Author Spotlight: Interview with Emma St Clair

All about A Groom of One’s Own: A marriage of convenience hockey romcom

Who is Emma St Clair?

Emma St. Clair is a USA Today Bestselling Author who loves sassy heroines, witty banter, and love stories with heart and humor. Her books have sizzling chemistry while keeping the bedroom door closed.

What is A Groom of One’s Own about?

He always dreamed of getting married–but for love, not to avoid deportation.

Eli Hopkins has it all–almost. A hockey career with the wildly popular Appies. Teammates who are like brothers. The only thing he’s missing is someone to share it all with.

Oh–and correctly filed visa paperwork.

Due to administrative error, Eli is about to lose everything.

Unless he can find someone to marry him in the next thirty days.

And he might have the perfect woman in mind. The only problem? He’d like to marry her for real, not simply for legal purposes.

Now Eli faces the challenge of winning over a wife who thinks the marriage is in name only …

Interview

What was your inspiration for A Groom of One’s Own?

The main character, Eli, made his appearance as a cheerful, cinnamon roll-y type of fun guy. I wanted to stick him in a situation where, as a romantic, he had to face the idea of a marriage NOT for romance. I love marriages of convenience, and thought it would be fun to write a guy who WANTED to get married but not because he has to. I love the way marriage of convenience cements couples together with all the forced proximity and required marriage-y things.

What drew you to writing romance?

I actually never thought I’d write romance. We have a real enemies to lovers kind of relationship. I started writing it when I was doing keyword research for Amazon Christmas books and saw that “clean Christmas romance” had tons of searches. I had no idea this was a thing people were interested in reading, so did more digging, connected with a bunch of other authors writing this kind of sweet romance, and that was that. At the time, my husband wasn’t working, so I wanted to find something I enjoyed that was profitable to help us pay the bills. I didn’t anticipate writing it for long OR enjoying it. But now I both love reading it and writing it.

How did you choose which character to centre the story around?

I knew when writing Just Don’t Fall that I wanted to write these side characters. Sometimes, they just come alive. Though I LOVE writing grumps and reformed bad boys, I also love those sweet, happy, sunshine men. I married one. I actually started writing Van and Eli’s stories at the same time, and I’m super excited about both, but I had more readers eager for Eli, so I figured I’d start with him, and then also give Van some big moments in this book to get readers excited for my next ones.

What was your process for writing A Groom of One’s Own?

I’m a pantser. I have general ideas for scenes, the setup, or how it will end. Marriage of convenience can be a hard trope for me, as I want it to be as believable as possible. I am happy as a reader suspending belief, but as an author, I stress a lot about the logistics. So I did a lot of emailing with lawyers and researching visas, while also trying to write super sweet, swoony moments between Eli and Bailey, his shy, soon to be wife.

What is your approach to world and character building?

I keep Google docs with as much information about characters and places and worlds as I can. But often that happens second. Usually, I start with a speck of an idea or a scene where I start hearing characters talking. It’s not like they’re talking to me, but more like I’m overhearing conversations. It’s not always the first scene that comes first, but I’ll start with what feels real to me, and then often sit back and do some planning or thinking about where it’s going after I have that start and feel like I can hear the characters.

Did you have a favourite moment in the book to write?

Every book it’s different. In this book, it was writing the wedding scene where all the hockey guys help Eli plan and orchestrate the wedding. It was really fun to show the friendships and the real sense of found family.

What was your favourite book growing up?

So many! I loved Gordon Korman’s Bruno and Boots books, the Vampire Diaries, and Just As Long As We’re Together by Judy Blume

Do you have a favourite genre to read?

As long as there’s romance, I’ll read it! Which is funny as this was not a requirement for me before. I read so much horror and mystery and thriller back in junior high. And then tons of literary fiction in college and grad school. Now: it’s romance and specifically romantic comedy. I’ve been on a bit of a romantasy kick lately, which has been fun.