Rachael Johns: So… who exactly are THE DEACONS OF BOURBON STREET?

In May 2014, I went to the Romantic Times conference and roomed with two of my favourite writing people – Megan Crane and Maisey Yates. It was my first ever US convention/conference and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. In fact, it was my first ever time to America at ALL and it just happened to be in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Aside from the fact there were some amazing sweet things called beignets there that I HAD to try, I didn’t have any idea of what RT or New Orleans would have in store for me.  But making the decision to go turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done.

If I hadn’t gone to RT in New Orleans and hadn’t roomed with the fabulous Megan and Maisey, I wouldn’t be one of the Deacons of Bourbon Street bitches? You see, wandering around the French Quarter, the three of us fell totally in love. Not with each other (of whom we are already enamored enough) but with everything that encapsulates the place! We couldn’t take enough photos, visit enough boutiques and galleries, eat in enough restaurants, people watch for long enough. Everything from the history to the buildings to the quirky residents that currently inhabit the French Quarter captured our imaginations and we knew we HAD to write books set there.

I think we all imagined we’d go home and come up with our own single title stories that somehow included New Orleans, but then one editor mentioned to Maisey that since we got along so well and obviously LOVED the place, maybe we should write a co-authored series set there. We jumped on that idea straight away and somewhere during our brainstorming we decided it would be fun to write about an outlaw motorcycle gang. Now, the others will tell you that this was MY idea but I adamantly deny that. Needless to say, we decided we couldn’t write a biker series without our other friend Jackie Ashenden (http://www.jackieashenden.com) who had already written a biker dude and without a doubt wrote far hotter and far grittier than any of us.

Of course, Jackie said ‘Yay, I’d love to be involved,’ and we went from there. We brainstormed an overarching mystery plot and a red-hot sexy biker hero for each of us. I think the wonderful thing about a multi-author series is that we all bring our unique ideas and voices to the series. Although we each wrote one book, there was a lot of discussion about the characters and plot before and during the writing.

Each book has a different flavor – reflective of the writer and the different heroes and heroines. Megan Crane has this theory that we are each our biker heroes but you’ll have to read the books to see what she means.

Which, speaking of are:

1)     Make You Burn by Megan Crane (http://amzn.com/B00PEPS8TG)

2)     Fire Me Up by Rachael Johns (http://amzn.com/B00R04OX0W)

3)     Hold Me Down by Jackie Ashenden  (http://amzn.com/B00S3RK7NC)

4)     Strip You Bare by Maisey Yates (http://amzn.com/B00TCI48XG)

Just a few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to meet up again, re-live our memories of the French Quarter, have dinner with our lovely editor (see picture below) and discuss the possibility of writing another series together!

Pictured above: Megan Crane, Maisey Yates, Jackie Ashenden, Rachael Johns and editor, Shauna Summers

 

Contest: Win a pack of FIRE ME UP playing cards. To enter, simply leave a comment below answering this question: what is your favourite romance series?