It’s my great privilege to have Regency Romance author (and IECRWA chapter-member) Jeanne Savery on my blog today. Her current series include the Scandal series (about Elf and Ally, spinster sisters who tend to stick their noses into everyone’s business, making certain true love doesn’t stumble over complications in that rose strewn path) and The Ghost series, both available from Cerridwen Press. She has a great story about the power of persistance and a new release out today. But, I’ll let her tell you more about it.
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Nearly twenty years ago I published my first Regency Romance. For years I published with Zebra—and then Zebra stopped buying Regencies…I grieved. Well, I’d been what author’s call “orphaned” so I suppose it was natural to grieve? No one was buying Regencies. I tried other things, but nothing worked. It seems the only thing I can write is the Regency.
I discovered the Regency when in England. My younger daughter turned five that year and started school there. She now has a son about to graduate from high school, but enough about my age…At that time an English publisher was re-releasing Georgette Heyer’s books. Needless to say, I loved them. Heyer wrote strong characters in delightful situations and, of course, always a happy ending. And funny! Every time I’d giggle, my husband would want to know why and listen while I read him a passage. Pretty soon he was reading Heyer’s books for himself (and still does occasionally).
I was also intimidated by Heyer’s detailed knowledge of the Georgian and Regency era so, later, when I began writing, I tried contemporary romances. After all, I knew something about the modern world. Maybe? Although I received some very nice rejections, all I received were rejections. Usually I’d get mad and swear I’d show ‘em, whoever ‘em was at the time. Finally, I got depressed. When I’m depressed, one or two of Heyer’s books will lift me right out of it. That time I read her whole shelf and wanted more.
I wrote one. My critique partners told me I’d been writing the wrong thing all along and they must have been right. My first “real” Regency manuscript was a RWA Golden Heart finalist and although it didn’t win the Heart, I did win in the long run. One of the judges bought that manuscript, bought two more, and then that publisher stopped publishing Regencies. However, a manuscript my editor hadn’t wanted sold to Zebra at almost the same time, so I’d no chance to get dispirited. All in all, Zebra published, or republished, nearly thirty full length Regencies and perhaps half that many novellas in collections.
My current outlet is an e-publisher. Talk about trying to teach an old dog new tricks! I’d pretty much managed to join the 20th century before it ended, but now we’re into the 21st and I don’t think I’ll live long enough to join it. (I’m having problems learning to use a cell phone—does that explain what I mean?) Anyway, thanks to exceedingly patient editors, I have learned to send in my manuscript, learned to edit it on line, learned how to download the resulting e-book my publisher sends me…but still haven’t figured out how to use them to get myself advertising out there in the web! Let me tell you, it is a harsh cruel world when inventions are thrown at you long after you’ve decided there couldn’t possibly be anything new on this earth!
Cerridwen Books Cotillion Line has bought all my latest Regencies—five so far! The latest, The Ghost and Patrick Tomlinson, will appear in early November and a short story is in Christmas Spirits, a December release. Both these tales are part of a series that involves the ghost of the late Earl of Everston. While on his deathbed, this gentleman realized he’d made a serious mistake when writing his will. His intentions had been good, but he’d not thought through possible consequences. He stuck around to make certain everything went as it should, solving problems for his heirs and, incidentally, seeing their love life goes smoothly. He’s also waiting until it is time for his long time love, Jenna, to join him. She can see and talk to him, but they are not allowed to touch. How they miss that loving! (The first two books in this series are The Ghost and Jacob Moorhead and The Ghost and Sarah Tomlinson.)
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Jeanne will be giving away one of her Cerridwen titles to a lucky commenter.
