An Interview with Janet Mullany
Let's welcome Author Janet Mullany to Write About! Janet is an award-winning, multi-published author who writes books set mainly in Regency England. Janet is originally from England but now lives near Washington, DC. Her day jobs have included working as an archaeologist, performing arts administrator, classical music radio announcer, and editor/proofreader for a small press.
KD: Welcome Janet and congratulations on the upcoming release of your book, Tell Me More from Harlequin Spice. Tell us a little bit about Tell Me More.
JM: Thanks, and thanks for having me here! TELL ME MORE is a book about the erotic power of storytelling and about the relationship between fantasy and reality and what happens when they overlap. And it's funny. It's the sort of erotic romance I wanted to read, where people were having sexual adventures for excitement and pleasure, not to heal wounds in their pasts or become better human beings. I don't do that sort of book.
KD: What a great premise for a story! Do you enjoy writing for Spice as much has you have for your funny, romantic historical?
JM: It's different, a different side of the same coin. I'm convinced I write the same book over and over anyway. I go into it with a different mindset. When you're writing an erotic romance you always have in the back of your mind how your characters will make love. With a historical it's how they'll fight, or dance, or ride. And then you build from there.
KD: There is something valuable in having a familiar pattern to stories and then playing with that pattern in different ways. Your historicals are described as hot or racy. What do you like best about writing hot historicals?
JM: Some people have claimed they have no sex which I find really interesting. My Little Black Dress books, which I categorize as Regency chicklits, are first person narratives so I had to stay true to the voice and tone of the time when you wouldn't get blow by blow bedroom accounts. Besides I really don't believe good erotic writing has to be explicit—explicit language is one of the many tools in the toolbox. You can do amazing things with gloves, stockings, fans, neckcloths. Yum.
KD: Oooh...sounds fascinating! Your most recent books are Jane Austen mashups, correct? Tell us a little bit about how this came about.
JM: Not quite. They're books about Jane Austen as a vampire in an alternative history where vamps are out in society and very popular among the ton. If you invite the Damned to dine chances are you'll be dinner and dessert. JANE AND THE DAMNED is set in Bath in 1797 and I throw in a French invasion for extra biting opportunities. JANE AUSTEN: BLOOD PERSUASION is set in Chawton in 1810, where she spent the last eight years of her life revising early works and writing new novels, and hanging out with vamps.
KD: Ah, for those who love paranormals and historicals, it's the best of both worlds. Have you always liked reading history? Do you enjoy doing research for your historicals?
JM: I'm lucky because I grew up in England and so I have a vast knowledge of what places and flora and fauna look like, and how people speak. I do research only on specific topics—for Jane and the Damned I researched Bath and the fear of French invasions in the 1790s. I did more specific research, including a wonderful trip to Chawton last year, for Jane Austen: Blood Persuasion. I'm sure I'll be called to task for making hideous mistakes.
KD: Tell us a little about your background. What was it like growing up in England? Were you a good student in school?
JM: Where to start … I went to an all girls school that had a very butch female gym teacher who used to like to watch us have showers. I was a terrible student, a loudmouthed troublemaker but somehow I (and the school) survived.
KD: Creepy teachers, ugh! Lucky for you that you had a strong personality, perhaps somewhat like your characters? :) What prompted you to move to Washington, D.C.?
JM: I marry Americans. The current one has family here.
KD: Tell us a little bit about your writing process. Do you write every day?
JM: Of course! (in case my agent and editor drop by). It's a bit patchy but I do go into periods where I write and write, which is what happened at the end of TELL ME MORE, one of the longer books I've written.
KD: Great! Tell Me More sounds very much like a story readers won't want to end! Where can readers purchase your books?
JM: The usual places, Amazon, B&N, Borders. My Little Black Dress historicals are available through bookdepository.com, an online bookstore I love, with free shipping worldwide, although my latest, MR. BISHOP AND THE ACTRESS, is available on Kindle
KD: Where can readers find you on the web?
Twitter @Janet_Mullany
My FB author page, www.facebook.com/pages/Janet-Mullany-Author/144530775580812
I blog at riskyregencies.blogspot.com on Thursdays.
Thanks for having me!
KD: Thanks for visiting! Jane is offering a free signed copy of Tell Me More to one lucky commenter. Just leave a comment or ask a question to be entered. Contest closes on Saturday, July 23 when I will announce the randomly-chosen winner!
