if not THE sexiest) men I have ever created. I also had no idea his relationship with Francesca would turn into anything more than a passing acquaintance-but this man is so seductive that Francesca soon became fascinated with him. And interestingly, Hart decided in the end of Deadly Desire-even though he is sworn against marriage, even though he does not believe in love-that he must make Francesca his wife.
Every novel I have ever written has taken on a life of its own after my initial plotting. That is, my characters come to life and often do unexpected things and precipitate unexpected events. The Deadly series is no exception. It started out with Rick as the hero and as Fran’s love interest, and now Calder is as strong a hero, with Leigh Anne becoming a major (and intriguing) character as well.
Writerspace: While your DEADLY books obviously focus on Francisca, you have created quite an ensemble of characters around her. They all evoke some sort of emotion, and are incredibly well written for such a diverse ensemble. In fact, it is the extraordinary cast of secondary characters who really got me sucked into the Francisca Cahill stories. Can you tell me a little bit about what's in store for them in future books? Do you have any characters who are your favorite or who you feel resemble you in some way?
Brenda Joyce: I never give away future story lines! But I would like to do a novel about Sarah and Rourke given the chance, and most of my characters (not all) will have happy endings when the series eventually ends. And I do promise that Fran, Rick and Calder will all have found true love then, too!
Writerspace: Please tell me that we don't have to wait a year for the next DEADLY book, because, well, I don't think I can bear to wait that long. *g* Can you give us a teaser of what's ahead for Francisca and friends, and an idea of when the next Francisa Cahill mystery will be released?
Brenda Joyce: The next Francesca Cahill novel is DEADLY PROMISE and it will be out next fall, although I don’t have an exact release date. In it, Francesca makes a very personal choice…
Writerspace: What should readers look for next from Brenda Joyce?
Brenda Joyce: DOUBLE TAKE will be out in August in hardcover. It is a contemporary romantic suspense-and a very sexy one, at that. Kait London has never understood why she and her twin are estranged, never mid that they are as different as night and day. She has always yearned for a real relationship with her, has always regretted the past. When she gets an unexpected call from Lana in the middle of the night, a call which is a desperate plea for help, Kait agrees to take her place for two days at the country estate that is her home in the heart of Virginia’s horse country. Little does Kait realize that the moment she arrives at Fox Hollow, someone is out to kill her. Nor is she prepared for her violent attraction to Lana’s husband, Trev Coleman-and Lana failed to tell her about the impending divorce. In fact, Lana has the life Kait has always dreamed of, and she is determined to see Lana safely home and reconciled with Trev. But Lana doesn’t return in two days, Kait is in the line of a killer’s fire, and worse, Trev seems to be onto her charade-or is she merely a victim of increasing paranoia? And then one moment of explosive passion changes everything….Double Take is my sexiest and most suspenseful contemporary yet.
And for those of you who missed it, THE CHASE is out in July in paperback. In THE CHASE, Claire Hayden finds her husband murdered at his birthday party. He has no enemies. He has committed no crimes. He has no shady past-or so Claire thinks. Her search for the truth leads her to team up with the mysterious stranger, Ian Marshall, a man she suspects is somehow involved in her husband’s murder, a man she refuses to trust, to be drawn to-a man she knows isn’t telling her everything! Their chase for the killer takes them from San Francisco to New York and London, until Claire has no choice but to trust Marshall-for she makes a terrifying discovery-the killer is someone close to her and she is next… PW gave The Chase a rave review: “An amazing story…thrilling twists and turns.” Romantic Times said “Powerful and dynamic-not to be missed.”
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