The Tenth Day of Christmas with Alicia Rasley by Gerri Brousseau

Welcome to Nights of Passion.  Today we're excited to have Alicia Rasley with us.

Alicia, please tell our readers about Poetic Justice. 

Alicia:  This is the sequel to my earlier Regency Romance, Royal Renegade.  The cool, felonious Captain Dryden, the smugger in the first book, as become respectable, commissioned as art dealer for the Prince Regent, even elected to the stuffy Royal Society for Antiquaries. But there's one bastion he hasn't overcome, the marriage-minded young ladies, or rather their suspicious guardians.  He doesn't care, until he meets Jessica Seton and realizes that in the library that will come to her if she marries appropriately contains the prize of a century—a playscript written partly in Shakespeare's own hand.

To win her and the prize, John must battle an evil librarian, the entrenched snobbery of the upper classes, his own alienation, and Jessica herself, who demands nothing more or less than the one thing he can't give—a passionate love, not just a convenient marriage.  It's poetic justice when he has to choose between her love, and his prize.

NOP:  What inspired you to write Poetic Justice?

Alicia:  I wanted to deal again with the first book's characters (Captain Dryden, his half-brother Michael, and Michael's own princess bride).  But also I'd been reading a biography of Shakespeare that mentioned that a lost play (found around the Regency period) bore the unmistakeable handwriting of Shakespeare himself (thus proving that he, not that upstart Francis Bacon, really wrote). I wanted to play with this great puzzle and solution, so I moved that manuscript to a derelict family library in London, where John can find it.

NOP: Of all the characters you have created, do you have a favorite?  If so, who is it and why is he/she your favorite?

Alicia:  There's one Royal Navy captain, Tressilian, who is the hero of The Reluctant Lady.  He's so adorable, I keep using him in other books to flirt with the heroine and make the hero jealous! I think he's my favorite because he's so charming and so silly, and that's so at odds with his satanically handsome looks.

NOP: How would your hero and heroine have spent Christmas?

Alicia:  Well, to tell you the truth, they are both into antique books, so they've traveled to Rome this Christmas on the invitation of the murderous curator of the Vatican library. So they'll probably spend the holiday in the dusty confines of the library, sharing kisses and discoveries, and trying to stay alive here in the lair of the silkily violent curator.

NOP: If you were to give a Christmas gift to your hero, what would it be and why?

Alicia:  I'd give him a Kindle and a few months free wi-fi, and tell him that now all those ancient books he spent his life and fortune collecting can be had for free on the Web.

NOP: What advice do you have for new writers who are striving to get published?

Alicia:  Read my editing blog: www.edittorrent.blogspot.com.   Oh, actually, write the absolute best book you can, put it away for awhile, and when you've learned more, take it out and rewrite it. You'll have the passion of the early "book of your heart," and the precision that comes from learning your craft.

Also, it's a small industry, and it's easy to get to know those who make decisions (editors).  If you can afford to go to conferences, go and meet some editors and invite them for a drink. No hard sell—just get to know them. If you can't afford that, do it online. Most editors and publishers have blogs or Facebook pages. Be a pleasant and courteous commenter on their blogs, and use your own name or penname.

Then when you submit to that editor, you can say, "We've met. I am (blog commenter name) (or We met at X conference)."  Familiarity won't get the editor to buy your book, but it'll probably get her to read it.

And—I'm a teacher, so I can't help saying this—you should be improving your craft (especially scene design!) with every chapter you write. Your second book should be much better than your first. Your third should be better than the first two combined. If you aren't improving, try harder to learn from the books you read, the authors you know, the editors and agents who have blogs.  Writing maybe can't be taught, but it sure can be learned!

Finally, and this will be controversial I know, agents are becoming less essential in the new publishing era. A good agent (like, say, JK Rowling's!) can still be helpful, but an average agent isn't likely to be much help.  If you don't get an agent in a few months of trying, shrug and give up that quest and work on getting to know editors in person or online.  If you still want an agent when an editor sends you a contract, you can start up the quest again.

NOP: If you were unable to write, what other profession would be of interest to you?

Alicia:  I'm also a college English teacher, so I expect I'd still do that. But I would hope I would have gone on to get a PhD and a "real job" so that I could teach Shakespeare to a handful of upper level students, and write literary analysis in my ivy-covered office building.  My parents were professors, so I grew up in college towns, and still long for the hushed halls and verdant campuses.

NOP: How do you deal with the dreaded "doubt monster"?

Alicia:  I'm absurdly self-confident, up until the moment I get a bad review or even a mediocre one. Then I'm sure I'm a huge fake and no one will come to my funeral.  I haven't really figured out how to deal with this doubt.  But since I have another profession (teaching), I tend to switch to that for a couple weeks as I know I do that pretty well. When I am restored to my usual confidence, I go back to writing, or rather obsessively checking my reviews on Amazon.

One thing I've decided is – Karma's a bitch. I decided never to leave a really bad review. If I don't like it, I don't review it.  I don't want to get the Review Gods mad at me.

NOP:  Do you ever get writer's block and if so, how do you deal with it?

Alicia:  I get writer's block all the time. I use www.writeordie.com to force myself to write, even for 10 minutes a day.  Also I lie in bed late in the morning, because the semi-conscious state is most creative for me. Really. That's why I sleep late!

NOP: If you could be any fictional character, who would that be and why?

Alicia:  I think I'd be Nicholas in the Dorothy Dunnett series of historical novels. He had a bad habit of ignoring women who loved him and going after ones who didn't. So if I got to be him, I'd pump up the old self-esteem and realize I deserved to be well-loved.

NOP:  Who is your favorite author?

Alicia:  I love Dorothy Dunnett, Patrick O'Brian, Laura Kinsale, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips. A new favorite is Jane Gardam, who wrote a lovely, quiet pair of novels. The first is Old Filth.

NOP: What is your favorite novel?

Alicia:  Probably Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. I love most of the books in his long series, but the first was special for me. It's like falling in love at first sight. I knew he and I were going to be together a long time!

NOP:  What's next for you?

Alicia:  I'm working on getting my backlist up on Kindle and Smashwords. This involves many mistakes and a lot of computer-cussing, but it's fun to read and edit my old books. I'm going back to writing Regencies, and have started a Regency mystery romance series. The hero is a physician who examines the murdered bodies and figures out how they were killed, so I might call it CSI: Regency.

I also have started a book no one so far thinks is a good idea. It's kind of a cozy mystery with a heroine who delivers Meals on Wheels (as I do). For some reason, no one who has heard this thinks is a future wild bestseller. But see, as she delivers meals to old people, she gets drawn into mysteries. See, I told you no one appreciates it.

Alicia has agreed to give one of her books to a lucky reader.  To qualify to win, you must put the words "I want Ten Lords a Leaping" in your comment.  Best of luck to you.

Filed under: romance