Blogging at Romance Write-up With Judah Raine

Judah Raine is one of the Happily Ever After authors, and she's featuring the rest of us on her blog, Romance Write-up With Judah Raine. I'm lucky to be the first. Here's my interview.

Judah lives in South Africa, and is the author of Still Running at Siren-Bookstrand. Her The Look and The Thick Black Line will be coming out soon, also from Bookstrand. Check her out at her website.

Thank you all,
Linda

Telescopes

Astronomy has always interested me.

When I was a kid, I would take my little Golden Guide to the Stars and my flashlight to the back yard and gaze up at the constellations. On most clear nights, winter or summer, and winter in New England is pretty cold, I would go outside and look at the stars. Back then, I didn’t have a telescope or even binoculars. When I was in college I received a small telescope as a gift. I still have it buried in the basement, but I haven't used it in years.

Maybe my childhood interest in the stars had something to do with the astronomy theme in Lady of the Stars, my Regency time travel. I'm still not sure how the idea came about. Anyway, the telescope the hero, Richard, owns is a real one. I looked up antique telescopes on the web and found this Pallant. http://www.antiquetelescopes.org/19thc.html

This telescope is ideal for my story. It's a real, 19th century English telescope, perfect for Richard to own. The telescope is also small, less than a foot long, so Richard or Caroline, the heroine, could easily carry it to an observation position. It figures in Caroline’s and Richard’s courtship, as well as providing a link between past and present.

I rarely look at the stars now. Too many lights and too many trees obscure my view. I still remember most of the constellations’ names, and I always stay up and watch any lunar eclipses that are visible in my area. But, as Lady of the Stars shows, I haven’t completely forgotten my childhood interest. Maybe art does imitate life.

LADY OF THE STARS, Regency time travel

Buy links: http://books2read.com/u/4EWxLO

Thank you, all,

Linda

Guest blog repost

Here's an interview I did for the SisterWriters blog on September 28, 2008. I think it's funny (**grins**) and worth a repost. Also, it's been a rough week, the mind is gone and Sunday is posting day (**more grins**)

Tell us a little about yourself.

I'm a brand new romance writer and I write Regencies. Most have humor, some have fantasy and occasionally I throw in a little paranormal. I have no idea how I developed this combination, but my stories trend this way.

As for writing romances, I've read them for a long time without ever thinking about writing them. But a few years ago I went on a romance reading binge. I quickly exhausted my favorite authors' books, and in my quest for more, discovered quite a few other authors I liked.

But after I had wallowed in romance for a while, (and did I have a good time wallowing), I ran out of books. My favorite authors can write only so fast, and I didn't like the second string. What to do? Why, write my own. Almost at once I discovered how hard writing is. But did that revelation stop me? No. Determined or crazy, I kept at it, and my novella will soon be e-published.

You have a new upcoming release. Can you tell us about it?

The Wild Rose Press will publish my very first book, Lady of the Stars, a Regency time travel novella on January 7, 2009. My Christmas present will come a little late this year.

Lady of the Stars is the story of a woman who sees a man she thought forever gone through the back door of a gazebo. Little does she know that back door is a time portal that whisks her back to 1817. Culture shock abounds on both sides, as she and the man she literally runs into adjust to each other. But as they fall in love (the story is a romance), the hero's family legend awakens. Will it bring them together, or tear them apart forever?

Lady of the Stars is a combination of the paranormal (time travel), fantasy (family legend) and humor, which is not obvious from the blurb above. Although the story's overall tone is serious, it does contain some funny scenes--at the beginning when the hero and heroine first meet and clash, and later on in the bedroom scene, where I have my best joke, the condom joke.

What are your dreams as a writer?

I love Regencies and I want to write them forever. But the market for historicals, and Regencies in particular, has contracted dismally in the past few years. In my dream, my witty stories and scintillating prose make me the next Amanda Quick. My unique combination of humor, fantasy and the paranormal sparks a spectacular upsurge in historical sales, with Regencies at the forefront. And I make a lot of money.

Ha! Someone will be the next Amanda Quick, but I very much doubt I will. I'll settle for making a few bucks and writing Regencies.

What advice do you have for other aspiring writers?

Keep trying. Lady of the Stars was a contest loser in The Wild Rose Press's Through the Garden Gate contest in 2007. But they saw enough there to ask me to resubmit. I resubmitted twice. And now I eagerly await my release date.

Thank you all,

Linda

Linda Banche

Regency romance--most with humor, some with fantasy, and occasionally a paranormal.

Lady of the Stars--Regency time travel available from The Wild Rose Press
www.lindabanche.com

http://lindabanche.blogspot.com/

Guest blogging today at Love Romances & More Reviews

Today, I, and my fellow Happily Ever After authors, are guest blogging at the Love Romances and More Reviews blog.

Come over and take a look.

And on February 12, all of the Happily Ever After authors will be guest blogging at Armchair Heroines.

Thank you all,
Linda

I've joined the group blog Happily Ever After

I've joined the group blog Happily Ever After. I'm in company of thirteen other others who write in a range of genres and heat levels with the common link of "celebrating the male/female relationships in romance, and what makes them wonderful reads."

HEA is a brand new blog, which started only after the new year. Author Lindsay Townsend (A Knight's Vow) asked me to join after I met her on one of the promotion loops. She had a release of her latest book, Blue Gold, on January 6, and my Lady of the Stars release was on January 7. We both had author days on different loops on January 7, so we helped each other out by cross-posting to each other's loop.

Tomorrow is my first post on HEA. The title is Daffodils and Pink Roses, and talks about why men give women flowers.

Thank you, all,
Linda