Highlighting Historical Romance with Nadine Millard on Creating a fictional country.
When planning The Royals of Aldonia series, I had a decision to make.
I knew that I wanted the family to be European royalty. But I didn’t want to risk using a real family, or even a real country.
The truth is that I was worried I wouldn’t do justice to a real family, or the customs and history of a real place.
The solution to this was to invent my own country!
I’m sure I’m not the only writer who sometimes struggles to name her characters. And with historical novels, you need to take care to only use names that are accurate for the time period in which your novel is set.
When creating a country, I not only had to ensure that it sounded as though it could be a real place (Caffeineland just didn’t ring true), but that I had a clear vision of its customs, traditions, buildings, and even weather!
In The Hidden Prince which is book one, Prince Alexander has a sister Princess Harriet. And I knew almost from the second I wrote her first scene that she needed her own story. While The Hidden Prince takes place in England, Harriet returns to Aldonia for Protecting The Princess.
Since most of her story takes place in a secret cottage with her ever-so-arrogant but undeniably handsome guard, the royal court wasn’t that vital to things. We did, however, get to meet the older brother.
Writing Redeeming A Royal was really interesting because Christopher is going to be king and so he has a whole world of rules and pressures that the other two just didn’t have. Alex got to be the playboy prince, and Harriet couldn’t be heir, so her role was always a bit more ornamental (much to her chagrin)!
But Christopher. What can I say? Heavy is the heart that wears the crown.
Christopher’s story takes place in the palace, right there in the capital of Aldonia. So it really is in book three that we get a proper taste of Aldonian life, albeit it a royal one. And that brought its own challenges. Again, I was happy that it was a country entirely of my imagination, so I know I haven’t accidentally re-written a real monarchy’s heritage! But I did have to be careful not to stray too outside the realms of plausibility.
But along with the extra restrictions was the absolute joy of over the top opulence! An imaginary prince, an imaginary palace – it gave me Disney-esque freedom and I could make my characters and the setting as fairy-tale fabulous as I wanted, and boy did I have fun with that!
Each one of these royal siblings has such a special place in my heart. I found myself growing attached to Aldonia and its monarchs.
Best, or perhaps worst of all, I sort of found myself forgetting that it wasn’t a real place.
So if I’m ever shipwrecked on a deserted island somewhere and decide to become its queen, I am most definitely going to call it Aldonia. And you’ll all be invited to visit!
About the Book
Princess Harriet Wesselbach is growing tired of her pampered, privileged lifestyle. The only thing worse than the gilded cage of a royal life is the overprotective nature of her brother, the crown prince.
When the palace is suddenly thrown into turmoil, Harriet takes the opportunity to run away and branch out on her own. After all, how hard could it be to live not as a royal, but as an ordinary young lady?
Harriet wants to stand on her own two feet, and she is determined that nothing will get in her way. Especially not a chance encounter with a handsome stranger.
***
The last thing Jacob Lauer needs or wants to do is play nanny to a spoilt princess.
But that’s exactly what he finds himself having to do.
From the moment he meets her, she is nothing but trouble, and what should have been an easy assignment is turning out to be more difficult than he had bargained for.
Not least because the longer he spends in Harriet’s company, the more difficult it is to hide his growing attraction to the young royal.
***
Thrown together, there is no denying the attraction, and annoyance growing between the two. And Jacob has to work harder than ever to keep his heart to himself while protecting the princess.
Short Excerpt
“I’ve been stabbed, shot, beaten to a bloody pulp.”
Harriet gasped at the horror of what he was saying.
“None of them have given me as much heartache as having to take care of you.”
Well! That was just downright insulting.
Buy links: Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2Knu1Hu
Amazon UK & Ire: https://amzn.to/2xJHo2b
About the Author
Nadine Millard is a romance author hailing from Dublin, Ireland.
Having studied and then worked in law for a number of years, Nadine began to live her dream of writing when she had the first of her three children.
She released her first book in 2014 and has been writing ever since.
When she’s not writing, she can be found reading anything she can get her hands on, running around after her three children, her cat, her dog, and spending time with her long-suffering husband!
You can find out all about Nadine and her books at
www.nadinemillard.com
www.facebook.com/nadinemillardauthor
www.instagram.com/nadinemillardauthor
