Hello everyone!
Here’s another of my unique interactive blogs! This one focuses on my thoughts about writing historical fiction. Tell me what you think and remember the answer can be more than one or none of the above. And don’t worry, you’ll be rewarded at the end.
Question number #1 is, as a historical author, guess which of the following “facts” was most interesting to me.
- Martha Washington was really a ninja superspy!
- I was born near NYC, a city which is near and dear to my heart!
- In the Regency period, Prinny was actually the creator of modern aerobics. He loved to have the orchestra play music while he hopped around on stage.
- In the Regency period, brides didn’t wear the big white dress. That came about in Victoria’s reign. Instead, the bride’s shoes were special with her name, the groom’s name, and the date written on the sole of the shoe and set on the mantle for remembrance.
Answer: 4 – I found the way they remembered the bride’s shoes fascinating and even wrote a book about a cobbler’s daughter marrying…well, in my mind she married Benedict Cumberbatch from Sherlock. Check out Wedded in Sin by Jade Lee.
As for the other possibilities, I think Martha Washington could have been a ninja superspy, but I have yet to find any evidence to support that. Same with fat Prinny inventing aerobics. Ah well, he could have, right? And yes, I was born near NYC, but that’s hardly the most interesting thing about me!
Question 2 – Describe my favorite heroine archetype.
- Archetype? What’s an archetype? I can type ARCH. See! There, my favorite heroine earns her happily ever after by typing!
- Snow White – sweet girl who falls asleep and is woken by the handsome prince. But to earn her happily ever after, she has to keep house and clean for seven dwarves. Yuck!
- Cinderella – Take me away to the ball! In magic clothes! But to earn her happily ever after, she has to keep and clean for her stepmother and stepsisters, plus all those mice and birds and stuff. And what does the hero do? He has to smell all the stinky feet across the country!
- Wonder Woman – Forget falling in love. She’s going to fly in an invisible plane and kick bad guy ass. She earns her happily ever after by living it every day!
Answer: All of the above – Honestly, the key phrase in all of the above is “earn her happily ever after.” I was raised by good solid, Midwestern folk who talked constantly about earning your living, your happily ever after, your future. Grace of God? Well, maybe. But only after you’ve studied hard, worked from dawn to dusk, and gone to church and prayed for your sins. Which means that every heroine I write has to earn her happy ending. I don’t usually force them into cooking and cleaning for short people, but she does have to fight hard for what she wants. It makes the winning all the sweeter!
Question #3 – Do I prefer print or ebooks?
- Holding a book in my hand, smelling the print, feeling the weight of the story? There’s nothing better than print.
- 1000 ebooks don’t weigh down my suitcase when I travel. Ebook all the way.
- Stone tablet. Please. Talk about weighty, that’s the word of God when it’s chiseled in granite.
- I don’t care about the delivery device. It’s all about the staying addicted to fiction in whatever form is available at the time.
Answer: 4 – I read anything and everything that’s at hand. E-tablet, stone tablet, print, or phone. It’s all the same to me!
So how’d you do? Tell me!
And while you’re thinking romance, check out my latest Regency novel, ONE ROGUE AT A TIME. If you want to see what it’s like, read an excerpt here.
