When I married my husband, he was still in law school at Georgetown U in Washington, D.C. Then he worked for the U.S. Congress before we moved to Arizona where he hung out a shingle and worked as a lawyer for a while before running for judge.
So basically, he made the laws, defended people who broke the laws, and now hands down judgments based on the law.
Talk about a perfect resource for legal information–besides the fact that he likes to feed me fun romantic comedy plots. Ah, my handsome muse.
One day, my husband and I were discussing legal terms while he’d come home at lunch. The phrase Attractive Nuisance struck me. Its meaning (roughly) is a reference to a structure that is dangerous but appealing—and unguarded. Like, if you have a swimming pool with no fence around it in a neighborhood of little children and a kid drowns in your pool, you’d be liable—because you created an attractive nuisance.
But, hey, what a perfect way to describe a potential boyfriend for one of my romantic heroines who happens to be a lawyer, too.
And with that idea impossible to shake (or to stop laughing at), I wrote that book in the fall of 2014 and released it in the spring of (which I have now almost finished revising, in case you’d like to read a totally revamped for 2017 story in a few weeks–I’ll let you know when it’s done!)
After that, everywhere I looked new legal phrases started to seem perfect for titles for romance novels.
Asked and Answered, one of the objections a lawyer can lodge during court proceedings, seemed like a great phrase for a second-chances themed romance novel.
Legally Wedded worked well for a scheme with a marriage of convenience plot.
For an inheritance plot, Wills & Trust, which (obviously) is one branch of the law a legal practice might specialize in.
Right now I have those four ready to foist on readers, with four more written at least as first drafts, coming later in 2017 and early 2018, assuming all edits go as planned. Fingers crossed.
Beyond those, three more phrases keep bugging me, begging to be written into Legally in Love novels. So, I guess this proves sometimes a novelist will start with a title and then go from there to figure out the core of a story.
If you’re a writer, or a quilter, or an artist, or a chef, or anything creative, what jumpstarts your process?
