She Writes With Love

Well, the #BeNotorious Book Blog tour has come to an end and the celebratory confetti needs to be swept up, but that doesn’t mean the party is completely over! I wanted to do a quick little post to share some of my favorite fun facts, quotes, inspiration, and overall feelings about Rise of the Notorious and the Vasser Legacy series.

WHEN EMPIRES FALL is still FREE on Amazon (April 24)! Click here to download it!

You see, The Vasser Legacy got its start way back in November of 2011…I had just completed the last of my Dryad Quartet series and was hankering to try something different. Instead of continuing with fantasy as I had done before, I chose to take a step into unknown territory and try my hand at contemporary drama with a healthy dose of mystery and romance thrown in. Essentially, an adult novel with adult topics and themes that make the Dryad Quartet seem quite tame. But I have grown as a person and as an author since I first began writing, and the Vasser Legacy was to be my first stab at a new brand.

Turns out, it’s a LOT of fun to write a more adult book! While I enjoyed the fantasy, I definitely have found my home in contemporary fiction, drama, and romance.

So you all are pretty familiar with the Vasser Legacy by now (hopefully I haven’t bored you too much, yet!), but there are a few things you might not know. Inside details, perhaps *rubs hands together deviously*. Well, I’m here to share them with you at last!

Fun Facts about The Vasser Legacy…

• The four main siblings in The Vasser Legacy are named after renowned American Presidents:  Grant, Lincoln, Madison, and Kennedy
• The song that inspired the books is Raoul and the Kings of Spain by Tears for Fears, and I even named one of the most crucial characters after the song
• Cyrus Vasser, the patriarch of the Vasser family and ruthless killer, has been compared many times to J.R. of the infamous television show, Dallas. Having just recently started watching Dallas, I can definitely see the comparison! Both are ruthless and more than a little ornery 😉
• Madison Vasser, heir of Cyrus and ambitious sister to Grant and Linc, has been compared to Dagny Taggart of Ayn Rand’s epic novel Atlas Shrugged. This was a MAJOR honor for me, having read and loved Ayn Rand’s work.
• Every time I wrote a scene with Grant Vasser, I pictured Colin Firth as Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones’ Diary. It helped me get in tune with the kind of awkwardness and seriousness I wanted him to portray.
• If I could have the actor of my choice play Linc Vasser, it would be Bradley Cooper. I don’t have hard core choices for the others, but Bradley is a MUST for Linc.
• Originally, Lynette was going to be a blonde, bookish woman with a quiet, toned down personality. Her name originally was going to be Claire Gray, though I later decided I wanted to reserve that name for a future book. She morphed pretty quickly once I realized that Linc would never be impressed by a woman like that. So she became a southern debutante, red-headed ballet dancer with a loyalty to family almost as strong as Linc’s!
• When I set out to construct the Vasser family tree, I relied on this concept of “the seventh son of the seventh son” as my guide…legend has it that the man who is a “seventh son of a seventh son” is gifted or special in some way. I looked at it differently…I wanted the seventh son of the seventh son (Win Vasser) to be the one that “broke the chain” (referencing the Tears for Fears song), the one who brought the family to ruin.
• At first, I was planning on having Quinn be of both English (father) and Italian (mother) descent, but it became more fun for her to be a full-blooded Sicilian with a big, loud, crazy family a la My Big Fat Greek Wedding 😉
• Wyatt’s past with Madison was never supposed to be such a crucial part of the story…in fact, I had drafted out a mild reason for why he left her, and it didn’t involve any kind of scandal. It wasn’t until I was writing the first book that I realized Wyatt deserved to play a bigger role, and his dark secrets would be the perfect story device to use for added mystery and drama!
• In the beginning, I was planning on having Linc be the only Vasser heir. Madison and Grant were going to be cousins, related but not the main characters. Linc was going to be the “son of the seventh son of the seventh son” and he was going to be the heir who struggled to bring the company back to what it once was before his father destroyed it. Obviously, this took a much different turn later once I began brainstorming more for the story, but Linc still remained the ideas guy who wants to transform the company.
• The original working title of When Empires Fall was:  When We Were Kings.  I didn’t come up with the WEF title until I literally wrote the last scene of the book. I wrote those three words in a sentence, and it struck me as the perfect title. Funny how that works, huh? 🙂

Some of my favorite quotes from Rise of the Notorious…

• “Damnit, woman, this is the Army!” -Paul Morgan
  
• “Well if the Brady Bunch over here had had better control of their daddy, maybe he wouldn’t have blabbed to the press.” -Cy Vasser
• “You can either accept the truth of our situation or you can bury your heads in the sand. I honestly don’t give a damn. Either way, I am going to salvage our reputation and protect the family and the company, with or without your help. You can choose to stand against me, but consider that betrayal carefully before you act on it. I will not forget.” -Madison Vasser
• “A girl in love is always happy.” -Quinn Taylor
• “I’m in a mood, Wally.” -Linc Vasser
• “When you look at me that way, I feel like you’re looking right into me…” -Quinn Taylor
• “That’s the curse of Vegas, sweetheart. Beginner’s luck makes a gambler of us all.” -Wyatt Bailey
• “We go way back, cousin, but that doesn’t change anything. If I’m going to be forced to follow you, then you can bet I won’t go easily.” -Duke Vasser
• “A knight defends his queen.” -Raoul Garcia
• “Lesser men pale in the shadow of greatness. If she doesn’t squash you like the bugs you are, then you can bet I will.” -Wyatt Bailey
• “Why do you assume that I’m the one who’s going to say something brash? Everyone knows you’re the loud mouth of the family.” -Linc Vasser
• “You feel no emotion; you’re cold to the bone. You are a self-serving narcissist who will hurt anyone and do anything to get to the top. Grandpa was the same way, and both of you get a kick out of destroying everyone else’s happiness. Like dad’s…you just had to get rid of him, didn’t you?” -Kennedy Vasser

I also wanted to share a “playlist” of sorts, of songs that I would use in the Vasser Legacy soundtrack if one were to ever be made. These are songs that inspired the characters, the scenes, the romances…every aspect of the books. Enjoy!

CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS!

First off, I owe a huge round of gratitude and praise to my amazing book designers, Blue Harvest Creative! They are the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of doing business with, and I am a more successful author thanks to them! So kudos and a raised glass to my good friends, BHC, who never let me down and always help me strive for perfection!

Secondly, gracious thanks goes to my lovely author friend Emerald Barnes and her crew over at Worldwind Book Tours, who helped round out this tour with some amazing book blogs! I can’t thank you, Emerald, or your fellow bloggers, enough for helping out!

Third, many thanks to my fellow authors who helped host me on this blog tour…you guys are so amazing!! You guys rock and you have made this tour a complete success! I appreciate your support more than I can ever say!

Lastly, thank you to everyone else who joined me for this big month long event and to those of you who showed your support for my dream! I have been nothing but smiles thanks to all of you!

This has been a wildly successful tour, but I am very excited to wrap it up and get back to working on my next book…I promise it will be…haunting…hehe.

Be Notorious my friends! Thank you!

-Katie