Welcome to Coffeetime Romance Regan Walker. You write historical romance novels. Why are you particularly drawn to history?
Beginning with my first novel, I was drawn to the history of the time in which my story was set, in that case the Regency. I discovered historical figures who would naturally interact with my fictional characters, and so I blended them. An English girl with a curious mind whose uncle is a statesman called to France and King Louis XVIII’s court tangles with a duke’s son who is a spy for the Crown. Think of all the history! Of course, my heroine would meet Germaine de Stael, a prominent philosopher and an eccentric in Paris at the time. So I blended history with fiction and voila! History became a character. And with every novel (I have now more than 20 published), history becomes more important.
Before becoming a successful writer, you were a lawyer. What inspired this radical career change?
It wasn’t intentional. In between jobs at a time when virtually no one was hiring, I had time to read and to write. I have always loved to write. One of my good friends challenged me to write a novel and that led to my first in the Agents of the Crown series, Racing With the Wind.
Which period in history interests you particularly, or are all historical events equally stimlating for you?
I have set novels in the Georgian (late 18th century), Regency (early 19th century), and Medieval era (11th to 15th centuries). And now I’ve begun a new series, the Dawn of America, set in America during the Revolutionary War. Whatever period I am researching and writing about at the time fascinates me the most. When I read (I am also a reviewer and my blog is Historical Romance Review), I prefer Medieval, I think because the period is so different and so challenging. Now that I’m in Revolutionary America, the passion of the Patriots has really drawn me and I envision being here for some time.
There’s always a love story in your books. Why is it important to you to mix romance and history?
Well, reality mixes romance with history, doesn’t it? Initially I wrote romance where the love story was fictional and on center stage all the time. Classic historical romance. However, as my novels took on more the flavor of historical fiction with more authentic history, I included the love stories I discovered in the real people’s lives. In my Clan Donald Saga, for example, all the love stories are real, enhanced with fictional aspects, yes, but still real. In everyone’s life, love enters at some point. Why make it up when the truth is there for the taking? When the real love story can fascinate just as much as a totally fictional one?
Your books require an enormous amount of research. Where do you do your research?
You’re right. I do my research at home where I spend hundreds of hours of research for each book. I begin with background research, reading books set in the period if there are any. I look for online articles written about the era and the people. I search for journals, diaries and original sources, anything said by or about my lead characters. I do genealogy research to get the families right. I don’t plot. Instead, I do a timeline of events that can run 20-30 pages. It is from this timeline and a list of characters that I write the story. Oh, and I spend hours in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) to make sure I don’t use any words or phrases my real characters would not have spoken.
Tell us a little about your new book, The Irish Yankee.
The Irish Yankee is book 1 in the Dawn of America series. I knew I would write the story of an American privateer, so I began looking for names and discovered a real American privateer, Jeremiah O’Brien and his love, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick. Jeremiah was first on my list because his victorious capture of a British war ship in June of 1775 was the opening salvo in the war on the sea where privateers sailing under “letters of marque” that made their captures of British ships permissible. They were very important to America’s victory. The British called him “The Irish Yankee” because of the damage he did to their merchants supplying British troops. It wasn’t a compliment. He was a wonderful man, the oldest of six brothers who owned sawmills on Maine’s northern shore. It’s a story of patriotism, heroism and love that survives hard times for a great cause. In reading my story, one will get a picture of the whole seven years of the war.
Many of your other books are set outside of the USA. What inspired you to write about the American Revolution?
What a great question! So many Americans know very little about our country’s beginnings. I wanted to bring that history to life for my readers, to make the people real. And then there is the fact America is celebrating our 250th Anniversary this next year so the timing was right.
There will be other books in this new series, Dawn of America. Do you already know the stories you’ll be writing?
As I thought about a series set in the Revolutionary War, I began to think of the stories in categories: The Privateers, The Militia, The Patriots (Washington’s Army), The Pennsylvania Riflemen and the women. My current thought is to make each category a trilogy. The trilogy of women’s stories will be The Daughters of Light.
With all the intensive research you do, how long does it take to write a book?
Another good question. Some of my books (The Clan Donald Saga, for example) are long, over 600 pages. Others, like The Irish Yankee, are much shorter around 300 pages. Each story of the Lords of the Isles in the Clan Donald Saga spans about 30 years, a generation. Other stories I’ve written may cover only a few years. That determines how long it takes me to finish the book. The long books can take a year. With an abundance of historical material and only a half dozen years to cover, my Regencies and the Georgian stories and now The Irish Yankee took only months, so I can write two in a year.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
Just to thank you for having me on your wonderful blog!
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