Thank you so much for having me here today to help celebrate the release of GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF!
What is your favorite type of historical fiction to read? Pretty much anything set in or written during the nineteenth century in Britain. My fascination with the Regency era began when I first read Pride and Prejudice as a teenager. I loved the humor, the characters, and the happy ending. Then I discovered Jane Eyre and loved that too. The wonderful TV and film productions of nineteenth century novels like Middlemarch and North and South (not the civil war story, the Elizabeth Gaskell novel) helped me find new authors to love.
And then I discovered historical romances set in nineteenth century Britain but written today, and it was whole new way of enjoying the era. Vivid descriptions of settings and clothes and a more open exploration of emotion made the time come alive in a new way for me.
What type of characteristic do you value in your men and women? Characteristics I value most would include integrity, loyalty, a sense of humor, and a capacity to see the good in others. Of course, with fictional characters, if they don’t have some glaring flaws to start with, the story could be pretty dull, so I try to think about flaws as well as virtues in characters.
For instance, Lily, the heroine of GENTLEMEN PREFER MISCHIEF, has a great deal of integrity, but she’s too focused on being virtuous, and it’s keeping her from living as fully as she might.
The hero, Hal, on the other hand, has a better capacity than Lily for seeing the good in other people, but he’s also too focused on diversion and fun. So they’re a match made in heaven, aren’t they””Miss Virtue and Mr. Fun.
What do you like best about writing historical romance? Nineteenth century English society offers a writer endlessly fascinating tensions related to gender, sexuality, and social status. Even though so much in our society today is different, we still have experiences of inequality, of wanting to be known for who each of us truly is rather than inhabiting the masks we may have adopted in our lives, so the remove of the years between now and the past can allow a fresh perspective on universal human experiences.
What’s next for you? The last book in my Mischief series, MISCHIEF BY MOONLIGHT, will release in June 2014. Here’s the blurb: Engaged to the perfect man, Miss Josie Cardworthy wants her sister to find the same bliss””with Josie’s dear friend, the Earl of Ivorwood. But when Josie gives Ivorwood a love potion, she’s the one who falls under the handsome earl’s spell.
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