A while back I reviewed the book A FORTUNE’S SON by Emery Lee. I expressed my disappointment that this incredible historical fiction had been marketed as a historical romance and because of that marketing, I had been disappointed in it as a romance read. Imagine my surprise when I received an email from the author thanking me for my honest review and offering me the opportunity to read her newest work, a historical romance novella set in Georgian England. She promised me all of the romance that had been missing in A FORTUNE’S SON. Victoria Vane promised me romance in A BREACH OF PROMISE and she delivered two-fold. I became an instant fan so when her next foray into the world of romance came along in A WILD NIGHT’S BRIDE, I couldn’t wait to read it and I wasn’t disappointed.
A WILD NIGHT’S BRIDE by Victoria Vane which releases TODAY is the first in The Devil Devere series and is bursting with rollicking bawdy good fun and enough steamy romance to make the pages smoke with the heat! It’s TOM JONES meets MOLL FLANDERS with a hint of THE HANGOVER thrown in. If you’d like to read my review of this must read novella, please click HERE. - Amy Valentini
Interview with Georgian Romance Author, Victoria Vane
I am honored to have as my guest today, the author of this exciting new series from Breathless Press, Victoria Vane!
Amy: Welcome Victoria, it’s a real pleasure to have you here with us today.
Victoria: Thanks Amy! I appreciate the opportunity to chat!
Amy: Perhaps you can tell us a little about yourself for the benefit of those who don’t know you yet.
Victoria: Well, let’s see. I guess I’ll start with the basics. I have been married for twenty-nine years to a wonderful man (My own Ned) and have two sons aged 17 and 20. I have been a horse, history, and romance lover all my life (elements that combined in my very first novel, THE HIGHEST STAKES written as Emery Lee). I play the Celtic harp (but only for myself due to severe performance anxiety!) I love Baroque music, Ferrero Rocher chocolates, and am a caffeine addict. I am also claustrophobic, acrophobic, and have an intense dislike of pigs and clowns.
Amy: LOL!! I can see that I appreciate more about you than just your writing, Victoria, for I too love Ferrero Rochers and have no use for clowns!
It’s obvious you have a great love of history as illustrated in your writing. Is it that love of history or something else that inspired you to write?
Victoria: In truth, history has served as inspiration for everything I write – even in my erotic stories! While they say to write what you know, I say write whatever you are passionate about – you can learn the rest. I have always loved history but when I decided to write my first book set in the 18th century turf world, I realized I knew very little about my specific subject matter so I applied myself devoutly and wholeheartedly to learning everything I possibly could. I did this through research that included not only mounds of history books, but art, music, letters, memoirs, diaries and stage plays. This well-rounded approach has allowed me to both understand the mindset of the Georgian era and also to emulate the “voice” of the time period in which most of my stories are set. As each of my stories has evolved, I have endeavored to incorporate different elements that bring my characters’ world vividly to life whether it be horseracing, gambling, arranged marriages and mistresses or the stage. I also have a book in the near future featuring 18th century science, exploration and high seas adventure!
Amy: Indeed, your incredible research has been well worth the effort for when reading your works, the reader does get a definite sense of having been transported through time. A BREACH OF PROMISE was your first Historical Romance and for those of you who haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.
Victoria, what inspired you to shift your writing to the Romance side?
Victoria: In truth it wasn’t completely by design! As you already know by having reviewed it, my second novel, FORTUNE’S SON (also written as Emery Lee) is a work of romantic historical fiction. Although this is a story in which history and romance play equal parts, my publisher chose to package the book as historical romance. This automatically branded me as a romance writer, even though that was not precisely how I saw myself. My agent at the time was also pushing me to tone down the history and write romance. It wasn’t what I really wanted, but I decided to give it a go and wrote my first romance novella as an experiment in that direction.
The result was A BREACH OF PROMISE, a witty and fun story inspired by a play I had read by Georgian era playwright, Hannah Cowley. When I finished, I sent several query letters out to publishers, got several rejections and then wrote it off as a “failed” experiment. A couple months later, to my surprise, I got an email from an editor at Ellora’s Cave expressing interest as long as I would be willing to make some changes in the “heat level” of the story. With no other manuscripts under contract I really had nothing to lose, so I accepted. This, however, created a problem with my first publisher who feared I would destroy my “author brand” by writing for an erotic publisher. They insisted that I should write under a new pseudonym- so my sex writing evil Victoria Vane was born!
Amy: Well, I love the sex writing evil Victoria Vane and am very glad she’s come to be! A WILD NIGHT’S BRIDE is your newest release and it is surely the most fun a reader can have in about 100 pages without getting arrested. I envy you your ability to give us so much story in so short a word count.
Do you prefer writing your Romances in the form of novellas rather than full-length?
LINK TO FULL INTERVIEW: http://unwrappingromance.blogspot.com/2012/04/interview-with-georgian-romance-author.html
