The Butterflies Series
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***Synopis***
The Butterflies Series follows a group of three girlfriends. They are standalones, but they are consecutive and are best read in order.
Each is a bit different, but they all feature sarcastic, complex female leads and strong, dominating, confident love interests.
What is the sub-genre and
trope? Did your characters lead you to
this genre or was that decided before the story began?
The Butterfly Effect features workplace, one night stand gone wrong, power struggle, and groveling hero tropes.
With a Broken Wing has a lot of travel, forced close proximity, grumpy/sunshine, and some workplace.
Both feature a lot of spice and a lot of “good girl” (IYKYK). 😉 Really this series started out being inspired by the male characters, but it was the ladies that brought the plot out for me.
I did start with the characters and a basic idea of the plot. It took getting to know the characters, and maybe an argument or two with them along the way, to develop the full thing.
Are you more character or
plot driven?
Definitely more character driven. I always aim to create the characters that make decisions for themselves and push the story. Sometimes that means they start to take it somewhere I didn’t want them to, and it ends in an argument I almost always lose (and someone gets punched every once in a while).
With many main and secondary
characters, how do you keep them separated in your mind? Do you have a story/vision board above your
workspace?
I’m a big fan of spreadsheets and reference photos.
I have a master spreadsheet with basic questions and characteristics for all characters in the series, and then I have separate tabs for each of them (color coded by book for side characters that don’t appear in all three).
It keeps me sane, at least most of the time.
I know from previous
interviews that characters take on a life of their own. Were any of the characters in this series
determined to take their own direction instead of where you initially wanted
them to go?
Julianna Thomas. The girl tested me a bit, but she really did end up being one of my favorite characters. I say that about a lot of them, but Jules was different.
She was a sarcastic, confident woman, but her insecurities showed. I didn’t want that originally. I wanted her to be a ball-breaker.
In the end she needed to be vulnerable and needed to let herself be weak in order to weaken the man that seemed like he would never soften.
Are any of the male POVs
based on anyone you know?
Not at all, actually!
Are any of the female POVs
based on anyone you know?
Again, not at all. I don’t actually relate any of my main characters to people I know in real life.
A side character will once in a while relate to someone I know, such as Julianna’s boss in The Butterfly Effect (she was based on a boss I had once upon a time).
Was there any one character/scene that was harder to write about than the other?
There is a panic attack scene in one of the books that if I go into it will ruin the book, but it took it out of me to write. I remember waking up the next day in a serious funk and having to pull myself out of it.
What is your favorite book
in the series?
The third book that I haven’t announced yet is probably my favorite in the series if I had to pick.
I know that we aren’t
supposed to have “favorites” as far as our children, but seriously, who’s your
favorite character and why?
Katie O’Neill. She’s the heroine in the third book, but she is in all three books. I love her attitude and her heart.
She’s the friend that everyone could depend on in all three books, and I just adore her. I’m really excited to share her story in February!
Series question - Who is
your favorite couple and why did you decide on their dynamics?
My favorite couple are Andy and Demetri.
Andy has a dark past and a lot of secrets, and Demetri is the kind of guy that doesn’t bend to anyone. When it came to Andy though, she weakened him almost instantly, and I love the gentle but forceful care he shows her. He is dominating and pushy, but he is so soft towards her and adamant to protect her at the same time.
How do you get inside these
characters’ heads to find their perfect HEA?
A lot of daydreaming!
I have a long commute to and from my day job, and I would spend a lot of it thinking about “what ifs” and possible changes to the plot. A lot of it was thoughts about dialogue and small exchanges between the characters.
I’d see how it would play out in my head, and as I got to know the characters, the daydreams got clearer and took their own direction.
At that point, it was like my characters were showing me what they wanted to have happen, and then I just put it on paper for them.
What scene in this book/series
sticks out the most for you? Why?
There’s one scene in book three where the hero shows up at the heroine’s house after a bad day with her favorite foods, but she never told him those things. They were just things he’d observed.
It was a turning point in that book for the heroine and her self-control, and it was probably my favorite to write. It was one I looked forward to writing for several months.
Series - Were any of the
books harder to write than others?
With a Broken Wing was the most difficult because of Andy’s past and trauma, but especially because of her battle with depression and drug abuse.
I lost a friend a couple of years ago to a battle with depression, so it was difficult to put myself in that headspace and create it for my heroine.
How long did it take you to write this book/series?
I started writing The Butterfly Effect in January 2022, and the third book will come out in February 2023.
All three books were written in about 6-8 weeks each not counting the time spent editing.
How did you come up with the
title for your book and (if applicable) series?
The Butterfly Effect is the chaos theory, which is the idea that a butterfly could flap it’s wings in the Amazon and trigger a tsunami across the world due to cause and effect. Jules and William had a hard and fast, no thinking before making decisions, romance. They just did it. Every bit of it. It was chaos, and there was definitely a tsunami, but their relationship embodied The Butterfly Effect.
With a Broken Wing was more focused on the idea that a butterfly is one of the most beautiful living things, but the beautiful part of it is its wings, specifically the back side of them. It’s impossible for a butterfly to see its wings, so metaphorically, it would never know how beautiful it was. Andy was like that butterfly, and Demetri was so determined to help her fly, even with a beautiful, broken wing.
The third book title also features a butterfly metaphor, to be released, so the entire series centers around butterfly imagery. That is inspired partially by my love for the butterfly itself, but also because they have such powerful meaning when it comes to love, life, and relationships.
If you met these characters
in real life would you get along?
In real life I’d be great friends with all three heroines, but there is definitely a hero or two I’d want to slap.
It’s funny how sometimes the characters we love the most in books are the ones we’d want to get away from first in real life. William, and in some ways Demetri, are like that for me.
Series question – Did you
know in advance that you were going to write this as a series or did one of the
characters in book one demand their own story?
Originally at the beginning of the planning stage, I just intended for The Butterfly Effect to be a standalone, but as I developed Jules and her friends, the friends called for their own stories.
Those stories ended up building themselves while the characters became real people (in my mind), and by the end of outlining the first book, there were three books and possible novella in mind.
If your book/series were
made into a movie, which actors do you see as playing your characters?
I’m going to shamefully opt out of this one because I don’t watch a lot of movies and wouldn’t even know where to start to even list them.
I don’t know that I could tell you one of the actors/actresses off the top of my head without googling and having no clue about any of them, let alone a cast for all of them.
My husband would groan and roll his eyes at this answer because he often asks me to watch movies, and I always give up partway through and pull out a book or disappear.
Can you give us a hint as to
what we can expect next? Whether a new
book and series or a sequel to an existing series? Can you share a small tease?
The third book in The Butterflies Series will come out in February.
It features Katie and Auston (if you’ve read With a Broken Wing, you know that Auston is Andy’s twin brother), and it has frenemies to lovers, fake dating, accidental elopement, and an extreme glow-up for the heroine.
It will potentially have more spice than the other books, and I’ll be sharing the details for that on my social media soon.
Check out all my interviews/reviews for Meg Becker!
https://readingbydeb.blogspot.com/2022/12/author-at-glance-meg-becker.html
Meg writes the spicy romance with happy endings. She resides in Kansas City with her amazing husband that is nothing like the broody men she writes about in her books. She's a sucker for a happy ending, and she can often be found reading with an iced coffee or glass of red wine, quite possibly both.
When she's not reading or writing spicy romance, Meg is likely learning a new hobby, cuddling with her two dogs and cat, or performing the soundtrack to RENT from behind the steering wheel of her car. During football season, she puts down her pen every Sunday to cheer for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Connect with Meg:
Linktr.ee:
https://linktr.ee/authormegbecker
He looked as shocked as I felt. The grumpy, demanding one-night stand I thought I’d get away with not seeing again is my new boss, and I’m the center of his attention. He assigned me to his most important account, one that comes with tribulations of its own, and it’ll take all of the confidence I can muster to prove myself. That is, if he doesn’t break me first.
William
The new company we acquired was supposed to be an easy success. An increase in profit and new leadership would turn it around, and I’d be home in Chicago in a year. Then there she was. I never thought I’d see the woman again after she snuck away in the middle of the night, but now she demands the attention of my most important client. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and I don’t stand down from a challenge.
Staying away from her might just be impossible.
Demetri Carlisle was powerful, strict, and intimidating. He was everything I’m not, and being stuck with him for the summer put me in his direct control. Working for my best friend’s new brother-in-law was supposed to be a good opportunity; one that would allow me to travel around the country. But when choices I made in the past loomed over me, I was forced to choose between keeping a secret I was sure I’d never tell and the man I couldn’t stay away from. He called me Little Miss Sunshine, but if only he knew.
Demetri
She was too young, too innocent. So why did I give in when my new sister-in-law suggested I hire the woman to manage my travel for the summer? Behind a mask of bright colors and a smile that stopped traffic was a woman with a secret, one I became determined to uncover the first time I saw her cry. One thing was for sure, I wanted to protect and cherish her as badly as I wanted to see her fall apart.
She weakened my judgement, and weak men always fall.
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