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The Rules for Grown Ups by Shana Galen

I was probably born to be a teacher. My grandmother was a teacher and my aunts were teachers and from as far back as I can remember, my mom would say to me, “you should be a teacher.” This was inevitably during a time when I was bossing my little sister around. Hey, some people just need more direction, right?

I did become a teacher and taught for eleven years. There were definitely aspects of teaching I did not care for, but there were some I embraced without fail. The rules was one of these. Before my first year of teaching, I spent many hours thinking about my classroom rules—how many would I have (not too many!), how would I write them (as positive “Do” statements), and how would I enforce them (detention!)? I probably should have been thinking about what to do when a student cursed at me and threw his shoe at my head, but I was 23 and had no experience with inner city kids.

The hero of my next book, When You Give a Duke a Diamond, which releases September 1st, has never been a teacher and he would have throttled that little punk without a second thought. But what Will, the sixth Duke of Pelham, does have in common with most teachers is that he has rules. Very strict, important rules.

Will lives his life by rules, which is true of all of us to some extent. We obey the rules of traffic, of social interaction, even of social media. But Will has what he calls Cardinal Rules, additional rules he has imposed on himself. Most kids can’t wait to be a grown up, so they don’t have to follow all of the rules anymore, but Will lives his life by rote and rule. He eats, sleeps, and works on a schedule. His first Cardinal Rule is that the schedule is to be preserved at all costs. His second Cardinal Rule is never fall in love.

You see where this is going, right? Because Will is going to meet Juliette, who scoffs at rules and scoffs at the Dangerous Duke.

Have you ever encountered a preposterous rule? I saw a picture on Facebook for a sign that said, “Warning: Do not walk on ceiling.” Good rule, but necessary? How about you?

He had a perfectly orderly life...

William, the sixth Duke of Pelham, enjoys his punctual, securely structured life. Orderly and predictable—that's the way he likes it. But he's in the public eye, and the scandal sheets will make up anything to sell papers. When the gossip papers link him to Juliette, one of the most beautiful and celebrated courtesans in London, chaos doesn't begin to describe what happens next...

Until she came along...

Juliette is nicknamed the Duchess of Dalliance and has the cream of the nobility at her beck and call. It's disruptive to have the duke who is the biggest catch on the Marriage Mart scaring her other suitors away. Then she discovers William's darkest secret and decides what he needs in his life is the kind of excitement only she can provide...

Comments

  1. Hummm, I had 2 older sisters who were both bossy in their own way... both ended up teaching... Rules are necessary, but schedules should be flexible. I enjoy your boooks immensely!

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  2. I would pick up that book on cover alone! So gorgeous. Great title too. Here's wishing you tons of success!
    Amelia

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  3. I didn't know I was such a stickler for rules when my kids, who are also, told me I didn't HAVE to go in the IN door at Hershey Park's gift shop. I COULD go in through the OUT door that was closer. Yet I'm a rebel in a lot of other ways. If I want to make up a word because it seems right, I do. So THERE to the rules. I still go through the IN doors when I want to go inside. :)

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  4. I would have thrown the shoe right back at the kid, which is why I am not a teacher. I was thinking about being one but I realized I don't have the patience for other kids. I go crazy with my own already.

    As for rules, I haven't encountered any weird ones lately. I guess that comes with being stuck in the house all day long seven days a week.

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  5. Thanks for a fun post and congrats on the newest release! The covers are gorgeous and I love your books :)

    *shudders* more power to ya, but I could never teach!

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  6. I'm not sure of ridiculous rules, but I once saw the sign "Caution: Danger of Death" posted. That was interesting.

    Karin
    AquarianDancer at gmail dot com

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  7. since child, i got so many rules from my granma : don't cut your nail at night - forbidden, don't whistle at night - snake will come to our house, don't borrow needles at night, don't buy kerosone at night, dont sit on front door during eating and this will bring bad influence. and all of her child, her grandchildren followed the rules

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  8. Wishing you much success on this new series! Can't wait to buy it! My 18 year old daughter describes me to her friends as "a nice person with way too many rules!"

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  9. You can't bring food or drink into the living room until you are 18...that's the rule my grandkids all obey to the letter and pass down to the younger ones. And it's just one of my many house rules. It's a wonder they still love me.
    LOVE your post and oh, my that is one delicious cover!

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  10. Thanks girlygirlhoosier52! See bossy=teacher :-)

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  11. Alyn, you probably wouldn't have thrown the shoe back because you would have been so shocked. The way kids today behave is ridiculous!

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  12. Erin, I'm not exactly wanting to go back to teaching...

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  13. I've seen a lot of rules that really aren't necessary, but someone keeps writing them for some unknown reason. Weird that those are the ones we remember, but the others people naturally try to find a way around most of them.

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  14. AquarianDancer, I also recently saw a sign that read "No Jumping from Bridge." Does that need to be posted?

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  15. Wow, Eli. Those rules are kind of hard to understand. I guess you just had to go along to get along.

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  16. Susan, hey! That just means you follow the rules but are nice about enforcing them.

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  17. That's a good rule, Carolyn. I am pretty strict about what food goes in my living room. I need to stop allowing my daughter food in the car, but that's one of the few times she'll sit still and eat!

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  18. Some rules are meant to be broken lol. As long as you aren't putting anyone in danger (like rules of the road). I do like rules when playing games - stops any arguments lol.

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  19. Can't believe that former President Bush and you have the shoe incident in common.

    We moved a lot, and the toddler always wanted to help, so her Dad would tell her she could if she followed rule number one. "Don't get squished." It remains the number one rule in the household today.

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  20. Great cover and really great concept, Shana, can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

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  21. catslady, I have a new appreciation for rules now that I have a child. Kids make you realize what anarchy we would have if no one followed basic rules.

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  22. yadkny, guess people think it's better to be safe and cover all the bases. Sometimes we go too far with all the rules.

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  23. Yes, well this happened to me before it happened to Bush, Gayle. Guess I'm a trendsetter :-) And "don't get squished" is a good rule.

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  24. I tend to follow rules but there are some that I blithely ignore (we won't discuss speed limits). I figure that everyone has their 'line in the sand' but I will say that it would never have occurred to me to talk back to the teacher, let alone throw anything!

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  25. Debra Simning-ChapmanAugust 23, 2012 at 3:15 PM

    I had an older brother and sister who loved to boss me around, but they were usually ones to keep me healthy. Beautiful cover on the book! omahablack at yahoo dot com

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  26. Oops! According to my sons I was the one who set preposterous rule!

    When my sons were in Grade School until they graduated from High School was that at our house their friends had to go by the rule: The first time you're a guest, The next time you're part of the family.

    That meant the first time they stayed for dinner they sat at the table, had dinner served to them and got to go "play" when dinner was over.

    The next time they came they got put to work! I had boys washing dishes, vacuuming, mowing the lawn, ironing, washing clothes, etc. They kept coming back!

    When I say that I mean often. In fact one night while we were sitting at the table with 4 boys eating my husband looked at me and said "Wait a minutes, our boys are both working and yet we have four teenage boys here!"

    Note: He was so used to having a table full it took him a few minutes to realize it because most of them had been on his Little League team!

    PS: If you add pasta it's amazing how many teenage boys you can feed.

    The boys still visit but it's to stop and their children to "Mom Miro" & "Coach"!

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  27. Elf, there's definitely a difference between going 5 miles over the speed limit and throwing a shoe at someone. Thanks for chiming in.

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  28. Debra, those older siblings do have their uses!

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  29. Jeanne, that's a fabulous rule, and it says a lot about you. It's wonderful and sad at the same time. Too bad those boys didn't want to be at home. But how wonderful that they had a place to go.

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  30. Congrats on the book! I've seen some last minute made up rules that were ridiculous.

    bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  31. Thanks, bn100. I will admit to having made up a few silly rules on the fly. But I can backtrack with the best of them :-)

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  32. Hi Shana! I love your books! This one sounds like another musty.

    My dad had a rule that we never slammed a door. If we did, he made us open and shut it 100 times. The only problem was that slamming a door meeant someething different to us than it did to him.

    I like the signs that say "Watch for falling rocks." or "Watch for deer."

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