I had the chance to meet Katharine McGee while she was on tour celebrating the release of American Royals! I am so glad to have made it to her signing as I read American Royals back in May and adored every single bit of it.
Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, aka The Fug Girls and co-authors of The Royal We, moderated the event. I’m a huge fan of royal romances so I loved listening to all three authors! Katharine began by telling us a little of the backstory of her writing American Royals. At first it meant to be more like House of Cards with assassinations and illegitimate children. However, when she revisited the story she changed it up to reflect what she loves writing (which is romance) so now it’s more Crazy Rich Asians meets The Crown.
Katharine actually used to work as an editor before becoming a full-time writer. She mention that her current editor is an old colleague of hers, which I found to be a pretty neat relationship. In her edit letters for her first series, Katharine said her editor always wanted her to add more future stuff. Now her editor keeps telling her to add more royal stuff!
Of course, the authors talked about their research and I loved hearing about the stories they shared on the royal family. One story that the Fug Girls used is that a tv with cartoons on mute was set up for Prince Charles when he was two years old while filming a live broadcast on Queen Elizabeth’s lap so he was laughing the entire time. Katharine used Queen Elizabeth’s signal of shifting her handbag on her forearms in her book for her main character Beatrice.
Thank you to Katharine McGee, Heather Cocks, Jessica Morgan, and Chevalier’s Books for a great event! I loved celebrating the release of American Royals, which you should definitely pick up if you’re a fan of romance and drama!