Madeline Ash is an Australian contemporary romance author and two-time RITA Award finalist. She has also won Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year award (RUBY). She writes sexy-sweet novels with sensitivity and humor.
I’m so excited to have Australian Author, Madeline Ash, with us today. Let’s see what’s been going on in her life lately.
Jann: What inspired you to write the Cowboy Princes series?
Madeline: I fell in love with the idea of men of the land having to unexpectedly ascend into a position of extreme power. I came up with the series concept back in 2017 when I was disenchanted and despondent with the values of so many world leaders. One of the many delights of being a fiction writer is the freedom to write a better world, so I decided to pair cowboy values (hard work, respect, integrity, fairness, generosity, and truth) with leadership to see what kind of society they would create. It was very much a case of “write what you’d love to read” because the kingdom of Kiraly is pretty darn close to utopia!
Jann: When starting this new series, did you think of character, plot or theme first?
Madeline: Characters tend to come to me first during planning. For this series, I knew I wanted triplet cowboy brothers as the main characters who were also secret princes of a kingdom across the world from small-town Montana. I developed the brothers first, both how they were similar to each other and how they were different, including their personalities, strengths and weaknesses. Then I mapped out a vague series arc so that I knew I’d be plotting the individual books in the right direction! After that, my focus drilled down to plotlines, themes, and which romance tropes would be the juiciest for each brother.
Jann: Your main characters in Book One Her Cowboy King, Mark Jaroka and Princes Ava Versi, debuted on July 9, 2019. Which character did you develop first?
Madeline: Mark came first, along with his two brothers, Kris and Tommy. Once I had developed Mark’s personality—the grounded, kind-hearted, dependable brother—I then considered what type of heroine would add the most conflict to his already tumultuous journey of inheriting a throne he never believed he’d be required to possess. What kind of woman would make his arrival in Kiraly even more challenging? I know! A princess who’s under pressure from her parents to enter a strategic marriage with this new cowboy king—but secretly has plans to escape royal life, and so acts appallingly superior toward Mark in order to make him refuse the union. She was vulnerable and scared on the inside, but supercilious and sarcastic on the outside. Mark had no idea how to approach such a heroine and it made for unpredictable, tension-rich interactions.
Jann: Kris Jaroka and Frankie Cowan are the main characters in Book Two Her Cowboy Prince. Tell us about their story and how they get their HEA.
Madeline: I love this couple! They have always had intense chemistry, but haven’t wanted to risk their friendship to pursue it. Kris is the confident, cocky, roguish brother—who only discovers once he arrives in Kiraly that his kickass best friend actually works for palace security. Frankie moved to his small town of four years ago to monitor the safety of his family, and befriended him in order to get close enough to do so successfully. This betrayal fuels the opening chapters of the book, and once Kris’s reckless behavior forces her to become his personal bodyguard, their forced proximity blows their attraction sky high while their fiery attitudes add extra heat. This book is full of quick banter and serious sexual chemistry, all within the increasing tension of the overall series plot.
Jann: Congratulations on this book being a finalist in the RUBY Award (The Romantic Book of the Year) presented by Romance Writers of Australia. What was it like to receive the news?
Madeline: Thank you! It’s a huge thrill to final in these awards. This is my fifth book to place as a finalist in the Ruby Award, but the excitement doesn’t get any less over time! These awards are exclusively judged by readers (rather than entrant authors also participating in judging), so it’s extra special to be deemed worthy of this award by judges who read a lot of the genre!
Jann: Book Three, The King’s Cowboy, is a M/M romance. What motivated you to write a M/M romance?
Madeline: I read quite a lot of LGBTQIA+ romance as well as straight romance, and have noticed that series are often exclusively one or the other, rather than including main characters from a range of sexualities across the series. To me, this doesn’t seem fully reflective of the world we live in, so I wanted to write a series that reflects the diversity of identities often found within a single family (since I’m writing three brothers).
Tommy is our final hero in this core series—reserved, intelligent, and suffering from severe social anxiety. He’s also the brother with the greatest sense of inherent power and authority. This internal struggle—to be the royal he is drawn to be, while battling the anxiety of filling one of the most public positions—is compelling and (in my wildly biased opinion) a very strong finish to the series. His love interest is Jonah, his best friend from Montana and the biggest sweetheart of a cowboy you’ll ever meet. I strove to make their romance is intense, gripping, and utterly unputdownable!
Jann: What do you hope readers will take away from this series?
Madeline: Comfort. It’s a pure escapist read, following the unlikely lives of three fiercely-bonded brothers, who make decisions based on what’s right and just and decent, set in a vibrant, open-armed mountain kingdom that is like a character of its own. I hope that the series feels like a reassuring, warmhearted (and sexy) hug that readers want to come back to again and again.
Jann: What kind of writer are you? A page a day or a burst writer?
Madeline: I guess I could call myself a scheduled writer? When starting a new book, I work backward from my deadline. Since I’m only able to write on Thursdays and Fridays, I check how many writing days between now and the deadline. Then I decide on an intended word count for the book, divide that by the number of days in which I have to write it, and calculate how many words per day I have to write to meet the deadline. I use that daily word count to drive my writing and generally manage to stick to it! If I fall behind for whatever reason, I’ll generally write on the weekend to catch up before the following week.
Jann: Where can we get your books?
Madeline: My books are available digitally across most ebook platforms—Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble, and some are also on Google Play. Paperback copies are available via Amazon.
Jann: What is your favorite word?
Madeline: Seldom. I’m not sure what it is about it. Perhaps the fact that I read and hear it so seldom!
Jann: Madeline, this has been so much fun. Thank you for your time. It was great to have a peak into your writing world. Wishing you luck in the contest for the RUBY Award!!
The Cowboy Princes Series
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Jill Piscitello is a teacher with a passion for writing and an avid fan of multiple literary genres. Although she divides her reading hours among several books at a time, a lighthearted story offering an escape from the real world can always be found on her nightstand.
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Glynnis Campbell is a USA Today bestselling author of swashbuckling “medieval action-adventure romances,” mostly set in Scotland, with over two dozen books published in six languages.
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Madeline Ash is an Australian contemporary romance author and two-time RITA Award finalist. She has also won Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year award (RUBY). She writes sexy-sweet novels with sensitivity and humor. I’m so excited to have Australian Author, Madeline Ash, with us today. Let’s see what’s been going on in her life lately. […]
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Madeline Ash is an Australian contemporary romance author and two-time RITA Award finalist. She has also won Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year award (RUBY). She writes sexy-sweet novels with sensitivity and humor. I’m so excited to have Australian Author, Madeline Ash, with us today. Let’s see what’s been going on in her life lately. […]
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Barb loves reading, writing and animals, not necessarily in that order. She writes contemporary and paranormal stories of love, laughter and magic, and you’re going to know there’ll be a feature creature in there somewhere.
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Super interview! This series sounds awesome! Love Aussie romance writers. And she gets it done writing 2 days a week. I’m in awe.
Thanks for introducing us to this intriguing series, Jann! The idea of mixing cowboy culture with royalty is certainly unique.