Meredith Allard's Blog, page 37

An Interview With Author M. Louisa Locke

Here is my interview with author M. Louisa Locke for The Copperfield Review. Locke is the author of the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and a trusted authority on independent publishing. The first book in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series is Maids of Misfortune, and the sequel is Uneasy Spirits, both bestsellers in the historical mystery category on Kindle. Maids of Misfortune is a 2012 B.R.A.G. MedallionTM Honoree.

Meredith Allard: When and why did you begin writing, and did you always write historical fiction?

M. Louisa Locke: I knew I wanted to write historical fiction by the time I reached high school. Books had played an enormously important role in my life growing up, and historical fiction was already my favorite. When I attended college in the late 1960s, however, I realized that if I had to have a day job (I assumed that writing wouldn’t support me) I would rather be a professional historian than a professor of English literature. I went ahead and got a doctorate in history, but while doing the research for my dissertation, I found myself daydreaming about writing a series of mysteries that would feature the different jobs women held in the late Victorian era.

In 1989, between teaching jobs, I decided to give writing a chance as a means of support, and I wrote the first draft of what was to become Maids of Misfortune. Annie Fuller, my protagonist, makes money by running a boarding house (a common occupation for widows like Annie), but she also supplements her income giving business advice as a pretend clairvoyant (again, a frequently held female occupation at the time.) In this first book, Annie also goes undercover to work as a domestic servant, the most prevalent job for women in the nineteenth century.

Soon after I completed this first draft, I not only received a series of rejections from publishers but I also got a full-time job as a history professor at San Diego Mesa College. Writing again took a back seat. Twenty years later, when I semi-retired from college teaching, I picked up the manuscript, rewrote it extensively, and published it as both a print and an ebook. The sales on Maids of Misfortune were so strong that I was able to retire completely to become a full-time writer, publishing Uneasy Spirits, the second book in my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, in 2011. I plan to publish the third book, Bloody Lessons, in the early Fall, 2013. It may have taken me 50 years, but I finally am realizing my childhood dream of writing historical fiction!

M.A.: On your website you mention that you did your Ph.D. dissertation on the late nineteenth century western working woman. Your historical mystery novels are also set around the same time. What brought about your fascination with the western working woman?

M.L.L.: I think that the late 19th century fascinated me because of the parallels I saw to my own generational experience (I was born in 1950 and grew up squarely in the middle of the sixties social movements.) The Civil Rights movement, the women’s movement, and the demand for political reform that came out of Watergate all had their counterparts in the 19th century. In both eras, there were strong pressures to keep women confined to the role of wife and mother. Yet, in both time periods there were women who challenged those traditional ideals.

In the late 1970s, I was studying to become a history professor when less than 20% of all history professors were women, so I was surprised to learn in my research that women had held a higher proportion of professional jobs a hundred years earlier than they did when I was growing up. I wanted to know about these women and the choices they made, so I did a statistical analysis of women who held income-producing occupations based on the 1880 Federal manuscript census. I chose to study women in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland because I lived on the west coast and most of the research on working women had focused on eastern cities. Naturally, when I started to think about writing fiction, I turned to the women I had been studying. They had become very real to me, and I wanted to make them come alive to others.

M.A.:  I love to read mystery novels, but I have yet to try to write one. What are the particular challenges of writing mystery?

M.L.L.: As with most genre novels, there are certain conventions that you need to keep in mind when writing mysteries. Even if you disobey those conventions (for example, don’t have a body in the first chapter) it needs to be for a good reason. Otherwise, you can lose your reader. People who read mysteries expect that there be some sort of puzzle that is going to be solved. The puzzle can be a death or some other crime, and the person who solves the mystery can be a professional or an amateur. But as a mystery author, you need to know what that crime is (what was done), have developed some red herrings (people who might have done the crime, but didn’t), and eventually provide enough clues so that the reader has a chance to guess who actually committed the crime along side the detective. Then, depending on the sub-genre of mystery, you need to balance those basic mystery plot requirements with effective character development, detailed setting, believable romance, sufficient suspense, etc. I would say that achieving that balance is one of the most difficult tasks any mystery writer faces.

M.A.: You mention in your bio that your first historical mystery novel, Maids of Misfortune, was inspired by a diary entry from a domestic servant, and that you found that diary entry while researching your dissertation. How do you go about researching the history in your stories? Have you traveled for research purposes?

M.L.L.: Since I spent years doing research on San Francisco and the women who worked there in the 19th century, I don’t have to do a lot of new research for my novels. However, the internet has made the supplementary research I do for each story much easier. There are websites that tell you when the sun and moon rose on a given day in 1880, what words were in common usage then, and what a Victorian corset feels like. The main problem is not letting the research suck you in so that you don’t get the words onto the page.

Because the sections of San Francisco that I set my novels in were devastated by the Earthquake and Fire of 1906, I do have to spend a good deal of time looking at old maps and pouring over old photographs to make sure my descriptions are accurate. But I also visit San Francisco frequently, trying to come at the same time of year that the current book is set in to get a feel for the weather, where the sun hits buildings, and so forth. I love walking the streets between the different places in my books, imagining….

M.A.:  How would you describe your novels to potential readers? What makes your novels different from others about similar eras?

M.L.L.: Many of the other successful Victorian era mysteries tend to portray the violent and sexually exploitative aspects of 19th century urban culture. They are darker in tone than my books and often have more in common with contemporary thrillers. While my books don’t neglect some of the important issues of the day, for example the extreme anti-Chinese sentiment in the west at this time, my goal from the first was to write historical mysteries that were traditional cozies in style.

Annie’s boarding house reflects the kind of small community you find in a cozy, and there is a strong thread of humor and romance throughout my stories as well. The sex and violence is generally off-stage, and there is even a cute dog. On the other hand, I believe that because my historical mysteries are set in real places, with characters facing real issues of the time period, readers can feel a greater connection to the people in my stories than they may do with the quirky characters found in many contemporary cozies.

M.A.: All authors have a different path as they seek publication. What was your journey to publication like? What can you tell us about the joys and the challenges of being an independent author?

M.L.L.: While I pursued my career as a college professor, I watched as my writer friends were treated in the increasingly hostile environment traditional publishing. As a result, when I decided to give publishing another try in 2009, I was open to considering the opportunities that self-publishing and the ebook revolution were providing. One of the major considerations for my decision to become an indie author was how long it took (and still takes) for a book to make it into print the traditional way. I’d conceived ofMaids of Misfortune thirty years earlier, I’d written it twenty years earlier, and I didn’t want to wait another 2 years or more to get it into the hands of readers. If no one liked it, so be it. At least I would have given it a try.

Once this decision was made, it only took a few months for me to master how to design, and format ebooks and print books, and it took only 24 hours to upload the Maids of Misfortune. Within a day I had my first sale and my first positive review!

I also enjoyed learning the technical and marketing aspects of self-publishing. I am a life-long student, as well as a social scientist and a teacher, so learning how to publish independently, experiment with different marketing strategies, and then being able to share what I have learned with other authors, has simply added to my satisfaction with the process.

I can say without reservation that my decision to self-publish was the best decision I ever made. Besides the fact that my books have been a financial success, every positive review, every letter from a fan, every comment on my Facebook page is pure gold.

M.A.: I was looking at the Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative, and I can’t believe I’m only finding out about it now. It is definitely something readers of Copperfield should know about. How did the Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative come about?

M.L.L.: One of the upsides of the ebook/indie author revolution has been that books like Maids of Misfortune that weren’t making it through the gatekeepers/bottlenecks of agents, publishers and booksellers, are getting published and in the hands of readers. However, the question has become: how is a reader going to be able to sift through all those books and find the right one for them, and how is an author going to make sure their books are visible to the right market?

Book review websites like Copperfield Review is one answer and The Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative (HFAC) is another. HFAC was formed by a group of independent authors who recognized that there was strength in numbers. Behind the scenes we share information on technical issues (like cover design, formatting, getting books into the various ebooks stores like Kindle and Nook), and we help cross-promote each other’s work. All of this helps elevate the quality of our work and its visibility.

But the most important tasks were to recruit great historical fiction authors and design where readers could find our work. The group started less than three years ago with just a handful of authors, but we now grown to 40 members with 140 separate titles in our catalog, which can be found at HFeBooks.com.

M.A.: What can readers who love historical fiction gain from visiting the Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative site?

M.L.L.: A fan of historical fiction can discover on our website high quality historical fiction that they wouldn’t find in traditional bookstores. In some cases the books are out-of-print books our authors have republished, in others, they are new independently published work by authors who are still traditionally published, and in most cases these are books by innovative independent authors.

Because membership in HFAC is by invitation only and we thoroughly vet those members and their work before inviting them, a reader can be assured that the books in our catalog are grounded in accurate historical research, are professionally edited, and well-written. We have listed the books by historical eras, as well, since many fans of historical fiction have favorite periods they like to read about. You can also find out about the author, the other books they have written, and you can read interesting articles by them about their historical research on our blog.

Finally, if you subscribe to the website, you will be alerted every week about discounts and free books that are being offered, as well as when a new book by one of our members is published. Other ways you can be alerted to this information is to follow us on twitter or Facebook.

M.A.:  Is there a way historical fiction authors can be considered to be included in the cooperative?

M.L.L.: The vetting process is very slow since at least two members have to read and evaluate an author’s work before extending an invitation. As a result, most of our recruitment comes from recommendations from other members. We also look at those ebooks that are successful in historical fiction categories in ebookstores.

The bottom line is: write high-quality historical fiction, market it well, and, in time, as you gain reader recognition there is a good chance your work will come to our attention.

M.A.: Which authors are your inspiration—in your writing life and/or your personal life?

M.L.L.: Georgette Heyer was my first inspiration. She was a serious historical scholar, but the light romantic Regency novels she wrote are a continuing delight, and for over fifty years I have turned to her books when I need to escape the painful realities of this world. From Dorothy Sayers, and her Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane mysteries, I learned how to combine romance and crime solving. From Tony Hillerman’s New Mexico mysteries, I discovered that the importance of setting, and Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series gave me the idea of combining historical fiction and mysteries. There are many great contemporary writers who have continued on in these traditions, but these were my first inspirations.

M.A.: What advice do you have for those who want to write historical fiction or mysteries?

M.L.L.: This may seem trite, but it is true. Read. Reread your favorite books in the genres you wish to write in, but do so looking at what worked to make them your favorites. Is it the characters, the plot, the pacing, the background material? Read new books, and here you might find yourself analyzing what doesn’t work for you. Why did you get impatient at some point, never really care for the main character, become confused? Do you seem to like books written in the first person? Third person? Shifting points of view?

If you are pursuing historical fiction, skim through general texts about the period, read autobiographies and contemporary fiction of the time. All of this should give you a general feel for the historical setting. But don’t spend too much time in detailed research until you are actually writing the book. Spending days figuring out what to call the kind of carriage your character might own, before knowing if that carriage will even figure in the story, can be a waste of time. This is the stuff you can fill in later as you go along (or after the first draft is written.)

M.A.: What else would you like readers to know?

M.L.L.: For those who think they might be interested in my work, do check out my website/blog or myFacebook author page.  I also have two short stories that feature minor characters from my full-length novels that you might find amusing. They are Dandy Detects and The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage.

 

Filed under: Copperfield Review, Guest Authors, Historical Fiction Tagged: Copperfield Review, historical fiction, Indie Authors, M. Louisa Locke, Victorian San Francisco Mystery Series

What Do Superman and a Vampire Have in Common?

Photo Credit: fansided.com

Probably more than you think…

When I was watching the new Man of Steel movie the other day, the struggles of Clark Kent (aka Superman) reminded me of another fictional character who is especially close to my heart—my own vampire James Wentworth. But what could Superman have in common with a vampire? After all, he’s Superman.

The new Man of Steel movie, or at least the first half of it, is about how Clark Kent struggles through the world knowing how different he is from the humans around him. How does he adapt to those differences? In the film, Clark becomes a wanderer, directionless, hopping from job to job without any real goals, not too sure where he belongs. He overhears conversations he may not want to hear, and then what does he do with the information? How does he stop others from doing bad, and how does he protect those around him without alerting everyone else that he has special powers?

It’s the same struggle James deals with, particularly in Books One and Two of the Loving Husband Trilogy, Her Dear & Loving Husband and Her Loving Husband’s Curse. James is a vampire with extraordinary strength and superhuman senses, and he knows he needs to hide the truth of what he is, that he is undead among the living, to get through his nights without being run out with torches and pitchforks, or whatever it is they would use these days. Unlike Clark and his Kent family, James doesn’t have to speculate about what might happen when humans are confronted with things they don’t understand. James has seen it, he’s lived through it, from the Salem Witch Trials, to the Cherokee expulsion on the Trail of Tears, to the internment of thousands of innocent Japanese-Americans during World War II. He knows all too well how madness infects people when they’re confronted by something new or confusing. So James has kept himself in the darkness, literally and figuratively, wanting to remain part of the human world yet holding himself aloof from it for fear of the hysteria the knowledge of vampires would bring. Both Clark and James are afraid to be themselves. Yet they want to blend in. They want to seem like everyone else.

What is the right thing to do? Is Clark’s adopted father, Jonathan Kent, right to tell his son to wait until the time was right to make his mark on the world? James would be perfectly happy never making his mark anywhere but in his university classes with his students or at home with his beloved wife Sarah. He doesn’t feel destined for greatness, as Jonathan believes Clark is. James doesn’t want the spotlight. All James wants is to help others as quietly as he can and live in peace with his family. In the end, in Book Three, Her Loving Husband’s Return, James makes a great sacrifice to get the life he’s always wanted. Clark has to sacrifice as well as he comes to terms with his destiny as Superman. And also like Superman, James’s struggles only increase as others discover who and what he is.

Both Clark and James are afraid to be themselves for fear of what others will say. Their coming of age stories about how they learn to make peace with their places in the world can be understood by everyone. We are all different in one way or another, which is why coming of age stories are so important—they remind us that no matter who we are we can find a meaningful place for ourselves if we’re willing to try. Whether you’re an alien, a vampire, or whatever you happen to be, you can make peace with yourself and your place in the world. That’s a lesson we all need to learn.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, Tidbits Tagged: Clark Kent, James Wentworth, Loving Husband Trilogy, Man of Steel, Superman

Her Loving Husband’s Return is now on tour!

I just got home from a few days in Portland, Oregon, which I loved. And of course I visited Powell’s City of Books. Since I was mainly unplugged, I didn’t have a chance to post the tour dates for the Her Loving Husband’s Return tour, which started on Monday, 6/24. Visit the tour stops and say hello!

June 24 Guest blog
Urban Fantasy Investigations
http://urbanfantasyinvestigations.blogspot.com/

June 25 Spotlight
Sapphyria’s Book Reviews
saphsbookblog.blogspot.com


June 26 Interview
Reading In Twilight
http://readingintwilight.blogspot.com

June 27 Spotlight
Lisa’s World of Books
www.lisasworldofbooks.net

June 28 Spotlight and review
Cocktails and Books
http://www.cocktailsandbooks.com

July 1 Spotlight
Roxanne’s Realm
www.roxannesrealm.blogspot.com

July 2 Guest Post
Paranormal Romance Fans for Life
http://paranormalromancefanforlife.blogspot.com/

July 3 Interview or Character Interview
Laurie’s Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews
http://lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspot.com

July 5 Spotlight
Mythical Books
http://www.mythicalbooks.blogspot.ro/

July 8 Guest blog
The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom
www.creativelygreen.blogspot.com

July 12 Spotlight
Books Books and More Books
http://booksbooksmorebooks.blogspot.com/

July 15 Interview
Bewitching Book Tours Magazine
www.issuu.com/bewitchingbooktours

July 16 Spotlight
Place of Reads Book Blog
http://placeofreeds.blogspot.com/

July 18 Spotlight and review
Keeping Up With The Rheinlander’s
http://mnmrheinlander.com

July 19 review (all 3)
Vicky at Deal Sharing Aunt
www.dealsharingaunt.blogspot.com

July 22 Interview
http://romancewithflavor.com

July 22 review
Beverly @ The Wormhole
http://wormyhole.blogspot.com


Filed under: Her Loving Husband's Return, News Tagged: Bewitching Book Tours, Her Loving Husband's Return

Sizzling Summer Giveaways from Bewitching Book Tours!

I’m thrilled to be part of these amazing giveaways–some of the best I’ve ever seen. The giveaways are from June 21 through July 21. Everyone is welcome to participate.

Rafflecopter Giveaway One: Kindle HD and Swag Packs

1 Kindle HD -30 authors joined together to offer a spectacular grand prize A Kindle Fire HD 8.9” screen , Wifi ,16GB $269 value Open to US shipping. If outside US you can receive an equal value Amazon Gift Card.

1 huge package of book swag from Bewitching Book Tours filled with fun goodies from Bewitching Book Tours, owner Roxanne Rhoads and numerous Bewitching authors including a Starbucks giftcard from Gina Conkle.

4 packages of book swag from Bewitching Book Tours- filled with fun goodies from Bewitching authors.

1 mixed swag pack of various book swag from Milly Taiden.

1 book swag from Constance Phillips.

$15 Amazon gift card from Sky Purington.

To join this awesome giveaway, CLICK HERE.

Rafflecopter Giveaway Two: Print Books

1 set of Bleeding Hearts (Demimonde #1) and Blood Rush (Demimonde #2) by Ash Krafton – U.S. shipping.

2 sets of Her Dear & Loving Husband and Her Loving Husband’s Curse by Meredith Allard – U.S. shipping.

1 Kidnapped by Maria Hammarbald – U.S. shipping.

1 ROGUE ORACLE and DARK ORACLE by Alayna Williams- U.S. shipping.

1 EMBERS and SPARKS by Laura Bickle – U.S. shipping.

1 Fall of Sky City by SM Blooding  - U.S. shipping.

1 signed set of DARK LIGHT OF DAY and FIERY EDGE OF STEEL by Jill Archer.

1 Life After the Undead and Death to the Undead by Pembroke Sinclair – U.S. shipping.

1 DiSemblance by Shanae Branham.

1 Shield: Allie’s War, Book Two by JC Andrijeski (or Revik: Allie’s War, Early Years) by JC Andrijesk.i

1 signed copy of VICIOUS CIRCLE by Linda Robertson (or any other title written by her if winner already has VC).

1 DiSemblance by Shanae Branham open to International shipping.

1 The Necromancer’s Seduction by Mimi Sebastian open to International shipping

2 print copies of The Chosen by Annette Gisby, U.S./Canada and U.K. entrants.

1 Print or ebook Copy of Night Hawk by JE Taylor to US residents or ebook (mobi or epub) for international folks. If US resident would prefer ebook – that can be done as well.

1 Print or ebook Copy of Hunting Season by JE Taylor to US residents or ebook (mobi or epub) for international folks. If US resident would prefer ebook – that can be done as well.

1 Winner’s choice of print or digital (.mobi or .epub) of Royal Street or River Road by Suzanne Johnson, in either U.S. or U.K. editions; open to international.

1 Winner’s Choice of print, audio, or digital (.mobi only) of Redemption, Absolution, Omega, or Storm Force by Susannah Sandlin open to international.

1 All three books in the Phaeton Black, Paranormal Investigator series The Seduction of Phaeton Black, The Moonstone and Miss Jones, The Miss Education of Dr. Exeter by Jillian Stone. Print or eBook any format, reader’s choice Ebook open international.

To join in this great giveaway, CLICK HERE.

Bewitching Giveaway Three: YA Books

1 Signed print copy Portal by Imogen Rose – U.S. shipping.

1 Signed print copy of INITIATION by Imogen Rose – U.S. shipping.

1 print copy Hollow’s End by Marianne Morea – U.S. shipping.

5 print copies Visionary Unleashed by N. Dunham – U.S. shipping.

1 THE HALLOWED ONES by Laura Bickle – U.S. shipping.

1 print copy The Ifs (middle grade book) by JD Pooker.

1 print set of Reckoning and Relentless by Molly Hall – U.S. shipping.

1 ebook copy of Soul Meaning by AD Starrling.

1 ebook copy of King’s Crusade by AD Starrling.

1 ebook copy Hollow’s End by Marianne Morea.

5 ecopies Visionary Unleashed by N. Dunham.

5 ecopies of Portal by Imogen Rose.

5 ecopies INITIATION by Imogen Rose.

HERE is the link to rafflecopter for this giveaway.

Bewitching Books Tours Summer Giveaway Four- Ebooks

1 ebook copy Flashback by Maria Hammarblad.

10 ebook copies of Shield: Allie’s War, Book Two by JC Andrijeski (or Revik: Allie’s War, Early Years).

1 Tyrant of Tarsit (Time travel romance) by Holly Hunt.

2 ebooks of New Zealand with a Hobbit Botherer by John Gisby (international).

1 each Bleeding Hearts (Demimonde #1) and Blood Rush (Demimonde #2) by Ash Krafton.

2 copies each Her Dear & Loving Husband and Her Loving Husband’s Curse by Meredith Allard

1 Winner’s choice Caged Heat or Wolf Protector by Milly Taiden.

1 ecopy Resurrecting Harry by Constance Phillips.

1 The Cat’s Meow by Stacey Kennedy.

1 Stavros is giving away 1 of each- eBook copies of Dead Girl: A Romantic Zombie Tale of Revenge, Blood Junky, and Love in Vein.

1 Murder on Mars (A New Orleans Mystery) by MM Shelley.

1 Little Red Riding Wolf by Jessica Aspen, mobi or epub available.

1 Cindy Spencer Paper is giving away an E-book – winner’s choice of any available on her website.

1 eCopy of The MacLomain Series Boxed Set by Sky Purington (Books 1-4), PDF or gifted to Kindle.

5 free copies of DRAGONSTONE by Paula Millhouse : pdf, emobi, ePub.

5 ecopies of THREE WISHES by Paula Millhouse pdf, mobi, ePub.

1 ecopy SMOKE AND MIRRORS (The Gifted, Book 1) by Marie Treanor.

1 ecopy SERAFINA AND THE SILENT VAMPIRE (Serafina’s, Book 1) by Marie Treanor.

1 BLOOD GUILT (Blood Hunters, Book 1) by Marie Treanor.

1 Annie Nicholas is giving away Reader’s choice of any ebook from her backlist winner’s choice of .pdf, epub, mobi.

1 one e-book set of the first two books in the Seven Seals Series (Seal of Destiny and Seal of Surrender) by Traci Douglass.

1 ecopy Wucaii by Pembroke Sinclair.

2 ebooks of Silent Screams by Annette Gisby (international).

2 ebooks of Shadows of the Rose by Annette Gisby (international).

3 EBOOKS (one set): THE CROSSE HARBOR TIME TRAVEL TRILOGY by Barbara Bretton.

1 More Than Friends by Jessica Jayne (.epub, .pdf, .mobi).

1 In Flames by Jessica Jayne (.epub, .prc and .pdf).

HERE is the entry form.

Not too shabby, huh? Good luck to everyone who participates!

Filed under: Giveaways Tagged: Bewitching Book Tours, Giveaways, Kindle HD

An Interview with Donna Russo Morin

Here is my interview with Donna Russo Morin for The Copperfield Review. Donna is an award-winning author of historical novels, including The King’s Agent, To Serve a King, and The Secret of the Glass (Kensington Books), and she’s also a good friend of Copperfield‘s. Here she shares information about her exciting and lush-with-detail historical novels, as well as some advice for those who want to write historical fiction.

Meredith Allard: On your website, you mention how growing up during the turbulent 60s gave you grist for your writing. When and why did you begin writing, and did you always write historical fiction?

Donna Russo Morin: My first stories were written as soon as I learned how to write; my mother still has them, the paper yellowing, the creases growing weak with age. I wrote a great deal of poetry during those turbulent days of the 60s while I was living the turbulence of my own puberty. Then the influence of the King took over (Stephen, that is) and I did find my first fiction published in the form of short horror. But all the while I was reading, voraciously, historical fiction, from Gone with the Wind to Leon Uris’s Trinity. When I discovered Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, when I heard the perfect merging of fictional characters within a detailed historical construct, I knew I had heard the sound of my own writer’s ‘voice.’

M.A.: How did you decide which era(s) to focus on for your historical novels? Did you have a previous fascination with that time?

D.R.M.: My first book, The Courtier’s Secret, was a self-fulfilled wish…to be a Musketeer, something I wanted to be ever since the 1973 version of The Three Musketeers with Michael York and Rachel Welch. The second book came from a two minute news story on the glassmakers of Murano, about their continuing efforts to keep their process secret, The Secret of the Glass. The third actually came from the glut of Tudor books on the market and the question I asked myself…how awful I felt for all the royals who ruled simultaneously with Henry VIII; they were so very ignored (for the most part). That’s when I found Francois I and the French court. It was a world filled with intrigue with much more powerful women. Where better to put a young female spy who must make a decision…To Serve a King.

My research on Francois I led me to his real life art agent, The King’s Agent, who procured pieces by the great Italian Renaissance masters by any means. Battista della Palla truly was the Indiana Jones of his age; I knew he deserved his own book. That book led to a fascination with the Renaissance, a period I am now fully ensconced in, completely obsessed with, and am writing a trilogy set within the height of the time and in its birthplace, Florence. Having full Italian heritage and in the process of getting my Italian citizenship, I think it has all led me to where I belong, my home…Renaissance Italy!

M.A.: Your novels are so lush with the history you’re writing about. How do you go about researching the history for your novels? Do you travel to the places you write about?

D.R.M.: My research is a combination of the academic to the practical. For most books, I spend eight to ten months in the research phase. That includes reading as many primary source materials (letters, diaries, journals, manifests) as I can get my hands on as well as the books that specialize either in the era or the people who inhabited it. But I also include some form of practical research. For my first book, I learned how to fence. I attempted to blow glass for my second book. For my third I learned how to shoot a bow and arrow (archery has now become a full blown hobby for me and I own my own compound bow). For my latest release, I learned how to dagger fight. Right now I am immersed in the techniques of painting that were used in the Renaissance period with many visits to many museums and many sketches and antique paint mixing techniques attempted.

Unfortunately, I’ve only been able to travel to the location of my first novel, The Courtier’s Secret, which was set almost entirely at the Chateau Versailles. Spending hours there truly helped me infuse realism into the work. But thanks to the ever evolving internet, there are so many virtual tours available, it is much like traveling there. As I do feel strongly that my work going forward will be anchored in Italy, I do hope to live there a few months out of each year.

M.A.: How would you describe your novels to potential readers? What makes your novels different from others about similar eras?

D.R.M.: They are a vibrant and fast-paced merging of the factual and the fictional to take the reader on an adventure impossible in modern day, where I reveal not only what happened in the past, but how it truly felt. I don’t write bio-fic, which is a prevalent form of historical fiction, but I set my characters next to multiple historical people, allowing the reader to meet and interact with many of the great personages of the past through the experiences of my main characters. I also tend to stray from ‘trend’ topics. My Italy books were released long before Showtime’s Borgias. Renaissance Italy was the birth of new thought and innovation, new ways of life—both grand and lascivious. I endeavor to bring the rare gems of history to light.

M.A.: I always thought if I were a little braver I’d have become an actor. Maybe in my next life… What drew you to acting? Do you see any similarities between acting and writing fiction?

D.R.M.: Acting came to me actually. Though I had done a great deal of school acting (a shy extrovert finds a great outlet there), it wasn’t until I was walking through the local Sears store where I was ‘discovered’ and put in my first television commercial. Modeling and acting became a wonderful resource for income, especially while paying my way through college. Though I tried to ‘make it’ as a rather short woman (for modeling at 5’5) I never made it to ‘the big time.’ It has, however, been a lucrative if sporadic part-time profession. The greatest rewards have been working with (with being relative as I was an extra in The Departed and a Showtime series The Brotherhood) the likes of Martin Scorsese, Martin Sheen, and Jason Isaacs (Lucias Malfoy of Harry Potter).

I do think the ability to completely immerse myself into a character, whether it is as an actor or writer, is invaluable. For that is what I do whenever I write…putting myself ‘into’ the character, imagining what they would be feeling and doing in the circumstances my writing has put them in. It is an empathy that comes across on the page I think…I hope.

M.A.: All authors have a different path as they seek publication. What was your journey to publication like?

D.R.M.: Twisted.

In truth, I had no choice but to become an author, it was imprinted in my DNA. While I started writing as soon as I learned how to hold a pencil, external forces tried pushing me in other directions, then true destiny took over.

I took my first degree in Communications and mapped out a fairly successful freelance writing career while working a ‘day job’ in public relations and advertising. In addition to inclusion in the two anthologies, I was on staff at a local magazine, and my book review career, which began in 1988, hit a pinnacle of sixty published reviews, including publication in The Milwaukee Journal, The Hartford Courant, and Foreword Magazine.

Novel writing was always the ultimate goal. It took me seven years to write my first novel–giving birth to two boys at the same time–a medieval fantasy liberally laced with horror. It sits in my hope chest still, though I still have ‘hope’ for it.

In the summer of 2002, I came down with what I thought was the flu. After two and a half years and more doctors than I care to remember, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Six weeks later, my father passed away from cancer. I retreated from the world and into my books and writing. I re-watched The Three Musketeers and remembered how much I loved it and all the Musketeer stories. I remembered how I wanted to look like Rachel Welch/Constance (who doesn’t?) but I wanted to be Michael York/D’Artagnan. The idea for The Courtier’s Secret, my first book, was born. While being treated for the Lyme, I conducted nine months of research and wrote the first draft in nine weeks.  I found an agent in two months and she got me my first two book contract in four months. The rest, as they say….

M.A.: Which authors are your inspiration—in your writing life and/or your personal life?

D.R.M.: Stephen King taught me how to write, though he doesn’t know it. His talent for telling a complex story in a simple manner, as if he sat next to you and told it to you, was my tutorial. Diana Gabaldon’s amazing talent for merging fact and fiction in a dynamic manner became my ideal. J.K. Rowling’s triumph over a broken marriage and harsh financial situations is my own story. But, in truth, any artist—be it writing, painting, music—who is willing to forgo material wealth for the sake of the craft is worthy of emulation. People who want ‘fame and fortune,’ who think ‘I’ll write a book and make a lot of money and become a celebrity’ I find abhorrent. But those that want to create something magnificent for the sake of its creation, whatever the cost, those are the people who inspire me.

M.A.: I was reading about your latest project on your website and it sounds amazing. I can’t wait to read it. What can you tell us about it?

D.R.M.: Ah, speaking of destiny. As I said, my third book, To Serve a King, brought me to Francois. Francois was responsible for sowing the seeds of what would become, for us, the Louvre Museum. He was obsessed with art. He had, in Italy, an art agent, The King’s Agent (title of my latest book), who would procure from the Italian Renaissance greats art for Francois’ collection. These two books, and their emphasis on art, led me deeper and deeper into the Renaissance and the evolution of art that took place there. But, as always, I was frustrated by the ‘men’s club’ that is history. So I started researching women artists. That’s when it came to me.

The trilogy depicts the birth of the female Renaissance artist set against the turbulence and brilliance that is Florence in the late 15th century. But it is, as well, an homage to the bonds between women, their steely strengths and their petty weaknesses. It is full of intrigue, murder, revenge, love, sex, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, the great works of the age and how they were created. It is one of the most magnificent moments in history come to life through the experiences of a myriad group of women.

M.A.: What advice do you have for those who want to write historical fiction?

D.R.M.: Be passionate about the era you write about. Don’t just pick it because it seems to be what’s selling.

Learn ten times more than you need to know or that you’ll include in the book and use only the material that serves the plot of the story. (But save ALL your material…you never know when you may use it elsewhere.)

If you ‘tweak’ history (which you may have to do in order to tell your fictional story) TELL THE READER! That’s what Author’s Notes are for.

Give credit to the hard work of the nonfiction historians from whom we get our glorious material. Include a bibliography even though you write fiction. They deserve it.

M.A.: What else would you like readers to know?

D.R.M.: I include Discussion Questions in the back of every one of my books. Share the stories with friends and family. Sit together and discuss the works, go through the questions, let your minds go where they lead, tell your own stories. If you belong to a book club, contact me and we can have Skype discussions. But most of all, if you learn something of the past from my books, if you feel something you’ve never felt before…I’ve done my work and I thank you for allowing me to do it.

About Donna Russo Morin:

Donna Russo Morin’s passion for the written word began when she was a child, took on a feminist edge as she grew through the sixties, and blossomed into a distinctive style of action-filled historical fiction at a defining moment in her life. With two degrees from the University of Rhode Island, the state in which she was born and raised, Donna’s first book, The Courtier’s Secret (2009) won RWI-RWA’s Best First Book Award and was a finalist in the National Readers’ Choice Award. The Secret of the Glass (2010), her second book, received a Single Titles Reviewers’ Choice Award and was a finalist in the USA Best Books of the Year Contest. Also a recipient of a Single Titles Reviewers’ Choice Award and a finalist in the USA Best Books of the Year Contest, Donna’s third Book, To Serve a King (2011), was a finalist in Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award as well. The King’s Agent (2012), Donna’s latest release, received a coveted starred review in Publishers Weekly. Donna is currently at work on a major trilogy about the clandestine birth of the female Renaissance artist set in turbulent Medici ruled Florence. Donna is a proud, single mother of two sons, Devon and Dylan—a future opera singer and a future chef—her greatest works in progress.

Donna’s books on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10/184-1092533-4046236?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=donna+russo+morin&sprefix=donna+russ%2Caps%2C298

Donna’s books on B&N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/donna-russo-morin?store=allproducts&keyword=donna+russo+morin

donnarussomorin.com 

donnarussomorin.blogspot.com 

Twitter @DonnaRussoMorin

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/DonnaRussoMorin

Filed under: Guest Authors, Historical Fiction, Writing Tagged: Donna Russo Morin, historical fiction, The Courtier's Secret, The King's Agent, The Secret of the Glass, To Serve a King

FAQ Part 3

These are some general questions I’ve received, so though they’re not directly related to the Loving Husband Trilogy, I thought I’d answer them here:

1. I see you publish historical fiction. Will you publish me?

Maybe. I’m the Executive Editor of The Copperfield Review (named for the Dickens novel, not the magician—yes, I’ve had that question too), an award-winning literary journal for readers and writers of historical fiction, and we take great pride in publishing up-and-coming names in historical fiction. You can find the journal’s guidelines here. Here are some hints I have for authors who want to submit their work to literary journals for publication.

2. When/why did you start writing historical fiction?

Like most things about my writing, I started writing historical fiction by accident. I knew since high school that writing of some kind was in my future, though I didn’t know myself at that time what kind of writing it would be. At first I thought I’d be a journalist, but one high school journalism class showed me the “Just the facts, Ma’am” style of news writing didn’t work for me. In college, I turned my attention to screenwriting. I took a number of screenwriting classes, and I even worked for several film production companies.

Around this time (1994), I had seen Ken Burns’ PBS documentary about the American Civil War, and I had an inkling of a story I wanted to tell about how brothers, brought up in the same family, could come to fight on opposing sides in a war. When I sat down to write the screenplay, I realized, at about page twenty, that the screenplay format was too small for what I wanted to do. Screenplays are merely blueprints for directors, actors, set designers, costume designers, directors of photography, and the many others necessary to make a film. There were times when I worked in “The Industry” when I felt like the screenwriter was the least important person there. I didn’t want to write a blueprint. I wanted to describe exactly what the characters were wearing. I wanted to go into detail about the room they were sitting in. I wanted to get into the characters’ heads and wonder why they made the choices they did. In order to do that, I needed to write the story (which became My Brother’s Battle) as a novel. Thus, my journey into historical fiction had begun.

3. What other books have you written?

My other books can be found under the My Books category.

The only common denominator in my books is they’re all historical in one way or another. Other than that, each book is completely different from the ones that came before (except for the Loving Husband Trilogy, of course). I write about whatever I’m fascinated with at the time, which is why my subjects are so varied.

4. What are you writing next? When is your next book coming out?

At this exact moment I’m taking a break from writing fiction. I think I popped a few synapses in my brain finishing Her Loving Husband’s Return, so I’m giving myself a couple of months to recover. I do know what I’m going to write next, but it’s too early to give details other than it’s going to be a love story that takes place in Victorian London. I’m not giving myself a deadline for this new book, but some time in 2014 is a fair guess.

5. Did you name Sybil in Victory Garden after Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey?

I can say with 100% honesty that no, the Sybil in Victory Garden was not named for Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey. Sybil in Victory Garden is a minor character with a line or two in one scene—hardly worthy of a raise of Lady Mary’s eyebrows, or Mr. Carson’s for that matter. I know the period of Victory Garden is the same as in Downton Abbey (1917-1922), and it deals with many of the same subjects (mainly woman suffrage and World War I), but I wrote VG way, way back in the old-timey days of the late 1990s, long before Lady Sybil or the Earl of Grantham were glimmers in Julian Fellowes’ eye. So though Victory Garden was published in 2012, it was written 14 years before.

I am, I’m embarrassed to say, only lately come to the world of Downton Abbey, which is odd for someone who loves a good historical story as much as I do. I had heard all the raves about DA, but I was busy writing the Loving Husband Trilogy and my brain was too full of James and Sarah to take much notice. Recently, on a ten hour flight from London, there was an episode of Downton Abbey available to watch, and I did, and like so many millions before me, I was hooked. I now understand the phrase “binge-watch Downton Abbey” because I’ve done it myself. I watched all three seasons, something like 25 episodes, in two days. I’ve even started following a number of Downton-related feeds on Twitter to keep up with the latest news. For fans of the show, I found a great website called Downton Abbey Addicts.

Thank you so much to those of you who have been contacting me with questions or comments. I love hearing from my readers. You guys are the best.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, Tidbits, Victory Garden Tagged: Downton Abbey, Loving Husband Trilogy, Victory Garden

Loving Husband Trilogy FAQ Part 2

1. How do you come up with story ideas/characters?

For the story ideas, something—a news story, something I’ve seen, something I’ve read—captures my imagination, grabs hold of my brain cells, and won’t shake loose. I have a lot of ideas that float through my brain at any and all times of the day, but the ones that become novels are the ones that latch on and won’t let go. The Loving Husband Trilogy was born from True Blood and reading vampire novels. Victory Garden was inspired by a news report that said women weren’t voting in high numbers (this was more than fifteen years ago) and I was reminded of a story I read in school about women who were arrested and force fed for fighting for the right to vote. My Brother’s Battle was inspired by the Ken Burns documentary about the American Civil War. Woman of Stones came about because I was reading the Bible a lot in those days, and I’ve always loved “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”—in a nutshell, the secret to peace on earth. One of my next projects has been brewing in one way or another for more than ten years, born from my love of Dickens and my fascination with Victorian London.

As to the characters, those are more of a mystery to me. I don’t know how to explain it except to say that to me, the characters are already there, inherent in the story, and it’s up to me to figure out who they are and what role they have in this tale I want to tell. The characters and the story are too intertwined—I can’t separate them one from the other. When I started imagining this vampire mourning his long-dead human wife, that vampire was James, even if I didn’t always know his name.

2. How do you research the history in your fiction?

I know we live in the Internet age, but I’m still a fan of the old fashioned way of researching. I enjoy going to the library, searching the stacks, and weeding through the books to find exactly what I’m looking for. It’s no surprise to me that Sarah is a librarian! One of the nice things about the Internet is that I can do a lot of my library searching from home so I know where to go when I get to the library. I still like to take my notes by hand. That’s a personal preference, but I feel like I absorb the information better that way. I do like that more and more we’re able to access whole books on the Internet, and Google Books has been a strong resource. I love the Internet for on the spot research, like if I realize I need a date or a street name or something of the sort, though I often cross reference the information with several websites.

When I first started writing historical fiction in the dear, dim past when I began My Brother’s Battle (written from 1994-2000, with major revisions in 2012), I studied everything I could find about the American Civil War, and trust me, there’s a ton of information out there. Shelby Foote dedicated twenty years of his life to writing about the American Civil War. My earlier drafts of the story had a ton of research that wasn’t part of the fictional story I had created about Benjamin Honeysuckle and it caused the narrative to drag in places. By the time I got to Her Dear & Loving Husband in 2009, I learned that the purpose of historical fiction is for the history to illuminate the fiction, not for the fiction to illuminate the history. Paragraphs of facts that have nothing to do with the story, or that detract too much from the plot, slow the story down. As a result, I learned to do general research on the historical period for my own knowledge, but in my writing I’ll only use bits of history that makes sense within the story. In other words, Her Dear & Loving Husband isn’t a treatise on the Salem Witch Trials; instead, details of the witch hunts are used to help illuminate James and Sarah’s story.

3. Do you believe in paranormal elements, reincarnation, Wiccans? What do you think happens after we die?

I’ve had a lot of questions about whether or not I believe in the supernatural elements of the James and Sarah books. I don’t believe in vampires or werewolves. I don’t think it’s so much about believing in Wiccans because they’re really there. There are many all over the world who consider themselves Wiccan. Do they have magic powers like Jennifer and Olivia? I know Wiccans cast spells, and I’m not one to judge whether or not their spells work!

As for reincarnation…I certainly don’t know. I believe that human beings are composed of body, mind, and spirit. I believe we’re more than our earthly experiences and five senses show us. I watch Super Soul Sunday on OWN, and I believe a lot of Oprah’s experts when they talk about the soul. I do believe our souls go on after our human bodies die, and I think it’s possible that those souls go on to be reincarnated.

The Loving Husband Trilogy is fiction, and the reason I love writing fiction above all else is because it allows me to explore the possibilities. Reincarnation may or may not happen—I don’t know for sure one way or the other—but writing these books was my way of wondering aloud what reincarnations (and vampires and witches) might look like if they were real.

5. I want to write historical fiction. What is your advice for me?

I have some general advice for writers of historical fiction here. Really, my best advice for anyone who wants to write anything is to take your time learning —find your unique voice and figure out what you want to put out into the world. Reading, if the writer has done her job, should be easy, but writing isn’t easy.

6. Geoffrey? Really?

I’ve had this question asked a few different ways, and it always makes me smile. I can’t say too much for those of you who are still reading Her Loving Husband’s Return, but it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to learn that there’s more to James and Geoffrey’s relationship than meets the eye. The clues are there, mainly in Her Loving Husband’s Curse. A couple of you have written to me to say you figured the mystery out before it was revealed at the end of HLHR. Well done! I love it when readers read with an eye for detail.

7. Will there be a Book Four? Pretty please?

I’m thrilled that there are so many of you who love James and Sarah’s story so much that you want it to continue. What I can say for certain is that at this moment I have no plans for a fourth book. From early in the writing process I saw this as a trilogy, and I think the story is wrapped up pretty well at the end of Her Loving Husband’s Return. I already know the next two books I’m going to be writing, and they’re very different from the Loving Husband Trilogy—one is a modern-day love story, and the next is right back to historical fiction with a setting in Victorian London.

Having said that, I’m also a never say never kind of person. I know that as soon as someone says “I’ll never…” the universe has a funny way of throwing that exact thing right back into the person’s face. That’s why some singers are on their seventh “Farewell Tour.” If an idea occurs to me that I’m excited about and that I feel will add more to James and Sarah’s story, then by all means I’ll write it. I can’t say when that would be, or if it would definitely happen, but I’m open to the idea.

Keep those questions coming! FAQ Part 3 next week.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, News, Tidbits Tagged: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, Loving Husband Trilogy

Loving Husband Trilogy FAQ Part 1

Her Loving Husband’s Return has been on the Amazon Best-Seller List since the day after it was released. Thank you.

I’ve received a number of questions about The Loving Husband Trilogy, so I decided to answer some of the most frequently asked questions here. Some of these I’ve answered in bits and pieces in various interviews. Today, Part 1.

1. Where did you come up with the idea for The Loving Husband Trilogy?

Here’s my answer in this previous post. Between watching True Blood, reading Charlaine Harris, Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, and the Twilight books, believe me, I had a brain full of vampire waiting to get out. Luckily for me, that vampire turned out to be James Wentworth.

2. Did you always know it would be a trilogy?

I did. From very early in the idea gathering process for this story I knew the connection between James/Elizabeth/Sarah and I knew the ending as we find it in Her Loving Husband’s Return. The further I went into mapping out the story, the more I knew I wanted to cover several different historical periods. In order to keep the story as I saw it a manageable length, I split it into three books. In an earlier interview I said as a joke that I wanted to avoid writing a 900-page tome that would send readers screaming for mercy. I wasn’t too far off. The combined page count of the Loving Husband Trilogy is 818 pages.

3.  How did you come to set the stories in Salem? Have you ever lived/visited there?

I decided to set the story in Salem by accident. I was deciding where to set the story, and I deliberately stayed away from the Pacific Northwest and Louisiana in the U.S. since other well-known literary vampires live there. I thought of my hometown Los Angeles or where I live now in Las Vegas, but neither of those felt right. Too bright, I think. Then I decided that if I wasn’t going Northwest how about Northeast? I pulled up a map of the U.S., looked at the Northeast, saw Massachusetts, and there in a little dot near Boston was Salem. That’s it. It took me as long to decide to set the story in Salem as it took me to write these sentences.

I have never lived in Salem or anywhere in Massachusetts. I was born in New York, but we moved to the West Coast when I was seven and I consider Los Angeles my hometown. In fact, I had never even visited Salem when I wrote Her Dear & Loving Husband. Thank goodness for the Internet, websites about Salem, and Google Earth. I did finally visit Salem in July 2011 while I was writing Her Loving Husband’s Curse, and I loved it. In fact, I wanted to move there. Luckily, everything in Salem was where I thought it should be. You can see my posts about my trip to Salem here.

4. How did you decide which historical periods to use?

The decision to use the Salem Witch Trials was a no-brainer once I decided to set the story in Salem. Since I wanted the historical periods to echo what was happening to James and Sarah in the present day, I needed to choose the historical periods carefully. The Trail of Tears and the Japanese-American Internments happened to coincide with the way I saw the story progressing. To a degree, you could say the history informed the story; in other words, once I decided on the historical periods that helped me shape the plot.

5.  How long did it take you to write the books?

It was four years, almost exactly to the day, from when I first pressed fingers to the keyboard typing out the ideas for Her Dear & Loving Husband (in April 2009) until Her Loving Husband’s Return was published (in April 2013). It took longer than a year for me to write Her Dear & Loving Husband because it took time for me to find the narrative thread. The plot was more complex than other novels I had written, weaving the way it does between the past and the present, and it took time for me to work it out.

I read about these authors who publish 3, 4, 5 books a year and I’m amazed by them. When all is said and done, it takes me about a year to write a book. Keep in mind I’m not writing the whole time. I have to live with an idea in my head for a while before I ever start writing. I have to kick the idea around, soften it up, pull it here and tug it there to see if there’s anything in those odd daydreams. I kicked the idea around about the vampire missing his long-dead human wife for about six months before I ever began writing about James and Sarah. Once I start writing, it can take anywhere from 4-6 months for me to have a draft I’m happy with, and then the editing process is intensive because I’m persnickety about how the words read on the page. The editing process for me takes 1-2 months.

6.  Do you have editors/beta readers?

You betcha. It’s imperative to have other sets of eyes read your fiction. As authors we can get caught up in our own heads and we forget to make our stories cohesive for our readers.

Her Dear & Loving Husband wouldn’t be the story it is without the help of an amazing romance author and critique extraordinare, Laurin Wittig. I saw the story so clearly in my head, but I was having trouble articulating it on the page. With Laurin’s sharp eye and finely tuned comments, I was able to finally write the story I meant to write in the first place. Once I figured out what I was doing with Her Dear & Loving Husband, writing the next two was an easier process, though I always have editors/other readers helping me.

Here’s a Loving Husband Trilogy F.Y.I: The original title of Her Dear & Loving Husband was The Vampire’s Wife. Laurin suggested that The Vampire’s Wife was too much of a giveaway about the story, so after stumbling across Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” I changed it to Her Dear & Loving Husband. The revised title has the same idea as the original title, but it takes a little more digging to figure out what it means. And I love that the poem was able to serve as a connection between James and Elizabeth and James and Sarah. Little things like that make me happy.

Part 2 of the Loving Husband Trilogy FAQ coming soon.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, News, Tidbits Tagged: Her Dear and Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, historical fiction, Loving Husband Trilogy, vampires, writing

Where Did the Loving Husband Trilogy Come From?

I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs since I have absolutely nothing I have to do, and it feels…odd. Since I feel like I should be writing something, I decided to respond to a few e-mails I’ve received regarding the origin of the James and Sarah saga. I’ve told bits and pieces of the story in previous interviews, but here’s the scoop in its entirety:

The story was inspired first by Twilight simply because if I hadn’t read the Twilight books I never would have watched True Blood on HBO, and it’s more accurate to say the Loving Husband Trilogy was inspired by True Blood. If I’m being entirely honest, I should say it was directly inspired by great acting from Stephen Moyer.

There’s an episode early in the first season of True Blood (I think it’s episode four, but don’t quote me) where vampire Bill is giving a talk at Sookie’s grandmother’s church. Someone shows Bill a picture of his family from his human days before the American Civil War, and Bill becomes so emotional at the remembrance of them. That’s what clicked my brain into gear. Here’s this vampire who has everything humans only dream of—extraordinary strength, immortal life—and yet he becomes so emotional at the sight of the ones he loved as a human. That episode of True Blood aired somewhere around October 2008 (at least I think that’s when I saw it; again, don’t quote me). So thank you, Stephen Moyer. And, no, your eyes did not deceive you—I did plant a few odes to True Blood throughout the Loving Husband Trilogy. The most obvious example would be that James cries blood.

After that episode, I started wondering… What would happen to a vampire who lives forever? Obviously, the humans he loved would have died at some point. Would he forget about them and go on? Would he have trouble moving on? What if he fell in love again? What would that look like, and who would that be with? If he was so in love with his wife, could he ever love anyone else?

I didn’t have any immediate sense that there was something tangible in those oddball wanderings. I like to tell stories, in case you haven’t noticed, and I’m always kicking scenarios around in this empty head of mine, most of which come to nothing. When I was still thinking of this idea about the vampire six months later, I decided to see if there was anything to it.

The exact date I began writing was April 15, 2009. It was a Wednesday. I remember the date because I was off for Spring Break that week. I had just come back from a few days in my hometown, Los Angeles, to spend some time by the beach and visit my favorite coffee/tea joint—Urth Café. Back home in Vegas, I woke up that Wednesday morning and the crazy vampire idea was distracting me again. I made myself eggs, toast, and coffee, sat down at the computer, started typing out whatever I knew about this vampire and the woman he loved, and never looked back. In case you were wondering, James’s official birthday is April 19 because that was the day he found his name. When it comes to character names, I feel like the name is inherent with the character; in other words, they already know their names, but they leave it to me to guess. I feel like the miller’s daughter scrambling to guess Rumplestiltskin’s name. Is it Bob? Is it Herbert? Is it Randolph or George or Ichabod? At some point I do guess correctly, and that’s without the help of a messenger spying on the One-To-Be-Named.

Since I’ve received so many e-mails lately asking about the Loving Husband Trilogy, and a lot of the questions are similar, I’m in the process of compiling a Loving Husband Trilogy FAQ I’ll be posting here in a few days.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Her Loving Husband's Return, Tidbits Tagged: James Wentworth, Loving Husband Trilogy, Sarah Wentworth, True Blood

Her Loving Husband’s Return is Here!

Okay, everyone…

First of all, thank you, thank you for all the messages I’ve received concerning Her Loving Husband’s Return. It’s been very exciting to me knowing there are so many of you out there eager to learn the fate of the Wentworths. I hope everyone finds the ending a fitting conclusion for the James and Sarah saga. A few of you have told me you’re halfway done with the book already! Wow!

The book is now available through Amazon for Kindle. For those of you with Nooks or iPads, it will be available from BN and Apple in a few days since it takes that long for Smashwords to feed it out to the other companies. The book is available through Smashwords for all formats, including Nook and iPad, right now. You can find the link here on the right sidebar. If you’re not sure about Smashwords, or you’ve never done business with them before, I can tell you it’s a reliable company. Smashwords has been my distributor for two years and I’ve never had a problem with them. When you buy the book through them, they give you directions on how to download it to your e-reader.

My brain is on overload since I’ve been burning the midnight oil making sure the book was ready to go today. I’ll have more to say about Her Loving Husband’s Return, and the Loving Husband Trilogy, over the next few days. The only thing I can say for now is that when you discover the secret of the ending, don’t tell! That’s part of the fun of reading, isn’t it? That’s one thing I’ve found about the three books of the Loving Husband Trilogy–they’re hard to talk about without major spoilers.

Enjoy the conclusion of the Loving Husband Trilogy. Happy reading!

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