Friday Eleanor Webster is Visiting and Talking about Who She was Before #MFRWAuthor #Child psychology #Romance #Swaggering heroes #Regency

 

1.      What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?

 

I have worked in a number of fields but spent most of my career in the K-12 education system. I am currently a school psychologist and worked for years as a school counsellor and special education teacher.

 

This experience influenced me in several ways. My students inspired me to persist, despite the rejections which so often come to the aspiring author. We ask kids to do hard things every day and I truly felt it was vital that I continue to pursue my own dreams, despite adversity.

 

I was drawn to romance to escape the mundanities of motherhood and the heart-breaking reality too often involved in school counselling.  Indeed, in those first years, I developed a split personality; educator and romance author. One was steeped in realism and the other swaggering heroes.  In my recent books, this split has diminished and my psychology background has taken a greater role in my writing. My characters have demonstrated the traits of PTSD and autism, although not diagnosed as such.

 

 

2. Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.

 

To date, I have only published in Harlequin Historical, my novels set within the regency period. I know I will never write a true mystery, although I enjoy reading them. I find my characters come easily to me but I struggle with plots. While important in any genre, a strong, believable plot is truly vital for any mystery!

I chose Harlequin historical because I love history. My undergraduate degree was in history and I have truly loved immersing myself in these bygone times. I find that the Regency period offers me the opportunity for verbal wit and dialogue which I truly enjoy to both read and create.

However, more recently, I have felt a yen to move into contemporary romance.  My heroines are always strong and independent but their struggle against the constraints of the period feels hard for me as an author and I may move into a period which offers them greater independence and more meaningful choice.

 

3.      What is your latest release?

My latest release is Caught in a Cornish Scandal.   Desperate to save her sister from a cruel marriage, Millie chooses to smuggle off the Cornish coast. She meets Sam when she rescues him from the sea. Together they struggle to survive and stop the ‘wrecker’ luring ships to flounder against Cornwall’s desolate shore.

4.      What are you working on now?

 

My next Harlequin will feature a secondary character from Caught in a Cornish Scandal. Currently, it is not yet in its infancy, as I felt the need to pause and regain my inspiration. I am also a middle-grade author and am currently working on a book featuring an individual with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder. It is a sequel to an earlier publication whose protagonist was under the Autism Spectrum.

 

5. Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?

 

 True confessions – I truly, truly admire fiction writers who tackle heart break and despair but I find myself reluctant to go there either in my writing or my reading. I tend to tackle the tough topics through non-fiction and research while using writing and reading as a form of escape. My childhood was enriched with the classics; Jane Austen, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Dickens combined with a smattering of Mary Stewart, Dorothy L. Sayers and Georgette Heyer. I am always on the look-out for wit and whimsey. I enjoy language and dialogue.

 

6. Where can we find you?

 

I love hearing from readers. Please check out my website at Eleanorwebsterauthor.com and my Facebook page at eleanorwebsterauthor

 

Friday's Guest Victoria Chatham Talking about Genres #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Genres Regency

1.    What's your genre or do you write in more than one?

I write historical fiction, but my genre of choice is Regency romance. I’ve always found the Regency era more fascinating than any other period of history, although I have to say I would only want to live in that time if I could be rich! I’ve written a trilogy set in the Edwardian era, another period I like because there was so much innovation then, both socially and historically. I have also written a western contemporary romance with an idea for a quartet of western contemporary romances still to be written. 

2. Did you choose your genre, or did it choose you?

I think it’s fair to say that I chose my genre simply because I read so much Regency romance and enjoyed it enough to want to write it. Going with the ‘write what you know’ theme I decided, after writing a really bad western contemporary romance that is still under the bed, that I was more comfortable with the Regency.

3.  Is there any genre you'd like to try?  Or is there one you wouldn't?

Apart from the western contemporary romance ideas, I have an outline for a women’s fiction novel. It’s been growing over the last few years, especially since I discovered Elin Hilderbrand’s books, but I’m not sure I’m comfortable enough with the format to take that step yet as it requires a totally different mind-set to writing historical fiction. I like writing in more than one genre as my tastes do vary so much. As for a genre I wouldn’t write? Hands down – horror. I’m easily scared by the merest whiff of fire and brimstone, either in books or movies! 

4.  What fiction do you read for pleasure?

Mostly anything that catches my fancy. I have books I go back to and read again and again because I have enjoyed, and still enjoy, them so much. A good thriller will have me reading into the wee, still hours of the morning and I’m currently working through Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books. I love the way he sets up his fight scenes. I enjoy westerns, both contemporary and historical, and love quirky, cozy mysteries. I think it’s safe to say my reading tastes are eclectic, but I do like to keep an open mind about genres other than my own. I think having a broad reading base helps me to be a better writer because of what I learn along the way.

5.  Tell me a bit about yourself and how long you've been writing.

I’m a happily retired senior, two-time breast cancer survivor, mother and grandmother. I have three children who are all now in their fifties and I wonder – just how the heck did that happen? My eldest son and his wife have two boys and I look forward like crazy to visiting them in England whenever I can. I’ve lived in Canada for twenty-eight years now and I’ve been writing steadily for twenty of them. My late husband was the catalyst I needed to ‘face the fear and do it anyway’! He not only signed me up for an introductory writing course but entered me into a writing competition as well. I placed fourth in that competition and won  a one-hundred dollar prize. He bought me a typewriter and then a computer which was a total surprise. He knew nothing about computers but enlisted the aid of a friend who did, and the rest is history.

6.  Which of your characters is your favorite?

That’s a tough question because there are aspects of all my characters that I really like, but I think my favorite hero is Captain Drake O’Hara from His Ocean Vixen. Drake has been brought up a gentleman but there is a streak of the bad boy in him and I had a lot of fun writing him. As far as my heroines are concerned, Tilly McCormack from Brides of Banff Springs is my favorite. She has nothing at the start of the book but gains friends and a sweetheart as the story progresses, so there is a happy ending.

7.  Are there villains in your books and how were they created?

Oh, villains! I have such trouble making them villainous enough, but they are there in each of my books. I don’t think anyone, real or imaginary, is born bad and I always have to have a reason for my villains (or villainesses) to be the way they are. Then I get to feel a bit sorry for them and soften them somewhat, but they need to be there to sharpen the conflicts in my books.

8.  What are you working on now?

Revisions on my Regency Berkeley Square series. I’m not a fast writer and thought that the time between the release of His Dark Enchantress (2013) and His Ocean Vixen (2016) might affect sales of Book 3. I am very impressed with my publisher, BWL Publishing Inc, for allowing me to freshen up these two titles. His Dark Enchantress was reissued in August and His Ocean Vixen will be reissued this month. They have new covers of which I am very proud and have to thank cover designer Michelle Lee for creating them.

9.  What's your latest release and how did the idea arrive?

The latest release will be His Unexpected Muse, Book 3 in my Berkeley Square series, and will be available in March, 2019. The characters from His Ocean Vixen and for this book all came out of His Dark Enchantress. All these characters were so obtrusive in that book that I promised them their own stories. The series title came about because at some point in each story the characters find themselves visiting Lord Lucius Clifton in his Berkeley Square, London, home.