What is the title of your next book and when is it coming out?
Elinor Sterling sets out to marry the perfect duke but finds her noble candidates in short supply, in Mad About the Duke, coming September 28, 2010.
What order should I read the Bachelor Chronicles in?
Artwork by: Chisato Nakamura
You mentioned on Facebook that one of your books is going to be a comic book, how did that happen, which book will it be and when will it be available?
This Rake of Mine is currently being translated and drawn as a cartoon. The company who originally translated the book into Japanese thought the story had great potential for a comic book and began to put the story and artists together. Here is the first drawing from the future book, and I am so excited to see my characters come to life this way. Believe me, this is something I never imagined happening, but it sure is cool. If you haven’t read This Rake of Mine, take a peek at the excerpt.
At the end of Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress, you introduced us to John Gossett and his unlikely companion, Molly. Will you be writing their story? And what about Nate? And for that matter, Ginger? (Please, can you find her a better husband?!)
Absolutely! I can’t wait to write this trio of books. As soon as
I finish that latest series of Bachelor Chronicles books about the Standon widows—starting
with How I Met My Countess available now, then Mad
About the Duke coming September 2010, then I hope to do books about John, Nate and Ginger.
And yes, I agree. Ginger needs a truly heroic husband.
Aren’t Something About Emmaline and This Rake of Mine part of the Danvers series?
Yes
and no. (Don’t you just love that answer??) I meant for Something
About Emmaline to stand on its own, however, I just couldn’t
help myself and let Temple, Elton and Diana into the story.
Then before you know it, I was uncovering Elton’s past and they were
right there in the middle of the story. In fact, I tell the entire story
over in Connected
Books. On the Danver’s timeline, SAE takes place just after
the opening of One
Night of Passion and
before Stealing the Bride.
With This Rake of Mine,
you’ll see old Danvers characters in the story, and it’s a Danvers’ adventure
in spirit, just not with a Danvers hero.
Have Pippin
and Dash from This
Rake of Mine and
Love Letters from a Duke had
their own story?
Yes! It was a story I was dying to write. Their adventures began in This
Rake of Mine, and continued through appearances in Love
Letters from a Duke and my April 2009 book, Confessions
of a Little Black Gown, until
their final love story was told in Memoirs of
a Scandalous Red Dress,
available now.
I loved His Mistress by Morning, so please tell me who gets the next wish.
Hermione makes the next haphazard wish and finds that instead of being
noticed by Rockhurst, she’s gone and turned herself invisible. Tempted
by the Night is out in stores August 26, 2008 and sure to surprise readers.
Let me just say, Lord Rockhurst isn’t quite what he seems.
Why did you decide to write a paranormal series?
It wasn’t so much a decision to write paranormal
books, but rather a story idea that wouldn’t leave me alone. Sometimes,
if you are very lucky an entire book will come to you in a flash of inspiration,
and in this instance, it was a five book series that suddenly filled my
imagination. See Connected Books for
more information on how this series began and will continue.
Are you going to write Orlando’s book?
Given that Orlando
died of a gunshot wound to the chest in the opening of Once Tempted it
would seem improbable that he would have his own book. But with that said,
and after years of being hounded and pleaded with, I have to admit that
I am currently plotting a story for him. No publication date yet, but yes,
his story will be written.
What is Temple’s first name?
Ah, the great mystery of the Danvers
series! Everyone wants to know
what Temple’s first name is. Let's just say that if (and that's a
big IF) his father followed family tradition, his first name should be Robert.
But that is only if you believe his nontraditional poet father continued
the family practice of giving the Setchfield heir that name. Honestly, I
haven't a clue what Temple’s first name is. He stepped onto the pages
as Temple, and that is what he's always been to me. Any suggestions?
No offense, but were these books written out of order? Because I just purchased Stealing the Bride and am not quite sure where it fits in the series.
No offense taken. I wrote the Danvers books as the stories came to me,
so there is nothing preventing you from reading the books in any order,
as each one is a stand-alone story. But if you like to read your series
in what I call "character chronological order," that is listed
below. In addition, to help keep them straight, you can refer to the Danvers
Family Tree or
any of my character lists (see Footnotes - linkable from each individual
book page).
One Night of Passion
Stealing the Bride
Once Tempted
It Takes a Hero
The Matchmaker’s Bargain, a novella
in Hero, Come
Back
Are you going to write Kit's story?
Not quite yet. While I mention her unorthodox marriage briefly in Stealing
the Bride,
I haven't quite found the perfect story for her. Sometimes
stories come to an author and other times they need to sit on the back burner
and simmer for a while. Consider Kit on a slow boil.
What happened to Elton and his bride in Stealing the Bride?
Mea Culpa! I had a full paragraph about Elton and his wife in the Epilogue
and somehow in editing and page proofs it got lost. So my apologies for
not catching it before it was too late. But rest assured, Elton and his
wife live very comfortably in a lovely house on the Duke of Setchfield's
estates. Elton still drives for Temple on occasion, since we all know what
a terrible whip the duke is. If you still want to learn more about Elton
and his early years, you’ll discover an entirely different side to
Temple’s valet/batman in Something About Emmaline.
What order should I read the Brazen series?
Brazen
Angel, Brazen Heiress, Brazen
Temptress
Am I correct that No
Marriage of Convenience is
your only unconnected book?
You
are correct. I wrote this book deliberately leaving no thread
undone so I wouldn’t get caught up writing a series that I wasn’t
completely committed to writing. I intended the same thing when I began Once
Tempted and
look where that took me!
Do you offer tips or advice on writing? I’d love to start writing a romance.
Writing
is great fun and I wish you the best of luck with your book. As for help
writing a romance, I feature writing advice every week on my Blog,
so make sure you subscribe to it at Bloglines so
you don’t miss a single tip.
I have an editor appointment and I am scared to death to pitch to her. What should I do to make sure I don’t blow this chance?
I actually talked about this very thing on my Blog. Read about it here and see what other writers had to say on this very subject.
Is it true that your first book was published under rather extraordinary circumstances?
Yes!
Instead of being plucked from the slush pile like so many other writer's
who get "The Call," I won my first contract through a
contest Dell Publishing used to sponsor called the Dell
Diamond Debut. Authors
were asked to submit the first three chapters of a completed
manuscript. Several months later, five finalists were invited to send in
their complete manuscript for final judging. Finally, at a Romance
Writers of America luncheon,
with over 1000 people present, my book, Brazen
Angel,
was declared the winner. It went on to be published in 1997.
Sounds simple, right? If only it had been that easy. To learn
the amazing story behind my amazing win, visit My
Favorite Hero.
I saw a Lady Elizabeth Boyle listed on Google. Are you related?
Unfortunately not. As it is, her portrait hangs in the Duke of Devonshire's
residence at Chatsworth. My good friend Jaclyn
Reding was
in England visiting a few years ago and was touring the house when she said
she felt compelled to turn around and there she found this portrait of Lady
Elizabeth Boyle staring down at her. This Lady Elizabeth went on to marry
Nicholas, Earl of Thanet. I'll stick with my Terrence of Grosse Pointe.
Is it true you were once in a bank robbery?
As if my working life wasn't adventurous enough, yes I was once in a
bank robbery. The funny part was, I didn't hear what the man said when he
told everyone, "Down on the floor, this is a robbery." Nor did
I see his gun. I was too busy chatting with the bank clerk about the weather.
And then I turned around and walked blithely past the bank robber and out
the door. I guess he just gaped and stared after me, stunned that I was
ignoring him. I learned all this two weeks later when I came back in to
deposit my paycheck and discovered I was lucky to be alive.
What has been your most memorable moment as an author?
There
are many, including when I sold my first book, when I won the RWA Rita
award,
but truly the most memorable was when I was being interviewed for the local
paper and they decided to send a photographer over to take pictures of me.
We decided to go down to Puget Sound because it was close to sunset and
the photographer thought that it would make some great shots. I got out
onto a log to make it look like I was standing on the water, and he shot
a bunch of pictures, but when I went to get back on the beach, I slipped
backwards and fell. It wasn't a pretty sight, since my dress went flying
up over my head and I gave the photographer a lovely view of my panties
(according to my husband.) I landed with a splash in the Sound, and wondered
as I sank to the bottom, sucking in salt water and seaweed,
how long I could stay underwater and avoid the entire scene back on the
beach. Needless to say, I had to come up for air eventually, and here is
one humble author coming to shore.
Your books are so full of adventure and suspense, where do you get your ideas?
As odd as this sounds, from my own life. Before leaving the 9 to 5 grind
to write full-time, I worked as a paralegal. Dreary documents? Summarizing
dull records? Not in my job. For eight years I worked on reviewing cases
of insurance fraud (arson, staged burglaries, and other hinky claims.) I
also worked on cases involving allegations of police misconduct and shooting
inquests. I've been in courtrooms when witnesses have lied and helped trip
them up, interviewed murderers, drug dealers and thieves, and hung out in
some mean places looking for evidence. Truly, it was a great job, but in
the early ‘90s I decided I needed a little more adventure in my life
and found a new job with a local software firm as a Piracy Paralegal.
I used to joke that "I hunted pirates during the day and wrote about them at night." But all joking aside, my job actually had some very dangerous aspects, since my responsibilities included going on seizures and criminal raids with US Customs, the FBI and the RCMP in Canada. You really start to wonder about your sanity when you go on a raid with everyone around you dressed in head to toe Kevlar and armed to the teeth, while you are standing there in a wool suit you bought at Nordstrom. I also traveled with a bodyguard, because of the dangerous nature of my work. Believe it or not, these contemporary adventures gave me plenty of ideas for my historical books.
By the way, if you are interested in learning more about software piracy, visit the Business Software Alliance website.
Do
you have a question for Elizabeth's FAQ? Contact her
now!