How to Write the Naughty Brit of Your Royal Fantasies

[Note from Frolic: We’re so excited to have authors Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan, Louisa Edwards, Tessa Gratton, and Sierra Simone hanging out on the site today. They’re in conversation about what it was like writing their latest anthology, Naughty Brits.]

The last six months have been hard for everyone. What ties together the five contemporary romance novellas in our anthology, Naughty Brits? A need to escape and find a bit of joy in this wild world—which, for us, meant a fantasy trip to the U.K. full of secret dukes, movie stars, ex-soldiers and spanky professors.

While our everyday writing varies—from romps through Victorian England to fantasy lands of magic and intrigue, from small town contemporaries to erotic and taboo—we all came together for Naughty Brits, an anthology where all the stories are loosely interconnected, and set outside of our ordinary worlds. 

Sarah MacLean, whose first contemporary romance begins the collection, advises, “If you can, write with a common thread! The most fun part of writing Naughty Brits was when we’d connect and say ‘What is your heroine wearing to that gala?’ or ‘Is it possible our heroines met two years ago?’ or ‘Is it ok if I put your hero on a magazine cover in my story?’ Suddenly writing (and the world!) wasn’t so lonely anymore.” Sophie Jordan, author of Better With You, agrees. “When you’re working with a group of friends it hardly feels like work at all!”

As Tessa Gratton, new to the romance genre and author of Songbird, put it, “Building a story based on a single or several rules and parameters is a great way for me to expand my repertoire and challenge myself.”

“We started our anthology knowing only a few elements that we wanted to include in each story, which was such a fun way to explore the potential and possibilities of the premise,” says Louisa Edwards, author of Not a Bad Boy. “Every writer’s take was different; I was surprised and delighted by every story, even though we discussed them all beforehand!” 

“Each novella was supposed to have a steamy scene set at the British Museum,” expands Sierra Simone, “and I knew immediately that for Supplicant I wanted to draw inspiration directly from what makes the British Museum so compelling, which for me is the collection itself. But what made it better was the challenge of knowing that everyone else was writing something sexy in the museum, and so trying to find an angle that would be so unique to my style and to these two history-loving characters that it would still feel new and fun to readers, even after they’d read four other museum sexytimes scenes!”

Not all of us were so directly inspired by the historical artifacts. For instance, Sarah decided to set her story on a British farm in autumn for one critical reason: “Sweaters! I didn’t know that sweatercore was my aesthetic kink until I wrote Max…largely because sweaters don’t really have a place in historicals. The promise of sexy men in cozy sweaters just might get me back to contemporary again in the future!” 

For Louisa, it was a series of photos of actor Tom Hardy cuddling dogs that got her primed to write. “There’s just something about a man who loves animals—the way even a real tough guy can let himself be vulnerable when he’s got his arms around a dog. It gets me every time.” 

Tessa drew on memories of past trips. “In 2009 my wife and I drove a huge circle around northern Wales from dawn to dusk visiting as many castles and ancient sites as possible–we made it to even more places than Daniel and Elspeth in my story because we were dedicated to the game and not distracted by sexy times. I’m sorry, but I would never do that at historical landmarks.”

As for Sophie…who was the inspiration for her hot British bodyguard hero with strong thighs? “That’s easy. Henry Cavill.”

So if you’re feeling stuck, either at home in lockdown or in your creative process, we highly recommend getting some friends together and writing an anthology! If writing isn’t for you, try reading Naughty Brits, which is available now, and let yourself be swept away on a fun, sexy adventure…complete with a very hot accent.