Welcome to an Interview with Multi-Published Romance Author Leigh Michaels....
Hello-Hello and how are you today? I'm back and hope everyone is doing well and happy! Welcome back to my blog where I try to share whatever I think may interest you. Today I interview a fellow author. And with me this time is Multi published romance author, Leigh Michaels.
Leigh Michaels (leighmichaels.com) is the award-winning
author of more than 100 books, including Regency romances, contemporary
romances, and non-fiction. Six of her books have been finalists in the Romance
Writers of America RITA contest, and more than 35 million copies of her books
are in print in 25 languages and 120 countries. She is also the author of On
Writing Romance, and teaches romance writing online at Gotham Writers’ Workshop
where we first met.
Without further ado, lets us begin. …
Photo of Leigh at a conference.
SJ: You’re a romance writer, Leigh, but actually studied
journalism at Drake University. How on earth did you transition from one to the
other? What transpired that made you switch?
Leigh: I always knew
I wanted to be a writer, but I was fond of the idea of having a roof over my
head. I figured I could work at a newspaper or magazine and write on the side.
Instead I ended up in radio and public relations and as a librarian. My first
editor told me I wrote “lovely clear prose” that translated easily, and that
helped to explain my success in overseas markets. I credit my journalism
training– it taught me to write precisely, to write fast, and to meet
deadlines.
Leigh: I almost
always start developing a story with a problem – an interesting situation
that’s going to put pressure on my main character – and then I figure out what
kind of person would be most affected by that problem. Why is it important? How
would they react? Sometimes it can be as simple as reading a snippet in a
newspaper, but that’s only the germ of an idea. It’s the characters, and why
this problem is so all-encompassing to them, that make the story special.
Leigh: Oh, actually that’s easy. My all-time
favorite book is my runway bride book – Backwards Honeymoon. I’d been thinking
about that story for a year, but one morning I woke up knowing exactly who the
heroine was and why she was running away from her wedding, exactly who the hero
was, what put him in her path and why he was willing to help her run away, and pretty much how their story unfolded. I
wrote that entire book in 17 days, and my editor didn’t change a word. (What’s
not to like about that?)
Leigh: I love that writing allows me to live multiple
lives – I can, through my characters, have many different jobs, live in
different places and even different eras, and follow different lifestyles.
Being an author means I never really have to grow up.
What I like least is
the pressures of a writing career – things like deadlines and the demands of
marketing and promotion.
Leigh: Georgette
Heyer. I always enjoyed reading her Regency romances, long before I started
writing historicals. I loved the humorous twists and I loved her heroes – and I
think all of my books, even the contemporaries, have a similar flavor and sense
of humor. I still go back to Georgette Heyer every year or two and reread my
favorites.
Leigh: Stick to it.
In the classes I teach, I see a lot of people who have talent – but they never
make it because they give up when the first book doesn’t get published. I see
people who achieve moderate success but don’t reach their full potential
because they don’t challenge themselves to make each story better than the one
before.
Leigh: Oooh, this is
hard. I’ll settle for sharing a book that I’ve just finished and really enjoyed
– The Unquiet Bones by Mel Starr. It’s the first book of a series set in 1365
in and around Oxford, England – about a young surgeon who gets drawn into
trying to solve murders. If it was on television they’d call it CSI: Medieval!
Follow news about Leigh at her website: www.leighmichaels.com
Her latest release, Ruining
the Rake is a new Regency romance novella and here is a synopsis:
A desperate young lady…
When Elinor’s guardian
arranges her marriage to an elderly merchant interested only in her society
connections, she will do anything to sabotage the wedding – even if it means
ruining herself by running off with another man.
A gentleman rake…
Who could be a better
choice for a woman who needs ruining than a man so notorious that all of London
calls him Lord Rake?
A straightforward
bargain…
But when their
arrangement goes awry, saving Elinor may mean ruining the rake!
And before we close
this interview, Leigh would like to share an excerpt for you to enjoy:
As Gus descended the stairs on his way to breakfast, a
commotion at the front door drew his attention. One of the footmen appeared to
be attempting to block the entrance as he remonstrated with a caller –
certainly an odd circumstance. If it wasn’t the master of the house who was the
object of the call, the visitor should have used the servants’ entrance
instead. Gus himself was expecting no visitors, and anyone who had the temerity
to call on him at this hour would be such an intimate friend that he would be
admitted without question.
The butler hurried toward the door, and Gus’s eyebrows rose.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen old Feather take anything but a
slow and deliberate pace. The footman moved aside, deferring to the butler.
Beyond him, Gus caught a glimpse of a slight figure draped in an all-concealing
dark gray cloak, standing just inside the door.
Gads! Were the determined ladies of the marriage mart
pursuing their quarry even into a gentleman’s own home these days? Or was this
some new sort of wager among the bored young women of the ton, to beard Lord
Rake in his own den? Last night, there had been those two young ladies prowling
around the folly as if they were seeking prey...
“I have come to see Lord Rackham,” the visitor said clearly.
Definitely a lady, judging by the accent – though the timbre
of her voice was lower and richer than he had expected, not the high-pitched,
giggly prattle of the simpering debs whom he avoided at all costs.
Intrigued, he moved closer.
“My business is my own,” she said firmly, obviously in
answer to a question Gus hadn’t heard. “My errand is personal, and I shall
speak of it only to his lordship. Please tell Lord Rake a lady wishes to see
him.”
“A lady? Not hardly,” the footman breathed with a smirk –
until his gaze slid away from the caller and landed on Gus. Instantly, the
servant straightened back to attention, displaying the same wooden expression
normally found only on a nutcracker.
With the servant reminded of his place, Gus stopped glaring
at him and turned his attention back to the gray-clad figure. The cloak
enveloped her entire body, and the deep hood was drawn up till it concealed her
face. There was nothing he could see about her except her height – or lack of
it; he estimated the top of her head would come only to his chin. But her
voice...
Gus concluded this
was not a woman he’d met before, because he would have remembered her voice. He
couldn’t possibly have forgotten any woman who could sound so soft, so gentle,
and so fiendishly determined – all at the same time.
Regardless of what the footman so obviously thought, Lord
Rake had never seduced this female.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to say he hadn’t seduced her
yet. The day was young and he had no other plans, and suddenly Gus felt like
whistling.
“Now, Feather,” he said gently. “Surely we must not allow a
lady to stand on the doorstep where any chance passerby might see.” He stepped
forward.
The lady turned to face him and curtsied, and for an instant
the shapeless, dull-colored cloak parted and Gus was rewarded with a brief
glimpse of a pale muslin skirt and a slender ankle.
He swept a magnificent bow. “Do come in, my dear. I am
Rackham – or perhaps I should say, I am Lord Rake. Will you come with me to my
library, and tell me what I may do for you?”
He held out a hand, and though she hesitated for an instant,
the lady laid her gloved fingers in his and let him lead her across the
marble-floored entrance hall. The servants melted away, and as Gus shut the
library door, closing them in together, she pushed back the deep hood of the
cloak that all this time had shadowed and hidden her face.
He turned to inspect his prize – and sucked in a stunned
breath, for this young woman was familiar after all. “You were at Vauxhall last
night, at the folly. What the devil are you doing in my house?”
And she said, in her gentle and soft and very determined
voice, “I want to run away with you.”
Ruining the Rake is
available in both e-book and print available from online retailers:
Barnes &
Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ruining-the-rake-leigh-michaels/1120294961?ean=2940046241266&itm=1&usri=2940046241266
Print edition from
amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Ruining-Rake-Leigh-Michaels/dp/1892689944/
Until next month....stay safe. Smile. Be happy. Show compassion. Be nice to others. Pass it along...
Regards,
S. J. Francis
In Shattered Lies: "It's All About Family." Coming in 2015 from Black Opal Books.
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I enjoyed reading this interesting interview, SJ. And this is a wonderful excerpt, Leigh. Another job well done!
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