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/