Featured Member for October: Anne Rollins

This month Quizzing Glass chats with Anne Rollins, author of historical fantasy romance

QG: What most interests you about the people of the Georgian/Regency era?

I think part of the appeal is how challenging it seems to find romantic partners in such a strict society. Women weren’t supposed to be too obvious about their feelings. Moralists like Dr. Gregory thought a woman should never tell a man that she loved him even if she married him! This creates a lot of narrative tension as you watch to see how two people can end up together.

QG: When did you first get hooked (and what hooked you) on the Regency era?

There were two writers that got me into the Regency: Patricia Wrede and Georgette Heyer. I discovered Wrede’s Mairelon the Magician in high school, and Sorcery and Cecelia in college, and read them over and over again. As the titles imply, these are Regency fantasies, and they undoubtedly had a large impact on my decision to write Regency fantasy.

Then, maybe a decade later, I stumbled on a Georgette Heyer novel in a used bookstore, and I loved it. (Ironically, my first Heyer may have been A Convenient Marriage, which is not Regency but Georgian!) After that, I was hooked. I bought Heyer’s books right and left, rereading my favorite ones many times. I even taught Frederica in a college course a couple of times! Slowly, I branched out from there and began exploring other writers, including both sweet and spicy Regencies.

QG: What is your favorite Jane Austen book?

Pride and Prejudice, but it’s either tied or closely followed by Northanger Abbey. Northanger Abbey is such an underrated book! It is hilarious, and Henry Tilney might be Austen’s wittiest love interest.

QG: What is your favorite Georgette Heyer book?

I am a huge Heyer fan, so I can’t list just one. I like different books depending on my mood, but my top five are The Corinthian, Cotillion, The Reluctant Widow, Arabella, and Frederica.

QG: What advice would you give to writers just starting out?


First, realize that writing is a process. Most people don’t sell their first book, at least not right away. Once you’ve written one book, start writing another. Your writing will get better over time. 

Second, you need to tap into the writing community. You can learn so much by joining online or real-life groups of writers. When you find good beta readers or critique partners, your writing will get stronger.

QG: Tell us about your current project or latest release.

In August, The Solitary Rose, my first novel for adults, will release from The Wild Rose Press, under the pen name “Anne Rollins.” The idea for this story came after I read one too many Regency-era “Beauty and the Beast” retellings featuring grumpy, brooding, scarred male leads. I thought “Why is it usually the male lead who’s scarred? There should be more stories with scarred female leads.” Then I had the idea to gender-flip “Beauty and the Beast,” and the result was The Solitary Rose, a Regency fantasy romance. The female main character, Emma, has smallpox scars. The male lead, Henry, is a blond-haired, blue-eyed gorgeous young man. But their personalities are all their own!

 QG: Pantser or Plotter or hybrid?

I am almost a total Pantser. When I get an idea, I jot down a few notes about the characters, the setting, and the premise of the story, but I never do outlines and I never work out the whole plot ahead of time. Generally, I have some idea of how the story will end, but figuring out how to get there is part of the joy of drafting. (I mean “joy” literally, because drafting is my favorite stage of the writing process.)

QG: Would you like to travel back in time? Where would you go? What one thing would you take with you?

If I could travel back in time for just a day, maybe. It would be fun to visit nineteenth-century Britain in real life. But I would not want to live there. Life without antibiotics and other modern medicines would be scary!

QG: What music do you play when writing?

I have ADHD, and I don’t deal well with noise while I’m concentrating. When I write, I often put on my noise-canceling headphones and play white noise or rain sounds rather than music—that helps drown out the sounds of daily life in the house. (I have three kids, so it gets noisy!) When I do play music, I may play instrumental love songs or Jane Austen-related music. The soundtrack to the 2020 Emma movie makes great writing music.

QG: What is the most surprising or amazing thing you discovered while researching a book?

While researching Regency-era mail coaches, I discovered that in 1816, a lioness escaped from a menagerie and attacked the Exeter mail coach! That’s the kind of thing that would seem unrealistic if it had happened in a novel, isn’t it?

Anne Rollins is the pen name of an English professor who lives in Northern California with her family, her pets, and an enormous collection of books. She is equally a fan of Diana Wynne Jones and Georgette Heyer, two authors whose writing influenced this novel.

Website:  https://www.annerollins.com

Featured Member for September: Heather Redmond

This month Quizzing Glass chats with Heather Redmond, mystery author

QC: What most interests you about the people of the Georgian/Regency era?

It was a very dramatic era, with war, industrialization, royal drama, mad poets, scientific advances, and so much more! Those years seem to be an endless well for creatives.

QC:  When did you first get hooked (and what hooked you) on the Regency era?

Signet Regency romances back in the 1990s. I loved the covers as well as the stories.

QC: What is your favorite thing about the Regency – what do you like to write about?

I am currently writing about (fictional) crime and murder around the Shelley Circle. I love writing about the creative minds of the nineteenth century and learning more about the era before modern policing.

QC: What is your favorite Jane Austen book?

 Pride and Prejudice, with Northanger Abbey a near second.

QC: What advice would you give to writers just starting out?

The best possible advice is simply, “finish the book.” Just keep going to the end of that first project because it is the best learning tool possible, and you can’t publish something that isn’t complete.

QC: Tell us about your current project or latest release.

My newest Heather Redmond title is my upcoming series starter, Death and the Sisters. It’s the first in my Mary Shelley mysteries. Mary Shelley famously wrote the novel Frankenstein when she was only 19, but my story takes us back to May 1814, when she was just sixteen and living across the street from Newgate Prison in London, England, with her family. They lived above their bookshop. One night, she finds a young man face-down on the bookshop floor with a knife in his back, and another in between his legs…

QC:  What comes first, plot or characters?

For me, it is a character, and these past few years, it has actually been historical figures – real people – rather than just characters I made up.

QC: Do you have a daily writing schedule and goals? What are they?

When I’m drafting, it’s a minimum of a thousand words a day, preferably seven days a week until I’m done.

QC: What did you want to be when you were ten or twelve?

I wanted to be a writer from the age of seven.

QC: Who was your favorite author as a child?

I was a voracious reader, but probably the multiple authors of the Trixie Belden mystery series.

QC: If your newest book is being made into a movie, who would you cast as the hero?

The main characters in my new series are heroines, not heroes, but I would cast the first supporting male character (Percy Bysshe Shelley) with Timothée Chalamet.

QC:  What is the most surprising or amazing thing you discovered while researching a book?

When I was a younger writer, I was very intimidated by historical fiction. I didn’t have the confidence to think I could do it myself. Even when my second professional sale was a fantasy-type Victorian short story, I didn’t think I could do it. After years of dabbling in shorter history-set stories, I finally worked my way up to full novels set in the past, and I’ve never looked back. The research is fun and we have to accept that we will make mistakes, but if it is hard for us to research, very few readers, if any, are going to know the absolute truth anyway. Besides, we can write to what we know, and write around what we don’t. The ultimate goal is to tell a good story.

About the Author

Heather Redmond is the author of the A Dickens of a Crime and the upcoming Mary Shelley mysteries. She has also written many works as Heather Hiestand. Website:  www.heatherredmond.com

Thanks for telling us about yourself, Heather

Featured Member for August: Meredith Bond

QG: When did you first get hooked (and what hooked you) on the Regency era?

The first Regency romance I ever read was Friday’s Child by Georgette Heyer. Her dialogue was nothing like anything I’d ever read before. It was funny and just so outlandish I sat and giggled my way through the book. I got caught up in the romance and the wonderful, odd characters. And the happy ending was a cherry on top of this delicious, wonderful cake. I wanted more.

Friday’s Child did not end up being my favorite of Heyer’s books, that was always a tie between The Toll Gate and These Old Shades.

QG: What advice would you give to writers just starting out?https://thebeaumonde.com/main/wp-admin/post-new.php

The first piece of advice I always give to new writers—and to writers who’ve been at it a while—is to work on their writing craft and never stop learning and trying new things. Writing is a practice (like being a lawyer or a doctor). There are always new things to try, new ideas on how to tell a story or structure one, new ways to go about the business of writing. Never stop reading and learning.

QG: Tell us about your current project or latest release.

My latest releases were a really fun series called Royals & Rebels. The first book of the series is based on The Prisoner of Zenda where a young woman is asked to impersonate a princess who is missing (Book One: In Lieu of a Princess). We learn in the second book that she’s missing because she’s gone in search of her brother who was reported as having drowned while crossing the English Channel. The princess doesn’t believe her brother is dead and goes in search of him (Princess on the Run). In the third book he is, in fact, in hiding while he investigates who is attempting to kill him (A Prince Among Spies). The three books have a continuing mystery running through them, although each individual book has a happily ever after.

QG: What comes first, plot or characters?

Always the characters. They are the heart of every story I write.

QG: Do you have a daily writing schedule and goals? What are they?

Every day I start my day by writing what I had planned the previous day (I keep a writing journal). I try to write between 1500 and 2500 words a day. And then I end my writing time by planning out what I’ll write the next day.

QG: Is there a special quote or saying that motivates you as a writer?

So many!! I love writing quotes. Here are two of my favorite:

“Don’t believe everything you think.”

“All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with and I can turn the world upside down.” Friedrich Nietzche

QG: Pantser or Plotter or hybrid?

I’ve tried them all and have found that I need to do at least some plotting. Some books need more than that, some only need the basic turning points for me to know where the story needs to go.

QG: Would you like to travel back in time? Where would you go? What one thing would you take with you?

I’d love to go back to Regency London, but just for one day. I don’t think I could take much more than that, lol!

QG: What music do you play when writing?

I listen to Brain.fm. It’s great at blocking out other noises and getting me to focus.

Thank for sharing with us, Meredith!

About the Author

Meredith Bond’s books straddle that beautiful line between historical romance and fantasy. An award-winning author, she writes fun traditional Regency romances, medieval Arthurian romances, and Regency romances with a touch of magic. Known for her characters “who slip readily into one’s heart,” Meredith loves to take her readers on a journey they won’t soon forget.  You can find out more about her, her books, and her coaching and formatting work at https://meredithbond.com.

Featured Member for June: Diana Lloyd

Quizzing Glass is pleased to interview Diana Lloyd today.

Diana Lloyd, the mother of gingers, writes stories with kissing and cravats. Diana lives in Michigan, USA surrounded by the shark-free waters of the Great Lakes. Diana has loved books since the moment she first tasted one. She loved them even more when she learned how to read. Diana writes stories with heart and humor where characters fight together against injustice and create their own happily ever after. Find out more at https://www.dianalloydbooks.com/

QG: What is your favorite thing about the Regency – what do you like to write about?

I grew up with stern parents in a restrictive household, books were my refuge. What initially drew me to historical romance was the way the characters had to navigate the many rules of the era and the scrutiny of Society in order to weave their way to their happily ever after. I found their struggles and ultimate victories inspiring.

QG: What is your all-time favorite movie or series set in the Regency era?

I love the Jane Austen adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Matthew MacFadyen is my Mr. Darcy and Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson are forever Edward and Elinor. The only Persuasion movie that counts stars Ciaran Hinds, and Anya Taylor-Joy made a credible Emma.

QG: What advice would you give to writers just starting out?

The common advice “Write what you know” is absolute garbage. Write what you want to know. Write what interests you. It’s okay to push yourself. Research is a writer’s best companion. If you, like me, have no relationship with commas—learn the rules or hire an editor. A good editor is worth their weight in gold. Never let family/besties be your beta readers. They are too close to you to be truly objective. They either LOVE everything or are hyper-critical (soul-crushing) to show how seriously they are doing their job. Don’t do it. The best beta readers are other writers.

QG: Tell us about your current project or latest release.

My latest release, Last Lord Standing, is book three in my What Happens in the Ballroom series. In this book, I experimented with the notion of the hero also being the villain. The hero, Kerrigen Northam, agrees to do the wrong thing for all the right reasons. Of course, it all comes back to bite him in the butt once his heart is on the line. My next project is a standalone Regency that I’m calling Lord of Last Resort. This book has been fun to plot and will feature Benedictine Atwater, my most feisty heroine yet. Bene may be down, but she has the cunning and determination to fight for her happily ever after.

QG: What comes first, plot or characters?

For me, it’s the characters. Sometimes a name pops into my head. Sometimes it is a particular character trait. Once I have that stuck in my head I start to think about situations. Whether it’s the meet-cute or the dark moment, that’s where I start building the plot elements until I have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

QG: What is your favorite beverage when reading? What is it the rest of the time?

Unlike most writers, I don’t drink coffee. I’ve tried it but, no, hot bean water is not for me. I drink either water or a Frozen Coke from the local gas station. I got hooked on Frozen Coke when I was going through chemotherapy and my mouth was full of painful sores. Frozen Coke was the only thing that soothed the ache and didn’t taste like metal. I’m hooked now.

QG: What music do you play when writing?

I’ve created a writing playlist I call Whoaman which is a curious mix of sad/wistful songs, baroque music, and female power anthems. I balance that with another playlist I’ve named Angry Girl Singing. Lots of Alanis Morrisette, Beyonce, Rhianna, Pink, and Taylor Swift in there. Each book I write has one particular song that resonates with the mood/theme of the plot. For Last Lord Standing, it was Poison & Wine by The Civil Wars. To me, the line, “I don’t love you, but I always will” summed up Libby and Kerr’s relationship. For the first book in the series, How to Train Your Baron, the song was The Blower’s Daughter by Damian Rice. For book two, About an Earl, I was inspired by Aimee Mann’s Save Me.

https://www.dianalloydbooks.com/

Andrea K. Stein – Featured Beau Monde Author

Photo of author Andrea K. Stein.

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is
Andrea K. Stein!

Andrea K. Stein, the daughter of a trucker and an artist, never knew it would take the hard-work ethic of her father to achieve the light-filled magic of her mother’s art. After helping raise a combined family equaling the Brady bunch without Alice, she retired early from a 30-year career as a newspaper and publishing professional and fled to the mountains. She interspersed a seven-year stint as a Colorado ski patroller with nautical adventures with a crusty, old British delivery captain, accumulating some 20,000 miles at sea. While delivering yachts up and down the Caribbean, she also earned a USCG offshore captain’s license. Now, she tells award-winning tales of the high seas from her writing room in Colorado. She has nine romance novels self-published on Amazon since 2014.

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Barbara Monajem – Featured Beau Monde Author

Photo of author Barbara Monajem.

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is
Barbara Monajem!

Barbara Monajem wrote her first story at eight years old about apple tree gnomes. After publishing a middle-grade fantasy, she settled on historical mysteries and romances with intrepid heroines and long-suffering heroes (or vice versa). Often there’s bit of fantasy mixed in, because she wants to avoid reality as much as possible.

Barbara used to have two items on her bucket list: to make asparagus pudding and to succeed at knitting socks. She managed the first (don’t ask) but doubts she’ll ever accomplish the second. This is not a bid for immortality but merely the dismal truth. She lives near Atlanta with an ever-shifting population of relatives, friends, and feline strays.

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Andrea Penrose – Featured Beau Monde Author

Photo of author Andrea Penrose.

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is
Andrea Penrose!

Andrea Penrose is the bestselling author of Regency-era historical fiction, including the acclaimed Wrexford & Sloane mystery series, as well as Regency romances written under the names Cara Elliott and Andrea Pickens. Published internationally in ten languages, she is a three-time RITA finalist and the recipient of numerous writing awards, including two Daphne Du Maurier Awards for Historical Mystery and two Golden Leaf Awards. A graduate of Yale University, Andrea fell in love with Regency England after reading Pride and Prejudice and has maintained a fascination with the era’s swirling silks and radical new ideas throughout her writing career. She lives in Connecticut and blogs with the Word Wenches.

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Victoria Hinshaw – Featured Beau Monde Author

Photo of author Victoria Hinshaw.

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is
Victoria Hinshaw!

Victoria Hinshaw wrote horse stories as a pre-teen and romantic fiction ever since. When she isn’t pounding away on her laptop in Milwaukee, WI, or Naples, FL, you might find her attacking a towering TBR pile, coping with three teen-age grandsons, or visiting England.

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Liz Tyner – Featured Beau Monde Author

Photo of author Liz Tyner.

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Liz Tyner!

On a career assessment test, Liz once selected an interest in every subject but scuba diving, a choice that confused her high school advisor but added to Liz’s belief that she should become a writer who could live many lives vicariously. Her novels have been published in ten countries while her own lifestyle has remained similar to the one of her childhood, including an acreage to explore and photograph.

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Valerie Bowman – Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Valerie Bowman!

Photo of author Valerie BowmanValerie Bowman’s books have received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus. She’s been an RT Reviewers’ Choice nominee for Best First Historical Romance and Best Historical Romance Love and Laughter. Two of her books have been nominated for the Kirkus Prize for fiction.

Valerie grew up in Illinois with six sisters (she’s number seven). After earning a degree in English with a minor in history at Smith College, she moved to Florida. Valerie now lives in Jacksonville with her family. When she’s not writing, she keeps busy reading, traveling, and watching crazy reality TV.

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Jacki Delecki – Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Jacki Delecki!

Photo of author Jacki Delecki with her two dogs.Descended from a long line of storytellers, Jacki spins adventures filled with heart-pounding, danger, intrigue, and romance.

Jacki’s stories reflect her lifelong love affair with the arts and history. At a young age, she trained as a jazz singer and dancer. She has performed many acting roles with the Seattle Opera Company and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Her travels to London and Paris ignited her passion for the Regency era.

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Sawyer North – Featured Beau Monde Author

Author photo of Sawyer North.
Photographed by Sara Jordan Photography
Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Sawyer North!

 
Sawyer North didn’t begin reading romance novels until he turned 50. All those years, wasted. Do you have a list of books you wish you’d never read so you could read them again for the first time? That’s Sawyer, right now, all the time.

It didn’t take him long to transition from writing science fiction to writing historical romance. After a couple of unpublishable manuscripts, he finally found the rhythm and discovered a publisher willing to take a chance on an unknown male romance writer. His wife is very happy about this, as we are finally reading the same books.

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Laura A. Barnes – Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Laura A. Barnes!

Photo of author Laura A. Barnes.Laura A. Barnes writes steamy historical romances where the women have a mind of their own. She fell in love with writing in the second grade. After her first creative writing assignment, she knew what she wanted to become. Many years went by with Laura filling her head full of story ideas and some funny fish songs she wrote while fishing with her family. Thirty-seven years later, she made her dreams a reality. With her debut novel RESCUED BY THE CAPTAIN, she set out on the path she always dreamed about.

When not writing, Laura can be found devouring her favorite romance books. Laura is married to her own Prince Charming (who for some reason or another thinks the heroes in her books are about him) and they have three wonderful children and two sweet grandbabies. Besides her love of reading and writing, Laura loves to travel. With her passport stamped in England, Scotland, and Ireland; she hopes to add more countries to her list soon.

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Gail Eastwood – Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Gail Eastwood!

Photo of author Gail Eastwood.Gail Eastwood is a former journalist and rare book dealer who says A.A. Milne and Beatrix Potter made her an Anglophile at a very early age, preparing her for Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. Her books have won awards including The Golden Leaf for Best Regency, three Reviewer’s Choice nominations, and two Holt Medallion finalists. LORD OF MISRULE was a 2019 Maggie Award finalist. Twice nominated for Romantic Times Magazine’s Career Achievement Award, Gail loves researching and imagining life in Regency England through stories to share with readers. She and her loving husband live in New England, where they enjoy an active involvement with theater and Gail is addicted to her favorite beach in the summer. They are the parents of two adult sons, one of whom is an actor, following in his father’s theatrical footsteps.

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Tracy Edingfield – Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Tracy Edingfield!

Former attorney Tracy Edingfield spins steamy tales of Regency romances because love stories never get old, and we all wish to be in the moment when love magically blossoms.

Anna Harrington – Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Anna Harrington!

Photo of author Anna Harrington.Anna Harrington is an author of spicy Regency romance with dashing heroes and independent heroines, layers of emotion, and lots of sizzle. She fell in love with historical romances and all things Regency while living in England, where she spent most of her time reading Jane Austen and getting lost in London (especially the getting lost part). Anna has traveled around the world, both as a tourist and as a volunteer with children’s organizations in Peru, Ecuador, Thailand, and Mexico. She loves to hike and fly airplanes, adores all things chocolate and coffee, and is a Doctor Who fanatic (everyone says her house *is* bigger on the inside!). Anna claims to be a terrible cook who hopes to one day use her oven for something other than shoe storage. In her spare time, Anna enjoys gardening and growing roses. Her fav authors are Elizabeth Hoyt, Sabrina Jeffries, Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, and Sylvia Day.
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Alissa Baxter — Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Alissa Baxter!

Photo of author Alissa Baxter.Alissa Baxter wrote her first Regency romance, THE DASHING DEBUTANTE, during her long university holidays. After traveling the world, she settled down to write her second Regency romance, LORD FENMORE’S WAGER, which was inspired by her time living on a country estate in England. Regency Reads will be releasing her third Regency novel, A MARCHIONESS BELOW STAIRS, on November 15, 2017. Also the author of two contemporary romances, SEND AND RECEIVE and THE BLOG AFFAIR, Alissa is a member of RWA as well as ROSA (Romance writers Organisation of South Africa). Alissa currently lives in Johannesburg with her husband and two sons.
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Victoria Oliveri — Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Victoria Oliveri!

Photo of author Victoria Oliveri.History has always held my fascination. I became a genealogist for my family in my teens and traveled abroad to find my roots. Pouring over old documents is a treasure hunt. I also became involved in reenactment groups and found that immersion in living history was both intriguing and intrinsic to my love of telling stories of the past.

My love of world travel gives my stories depth. I’ve had conversations with conservators at abandoned castles across Europe, and have felt their stone beneath my fingertips. I’ve walked down the streets of Mayfair, imagining my characters strolling there beside me, and I’ve sat in King Henry’s kitchen at Hampton Court joyfully smelling the meat cooking on the hearth. With each separate occasion, I learn more about history and continue to build a bank of memories in my mind that will fill many more novels in the future.
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Sara Portman – Featured Beau Monde Author

Sara Portman – Featured Beau Monde Author

Today’s featured Beau Monde author is Sara Portman!

Photo of author Sara Portman.Sara Portman is an award-winning author of historical romance. Her debut novel, THE REUNION, was named the 2015 winner in the Historical Category of the Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® contest.
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