The Story Behind the Book: 'Why Do Fools Fall In Love' by Louise Marley

I was originally given two days to come up with the idea for Why Do Fools Fall in Love. My agent wanted to sell it as part of a two-book deal with Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. In the end, the deal with the proposed publisher fell through and I signed with someone else. But this is how I came up with the story.
 

Whenever I write a book I always start with a subject that interests me. In this case it was the film industry. I knew I didn’t want to write about Hollywood, because I didn’t want the story to be too glitzy, so it had to be the British film industry.

 

I liked the idea of two attractive men, who were complete opposites in personality, competing for the same woman. But who was this woman?

I remembered that old movie, the Bodyguard, and briefly thought about having a female actress and a hunky male bodyguard. I dismissed that idea for being too obvious, but then had the idea to switch the sexes. What if I had a too-handsome-for-his-own-good actor being forced to put up with a minder, because wherever he goes he inadvertently gets into trouble? What if the female bodyguard was equally reluctant to take on the job, feeling she’s being forced to ‘babysit’ an actor who’s too stupid to duck when women throw themselves at him?

Researching the book was remarkably easy. At the time I was living in a tiny village just outside Bath (a magnet for any production company wanting to make a costume drama), and I spent a day watching the BBC film A Respectable Trade.

Although I came up with the synopsis over a couple of days, the book itself took a year to write and was eventually sold to Poolbeg Press. When the rights reverted back to me, I republished it as an ebook with Amazon KDP. It has now sold over 40,000 copies.

Not bad for a book thought up over a weekend!