#TBT Interview with Julia Quinn

Posted on: March 25, 2020March 25, 2020

This interview with historical romance bestseller Julia Quinn was originally published in RT BOOK Reviews magazine (print edition) as “Sitting Down with Julia Quinn.” An abridged version appears below. Enjoy and happy #TBT!

Interview with Historical Romance Author Julia Quinn

I recently chatted up bestselling historical romance novelist and triple RITA® Award winner, Julia Quinn. Here’s what she had to say about globetrotting on the cheap, the unexpected inspiration of really bad music, and why Happily Ever After really is the best way to go in real life as well as fiction.

Infrequently Known JQ Facts

HCT: You sat down to write your first romance novel when you were a college senior at Harvard and went on to publish your first few novels when you were going back-and-forth in your head about pursuing medical school. Less well known is that in the early ‘90s you worked as a writer and researcher for Let’s Go: Europe. That must have been a fun job. Can you tell us a bit about that?

JQ: It was a terrific job, but I don’t think I’d describe it as fun. Let’s Go: Europe is designed for the budget traveler, so to make sure it contains the most relevant information, researcher/writers are dispatched on strict budgets. I was given airfare and $32 a day to survive on Crete and Cyprus. Trust me when I tell you that $32 a day did not go far even in 1990. I stayed in many youth hostels, survived an infestation of fleas and was propositioned by a monk.

But on the other hand, I learned a tremendous amount about resourcefulness and resilience. It was the first time I’d ever spent more than a week in a non-English-speaking country (most important words in Greek: “Oil,” “Vinegar,” and “Boyfriend in America”), and this was pre-Internet, pre-cell phone. I was truly separated from my friends and family. If I wanted to call home, I had to find a hotel that didn’t charge exorbitant rates and get them to place an international call for me, which might or might not go through.

1990 was also pre-laptop, so I had to do all of my writing and editing by hand. I traveled with a copy of the previous year’s books (both Let’s Go: Europe and Let’s Go: Greece & Turkey), several 8.5 x 11 notebooks, carbon paper, scissors, and a glue stick. Anything I wanted to keep from the previous edition I had to cut carefully from its pages and glue-stick it into the notebook. New stuff I wrote by hand. Oh, and I had to use carbon paper so that I had copies in case my writing got lost in the mail. I’m not sure what we would have done if that had actually happened. The carbon copies were missing all of my glued-in bits. I have a feeling current researcher writers have it a lot easier.

HCT: You were the first romance writer to ever do a book signing at the Borders in Singapore. What does it feel like to meet fans of your books in a culture so different from the U.S. but also from the U.K. where your historical romances are set? Is the language of love and love stories truly universal? Are there any differences, cultural or other, that stand out in memory?

JQ: I visited Singapore in 1999 before my career had really taken off, so I don’t know if I actually had any fans there before my signing! Mostly I remember how grateful everyone was that an American author had taken the time to visit their country and do a book signing. I would love to do more international signings. I have a very active Facebook Fan Page, and I’m constantly amazed at how international my readership is. Sadly, I have not yet managed to convince my publishers that I need to be sent on a world tour. 😉

What’s Next in Historical Romance for JQ?

HCT: You recently contributed to a three-part novel, The Lady Most Likely, with fellow bestselling romance authors, Eloisa James and Connie Brockway. How did the project come about? What process did you three follow for brainstorming, plotting out, and finally writing and editing the work? Were there any ahem…clashes?

JQ: No clashes! I think there might have been one time where we argued over comma usage, but that’s it.

The project came about during a conversation Eloisa and I were having about anthologies. We both love writing in the novella format, but several readers had told us that they found novellas to be too brief. Eloisa came up with the idea of integrating three love stories into one longer, cohesive novel. We asked Connie to join in because we’re both such big fans of her writing.

We had a terrific time putting the project together. We had a very brief three-paragraph description of the plot when we sold the book, but that was it, so we met for a long weekend in New Orleans to work out the plot and characters. Then there was quite a bit of emailing that went back and forth. We had such a good time with it that we’re already planning another!

HCT: Your latest release, Just Like Heaven, went on sale May 31^st. This is the start of yet another new series for you, the Smythe-Smith Quartet. Can you tell us a bit about who we’ll meet as the hero and heroine in the book and about the series overall?

JQ: Years ago I wrote a scene in which my hero and heroine found themselves at the worst musical concert known to man. It was the annual Smythe-Smith Musicale, during which Mozart was butchered so badly it was a wonder he didn’t rise up from his grave in agony. I had so much fun with the scene that I found myself bringing back the Smythe-Smiths in later books. I figured it was an annual event—there was no reason my other heroes and heroines couldn’t be forced to sit through bad music.

But there was always one girl up on the stage who seemed to understand just how bad the quartet really was. Readers begged me to tell her story. So of course I decided to write one for one of the other girls—Honoria Smythe-Smith, who smiled widely during the concert as she attacked her violin. It turns out she is very much not in love with Marcus Holyroyd, her brother’s best friend since childhood. And Marcus is definitely not in love with her.

That’s when the fun begins.

But for those of you wanting the story of the girl who actually can play music, have no fear—it’s coming. Since there are four musical spots in a quartet, I decided to write a quartet of books.

HCT: More so than a rapport, you really seem to have a relationship with your readers. Offering up the epilogues to your Bridgerton books—second epilogues, even—as e-downloads seems to underscore the reciprocity of that loyalty. Most authors write sequels or novellas in anthologies, not 30 page epilogues. How did you first come up with this innovative idea? Any update on when the publisher, Avon/ HarperCollins, will be issuing the compilation of the eight epilogues into a print volume?

JQ: The 2^nd Epilogues came about because so many readers were contacting me and asking, “What happened next?” And all I could answer was, “I don’t know.” The great thing about writing romance is that it ends rather neatly. The main characters fall in love and we all know that they will live happily ever after. So when I finish a book, I don’t really think about what happens to my characters unless I have some compelling reason to do so—usually if they are going to make an appearance as secondary characters in another book.

After I’d said, “I don’t know,” about a hundred times, I started thinking—if I were to offer updates on the characters, how would I do it? I came up with the idea of “2^nd Epilogues,” which are essentially short stories that take place sometime after the novel ends. The novel is absolutely 100 percent complete without these 2^nd Epilogues; rather, they are extras or treats if you will, for my most devoted readers.

Right now the 2^nd Epilogues are only available as electronic downloads, but we do plan to release them in a print collection, hopefully at the end of 2011.

Final Thoughts

HCT: Have you ever had a Fan Girl Moment with another Big Name Author? You know, one of those tongue tying, almost pants’ peeing moments of sheer, awestruck delight?

JQ: I do remember being terrified to meet Lisa Kleypas very early on in my career. I was such a fan of her work. I think I’d read Then Came You and Dreaming of You a hundred times each. Now it seems ludicrous to have been so scared. Lisa is quite possibly the nicest, most approachable, and generous person I’ve ever met. But hey, I didn’t know that then!

HCT: Your undergraduate degree is in Art History and you were accepted into Yale School of Medicine and Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. Quelle choice! You’ve been a researcher/reporter for a well–known travel magazine and have traveled widely both personally and professionally. Oh, and you’ve written a bunch o’ bestselling books, including your famous Bridgerton series, beloved the world over. On the personal front, you’ve been married to your personal Prince Charming since 1996. To stave off the rest of us from spiraling into existential insecurity, tell us, JQ, is there anything you can’t do really well that you wish you could? Even better, is there anything you positively suck at?

JQ: I can’t turn a cartwheel. I cannot tell you how much emotional anguish this has caused me. (And lest you think I’m being sarcastic, ask any fourth-grade girl! Cartwheels are a necessity!) I actually decided that I was going to learn how to cartwheel for my 40^th birthday. It seemed like one of those awesome, I-Am-Woman-I-Can-Do-Anything things that are perfect for milestones.

Didn’t happen.

HCT: I adore the tagline used throughout your web site: Because happily ever after is a whole lot of fun. It feels like a philosophy of life as much as a branding device. And it certainly fits with your books which even for romances stand out as so sunshiny and upbeat, as well as meticulously well-researched and, for want of a better word, smart, that reading one is like biting into a crisp autumn apple—good all the way through. The first JQ book I read was The Viscount Who Loved Me and I still remember that after I finished my face hurt from so much smiling. Have you always subscribed to happily ever after is a whole lot of fun? Or is this something you’ve come to over time? Feel free to borrow Lady Whistledown’s infamous quill and give us some pithy commentary or better yet, advice.

JQ: I’ve never been attracted to bad boys. I just don’t think love should be hard. Life throws you enough curve balls—illness, money woes, freak accidents—love should be the easy part in all of this. It should be thing that gets you through all the other stuff. I married my best friend, and it sure has made my happily ever after a lot of fun.

HCT: Your website at JuliaQuinn.com is so cool and comprehensive. It covers everything to do with your books, which are listed by series and title, your news & events, the charities you favor (love that!), and your roster of not only the foreign language editions of your books but also your personal overseas travels. Can you tell us one thing, PG-13, of course, that isn’t there?

JQ: It all comes back to that lecherous monk… 😉

#TBT – Sitting Down with the Ah-Mazing Nora Roberts

Posted on: March 7, 2020March 7, 2020

#TBT – Sitting down with…Nora Roberts

Happy #TBT! When last I sat down with mega-bestseller, Nora Roberts, it was October 2011. I was still single, she a happily married new grandma on her 100th book, me on my fifteenth. I’ve added about ten more novels to my stack since then, she… well, I’ve lost count. (For a printable book list by year and pub date, go here). What hasn’t changed is my enduring admiration for Nora, not only as a superbly talented and dizzyingly prolific author but as a first-rate human being. (Per the latter, you can read her 12/29/19 response to the ongoing RWA debacle here). Nine years later, I still want to be Nora Roberts when I grow up. Enjoy the following unedited original interview.

She is a living legend, one of the most read and wealthiest writers on the planet, romance publishing’s answer to Oprah.

She is Nora Roberts and for anyone who hasn’t spent the last twenty years buried beneath a rock, “Nora,” like Oprah or Cher, suffices as her sobriquet and her calling card.

I first met Nora in 1997 at a writers’ retreat in Columbia, MD. I say met because I mostly stared at her goggle-eyed from behind the hotel’s potted plants and the paperback book I pretended to be reading. Then I was a starry-eyed yet-to-be published newbie with big dreams and a lot to learn—about craft, about the romance industry, and about life overall. She was then, as now, a total rock star as well as gracious to the bone.

More than a decade later, I recently sat down with The Nora to dish on her books and how she manages to keep her life so wonderfully real amidst all the mega success.

HCT: Recently The New Yorker called you “America’s favorite novelist.” Between your Nora Roberts and JD Robb brands, you’ve written more books than many Americans have read (or will read) in their lifetimes. Today every Nora Roberts and JD Robb book is an automatic NYT bestseller. Most recently, you were the third author to sell more than one million Kindle books. And then there are your eight books adapted into TV movies for Lifetime. When Irish Thoroughbred, your first book, came out in 1981 did you ever dream that one day you’d be this…b-i-g?

NR: Who knew from big? When I started out I just wanted to write books. I still do. It’s the best job in the world for so many reasons. I wanted the thrill of seeing my books on the shelves in bookstores. I still do. The idea of someone reading my work, enjoying it was just amazing—and it still is.

The bar rises, and that’s a good thing. It pushes us to write smarter, write better, to dig deeper creatively. The best-seller lists, the awards, the sales or movies, they’re all really delicious icing. But the work—the stories, the books—that’s the cake. Too much icing without a really good, solid cake? It’s going to make you fat, lazy and maybe a little bit sick. It’s always about the cake first.

HCT: Irish Thoroughbred, a category romance for Silhouette, came out in 1981. Your first NYT bestseller was in 1991. Can you talk about what went on during that decade? Did you have a Master Plan for building your career to mega bestseller-dom?

NR: I never had a plan, except to write. I love what I do, and have from the beginning. Loving what you do makes it a lot easier to work, every day, to face the tough spots and heel in for the long haul. Nothing against plans; they work for some people. But for me, if I’d been planning, worrying about numbers, trying to micro-manage my career I wouldn’t have focused on the writing. If you don’t write, you’re not read. If you’re not read, you don’t sell. So that’s my Master Plan, I guess. Write the books, let the agent agent, the editor edit, the publisher publish.

HCT: Chasing Fire, which released in April 2011, explores the world of elite firefighters. Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the concept for the book, the kinds of research you did?

NR: You know I can’t remember where I got the idea. I hardly ever remember where I got the idea. This is a single title. I wanted to show not only want went on inside the world of smoke jumping, but what goes on inside the heads of those who risk their lives to fight fire in the wilderness every season.

Research was intense. I often think after I start researching: Why, Dear God, why did I think this was a good idea? I read and read about smokejumpers—the difference between the round canopy, the square—and which organization uses which, and why. Their training—jeez, you have to be crazy! Their routines, the science of it, the physicality, on and on.

I read about wilderness fires. About planes, hoses, retardant, spotters, gear, equipment, food, tools. I know I came away from this book with an incredible admiration and gratitude for the men and women who jump fire—and the certainty that they’re all—God bless them—out of their minds.

Inn BoonsBoro, photo courtesy of innboonsboro.com.

HCT: The Inn Boonsboro, the Western Maryland historic property you and your husband purchased and restored, suffered a devastating fire during the first rehab/restoration process. Happily it is now open as a boutique inn offering eight guest rooms themed for famous fictional romantic couples, onsite upscale dining and other wonderful amenities. Did that experience at all influence your interest in the firefighting world?

NR: I guess I’ve always had an interest and admiration for firefighters. I wrote about arson investigation and fire in Blue Smoke. Certainly my admiration grew on a personal level when we experienced the devastating fire in Boonsboro. The responders were simply amazing, fighting for hours to stop the fire from spreading. Because of their work and skill no one was injured, and while our property was taken down to the old stone walls, they saved those old stone walls. And we were able to rebuild. Inn Boonsboro is not only beautiful, it not only offers guests a unique and lovely experience, but its character and its history remain vibrant. And we owe the firefighters a great debt for that.

HCT: In 1997 you won the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Romance Writers of America. I’d just joined RWA a few months before as unpublished newbie. I was way too shy to approach you one-on-one, but not too shy to ask you in a Spotlight Session if it was okay to use contractions in the dialogue for my WIP. Contractions! You could have made fun of me big time. Instead you graciously answered my question without so much as an eye roll. Afterward, I covertly watched you and your girlfriend posse—Pat Gaffney, Mary Kay McComas, Ruth Ryan Langan, Donna Kauffman, and maybe Mary Blaney—in the hotel lobby bar from behind the book I pretended to read—no iPhones then—which sounds incredibly creepy, but I was that s-h-y. Have you ever had a Fan Girl Moment when you were first starting out?

NR: Gosh, we were all so new it seemed like everyone was a newbie. I met Ruth Langan at the first RWA conference, and we were both so shy and intimidated. We didn’t know anybody. My first book had just come out, and hers was coming out in another month or two. Both of us sold to Silhouette Romance—and were too terrified to even speak to any of the editors. They were like GODS to us.

I remember Karen Solem, who was editor-in-chief for Silhouette at the time, introducing herself to us at a party, chatting away. I honestly heard nothing but Charlie Brown’s mother’s voice because I couldn’t get over the fact Karen Solem spoke to me.

HCT: Amidst all the accolades and stunning successes, you’re a very down-to-earth person. You still live in your original log cabin-style home atop the mountain. (Okay, you’re married to a brilliant carpenter/builder, but still…). You garden. I’ve heard you say more than once that you cook dinner every night. You quietly give to charity in a major way. And most recently you’ve given back to your local community by purchasing what was for many years a vacant, even derelict, historical property and restored it to grandeur, revitalizing the historic Boonsboro downtown in the process. In an era when so many celebrities—Charlie Sheen, Lindsey Lohan, the list goes on and on—seem to be losing it, how do you manage to keep your life and yourself so together and so…real?

NR: I really like my life. I love my family, my home, my dogs, my place. I like my routine. I’m not looking for party time—mostly. My husband can’t even drag me out of the house for dinner. You have to put on real clothes and makeup to go out to dinner, right? I like having my kids and grandkids over. Nothing keeps you grounded like a houseful of noisy kids or finding stray dog poop on the carpet.

Life is real, and real is pretty good. I have two terrific sons, their wonderful ladies, fun, interesting grandkids, amusing, demanding dogs and a great husband who enjoys them all with me. It’s a really good deal.

HCT: Readers want to know about the woman wielding the pen or rather tapping away at the keyboard. Your web site kindly takes us through a typical Day in the Life of NR? Where do you find your self-discipline? For those of us who struggle with procrastination, guilt over not doing other non-writing things etc., can you offer any suggestions?

NR: I really do love the work, so that’s key. And I have my Catholic education in the mix. The nuns really do instill a solid sense of discipline and guilt, both essential writers’ tools. I’m cranky if I’m not doing my job. Why would I want to feel cranky?

There are a lot of things that mix in and mess up the routine for me and that makes me cranky enough. The business around the writing, obligations, a dentist appointment, or a phone call I have to take. Nothing makes me happier, or easier to live with, than days without those distractions or interruptions. I like the feeling I have at the end of a good writing day.

Who wouldn’t rather have that lovely feeling of accomplishment and anticipation for the next round instead of the: oh, crap, I didn’t get it done.

HCT: In the 90s we had The Rules. In the last decade there were a plentitude of advice and self-help books focused on how to bag your man, such as Why Men Marry Bitches. I doubt the trend will abate anytime soon, if ever. But are we perhaps looking for love (advice) in all the wrong places? Name one thing (or several things) we Single Girls can learn from a Nora Roberts romance heroine.

NR: I’d have to say respect yourself first. Build a life that satisfies you. Learn how to deal with your own messes and how to stand up for yourself—and how to compromise when compromises are needed. Let yourself lean a little when you need support—and be the support when someone needs to lean. Believe in love, and open yourself to it.

Create that good, solid foundation, and the man who comes into your life can be that delicious icing. It’s an excellent combination.

***

Originally published October 5, 2011

WETA, InReads Magazine

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