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Biography
I've wandered the centuries in my
writing. Now, I know some of my Regency readers hate to budge
from their favorite genre'. Don't think I haven't seen their
reproachful looks whenever I strayed from the Napoleonic era. But
I find a change of pace refreshing and hereby urge them to take a
step out too - now and then. Just to taste the different flavors.
I live for chocolate, but sometimes... a peach is peachy, isn't
it? Or is it?
What's your opinion?
Given how I've strayed through historical periods, no one should
be surprised that I write novels, novellas and short stories too.
After all, I am a Gemini!
Obviously, I love the Regency era. But I've loved investigating
and writing all my books. Each was researched in person as well
as in print. I've clambered up castle walls, made a pest of
myself in country churchyards and infested dungeons and turrets
trying to squirrel out bits of history from underneath the
veneers of modern civilization.
So far as I know, I've only made one awful factual error in any
of my books - and I had it nipped out for the second printing.
Did you catch it? Or catch (horrors!) any other? I'm brave. If
you did - let me know (she said, shivering in her boots.)
But I am intense about my research.
I walked the route of the Great Fire of London to see how far it
spread so I could better imagine THE
FIREFLOWER. I went to the
Tower, chased half across England looking for Perkin Warbeck's
wife's grave, and stood in the broken castle in the North of
England where the ill-fated Prince Arthur was hastily crowned
King. All for THE CRIMSON
CROWN.
I tried to find traces of Georgian England in modern England so I
could write THE WEDDING, A
TRUE LADY and BOUND BY LOVE.
I studied Olde New York and Gilbert & Sullivan for THE GILDED CAGE, and then trekked through 19th century music
halls in the American West for THE
SILVERY MOON. I even paced
a deserted beach on the North Shore of Long Island to find the
exact place to bury a pirate alive for my short story, BURIED TREASURE, in DASHING
& DANGEROUS.
.As for the Regency era - I've tracked every story so I could see
and feel what my characters might. I've been to Scotland and
Wales, taken the Great North Road and the Brighton one too. I've
tasted the bitter waters at Bath, and been polite as I could
stare in Cheltingham and Harrowgate. I've sighed over daffodils
in the Lake District and traipsed from sea to shining sea - Dover
to St. Michael's Mount. I stood in Wellington's London house
smiling at the nude statue of Napoleon (Greatly exaggerated. I'll
bet the Iron Duke smiled too.) And I looked out from the top of
the monument commemorating the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium (and
almost never got down again, I was so impressed I forgot my
terror of heights until it was time to descend!)
There's more, of course. But I just want to assure you: If I
wrote it, you can bet I saw it - one way or another!
But on the subject of the Regency setting versus other Historical
novels - Now that you've read this far, I'd love to know: where
do you stand? Should a historical romance writer stick to her
last era? Or should she bravely go where she hasn't gone before?
Do let me know what you think. Guestbook or e-mail.
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