Hello, Coffee Time Romance readers. Thanks for welcoming me to Coffee Thoughts!
I’m Bliss Bennett, and I write smart, edgy stories for readers who love history as much as they love romance. As you can probably guess, my favorite places are libraries, museums, and archival collections! I love rummaging around in books and historical documents to my heart’s content. My spouse likes to joke that I write novels only so I have an excuse to read and research about obscure but fascinating people and events of days long past…
My Regency-set historical romances aren’t just dry-as-dust history, though. They’ve been praised as “savvy, sensual, and engrossing” by USA Today, “catnip for the Historical Romance reader” by Bookworlder, “romantic, funny, touching…. perfect” by All About Romance, and “everything you want in a great historical romance” by The Reading Wench. They’ve also won numerous awards, including the Holt Medallion, Hearts Through History’s Romance Through the Ages contest, and a Crowned Heart of Excellence Award from InD’Tale Magazine. Two of my books were named “Must Read Romances” by USA Today’s Happy Ever After reviewer, and Not Quite a Marriage was named a “Desert Island Keeper” by All About Romance.
My latest book is Not Quite a Scandal, the second book in The Audacious Ladies of Audley series. I’ll be talking more about Scandal later today, but for now, I thought I’d answer a few questions about me…
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing for most of my adult life. My first job out of college was working in the children’s book department of a major trade publisher (anybody remember Where’s Waldo?). That job involved a lot of writing—book blurbs, editorial reports, marketing copy, and an endless string of rejection letters. I later went back to school for an MA in Children’s Literature and a PhD in 18th and 19th century British literature—even more writing! Since then, I’ve published a lot of academic articles, as well as several books on the history of children’s literature. I also wrote a blog—Romance Novels for Feminists—for five years. But I only turned to writing fiction about ten years ago.
You’d think that after writing hundreds of thousands of nonfiction words, writing a novel would be easy. But it wasn’t. Storytelling uses a very different part of the brain than nonfiction writing does….
What does your writing routine look like? Do you stick to a strict schedule, or do you have to be in the mood to write?
I try to write every morning, five days a week, although other commitments sometimes get in the way. Some writers like writing in a library or coffee shop; Jane Austen reputedly wrote right the middle of the family drawing room! But I need to be alone in order to write. I have an office up on the third floor of my house, a private hideaway that gives me the space and the quiet I need to access my most vulnerable self. The self that every writer needs to draw on in order to create emotionally believable and compelling characters.
Where do you get ideas for your stories?
Usually from something that intrigues me in a book or document from the past I’ve been reading. For instance, in a biography of nineteenth-century Irish social reformer Mary Ann McCracken, I came across this snippet from a letter from 1798:
We have got an addition to the family since you were last here, it is a little Girl said to be a daughter of poor Harry’s, it was bro’[ught] very much against my inclinations. — John McCracken to Frank McCracken, September 1798
The “little Girl” Mary Ann’s brother refers to here is the illegitimate daughter of another McCracken brother, Henry Joy McCracken, who was executed for his role in the Irish rebellion of 1798. Reading those lines made me wonder: what would it have been like to have been that “little Girl”? To have been born the bastard daughter of an Irish peasant, to have lived with a rural Irish Catholic family for the first years of one’s life? And then suddenly to find oneself uprooted and thrust into a genteel city family, one with Scottish roots and Presbyterian beliefs? And, on top of it all, to know that one’s father had been executed as a traitor?
As I thought about this “what-if,” the idea for Fianna, the protagonist of A Rebel without a Rogue, and her quest to redeem her father’s reputation and win a secure place in her father’s family, was born.
Many authors hate reading reviews of their books. Do you?
Actually, I’m a bit of an odd duck here—I really enjoy reading reviews of my books, even the bad ones! I’m always looking to improve my writing craft, and I learn so much from other people’s thoughts and feelings about my stories. A bad review often stems from reader disappointment rather than anything intrinsically wrong with a book—the pleasures a reader was hoping for were different from the pleasures my books offer. As long as I recognize that, then critical, but thoughtful, reviews are terrific learning experiences. And it’s so very gratifying when a reader “gets” what I was trying to accomplish through my writing.
Who are your favorite Historical Romance authors? Why do you enjoy their books?
I keep a few of my favorite romance novels in my office for inspiration….
Oh, this is always such a hard question! I enjoy romances written in clear, evocative prose, as well as stories that are driven more by character than by plot, and that have a firm grasp on history and historical detail. So my favorite authors typically offer such pleasures in their books.
A few of my favorites:
Mary Balogh, Liz Carlyle, Loretta Chase, K. J. Charles, Felicia Davin, Evie Dunmore, Meredith Duran, Elizabeth Essex, Aster Glenn Gray, Laura Kinsale, Elizabeth Kingston, Rose Lerner, Mimi Matthews, Courtney Milan, Erin Satie, Cat Sebastian, Sherry Thomas, and Mia Vincy.
Who are your favorite historical romance authors? Why do you like their books? What pleasures do they offer?
Comment on this or one of Bliss later posts today on the Coffee Thoughts blog for a chance to w!n a gift certificate to your favorite local independent bookstore!
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