Me: Tell us about yourself.
Me: Tell us about your book?
Hope: MY LORD JACK is the first Scottish historical romance I ever wrote and my personal favorite. (My others are BOUND TO PLEASE and TWELVE NIGHTS, both for Harlequin). Below is the setup:
Once a pampered courtesan in France, Claudia Valemont has lost her mother, her protector, and her lifestyle to the French Revolution. To avoid the guillotine herself, Claudia flees to Scotland to search for her only remaining relative: the father she has never met.
Instead she finds hardship and heartbreak. Penniless, she is forced to steal to survive. Her crime nearly lands her in the hangman's noose—until the hangman himself comes to the rescue. Pleading on her behalf, he gets her sentence commuted to a period of indenture in the village commons under his watchful eye.
Undeniably indebted to her unlikely savior, still Claudia feels more than gratitude—much more. As a harsh Scottish winter descends, her Lord Jack just might heal her wounded heart…
As I write this, MY LORD JACK is on offer for 99 cents across online book retail platforms including Kindle, iTunes, Nook, Kobo, Google Play etc.
Me: When you write, does your real life spill over into your book at any time?
Hope: Yes and no. All my characters are composites—I suspect that’s true of most authors—though the heroes and heroines certainly reflect by worldview and values. Jack is a huge animal lover (and rescuer) as am I. For six years, I launched and ran a (thankfully) successful grassroots campaign petitioning the US Postal Service to issue a commemorative stamp underscoring the importance of spaying/neutering companion animals to prevent unwanted litters. Those stamps, depicting a former shelter puppy and kitten, were issued September 2002 and sold out in record time. A short history of the six year-long effort is available here: http://www.petroglyphsnm.org/stamps.html
Me: Do you think about a book of yours, being made into a movie, or not when writing?
Hope: Actually one of my contemporary romances, OPERATION CINDERELLA, was optioned by Twentieth Century FOX for feature film, so fingers crossed!
Me: When naming your characters, do you give any thought to the actual meaning?
Hope: I do although more often than not, they name themselves. (Those voices, again)! Jack is an English name/nickname, of course, not a Scottish one. In retrospect, I think it serves to further emphasize the hero’s "otherness" as someone who’s not exactly outcast but who certainly lives on the fringes of his community.
Me: What made you want to write and also what made you want to write the genre you are writing?
Hope: I’d always wanted to be a writer and a romance writer particularly. Unfortunately early on in my freshman year of college, an English literature professor disliked an essay I’d written for his Creative Writing course and, after pulling out a phrase or two of mine to mock, announced to the classroom at large, "You, Ms. Tarr, will NEVER be a writer." At just eighteen, I was crushed. In the spirit of "self-fulfilling prophesies" everything I write thereafter for that class well and truly sucked. Instead I pursued graduate studies in the social sciences, earning a doctorate in Education/Statistical Measurement. Post graduation, I worked as a data scientist in Washington, DC for several years, a lucrative job but not particularly soul-satisfying. One summer I had a week off between projects and found myself browsing a bookstore for pool side reading. I was walking through the Reference aisle (on my way to the Romance section, but of course), when a small, pink paperback toppled off the very top shelf and literally hit me on the head. That book was HOW TO WRITE A ROMANCE NOVEL & GET IT PUBLISHED by Kathryn Falk, Founder of RT BOOK Reviews. I’ve never looked back.
Me: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Hope: I suppose those writers whose books I loved – Victoria Holt (aka Philippa Carr and Jean Plaidy) certainly though I never met her. Writers I know such as Cathy Maxwell whose historicals are terrific – Cathy gave me my first ever author quote for my Regency-set A ROGUE’S PLEASURE.
Me: Do you have to travel much concerning your books?
Hope: I don’t have to but I love to!
Me: What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Hope: My hero and heroine travel A LOT throughout the course of MY LORD JACK, so I’d have to say managing the logistics have me a headache more than anything else—posting inns, toll roads, horseback and carriage travel on rutted dirt roads all in the service of getting them from points A to Z in what would be a realistic timeframe. Also, I gave my hero a lot of animal companions for whom he’s responsible, so I had to figure out what his backup plan was for their care and feeding since he certainly couldn’t bring them with him everywhere.
Me: When you start writing your book do your H/H ever talk to you?
Hope: Always! "Jack was especially…vocal. I write the dialogue first, then go back later and fill in the scene setting and so forth.
Me: Do you ever experience writer’s block?
Hope: Not really. Certainly there are days when the words flow more smoothly than others. If I’m feeling stuck, hoisting myself out of my chair to go for a run usually suffices to get the proverbial "creative juices" flowing again. Reading a good book, something utterly unrelated to what I’m working on, helps too.
Me: Do you have any tips for our readers that might dream of writing?
Hope: Dreams are wonderful starting points so long as you appreciate that realizing them requires putting down firm foundations. Hone your craft. Join a writers group such as Romance Writers of America or form a critique group of your own. The publishing landscape has changed vastly since I first began but good books have a way of finding their audience. Be open to feedback—no one’s every word is a pearl—but don’t be a slave to the opinions of others, either. If you believe—know—you’re a writer, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
My Lord Jack
Synopsis
Once a pampered courtesan in France, Claudia Valemont has lost her mother, her protector, and her lifestyle to the French Revolution. To avoid the guillotine herself, Claudia flees to Scotland to search for her only remaining relative: the father she has never met.
Instead she finds hardship and heartbreak. Penniless, she is forced to steal to survive. Her crime nearly lands her in the hangman's noose—until the hangman himself comes to the rescue. Pleading on her behalf, he gets her sentence commuted to a period of indenture in the village commons under his watchful eye.
Undeniably indebted to her unlikely savior, still Claudia feels more than gratitude—much more. As a harsh Scottish winter descends, her Lord Jack just might heal her wounded heart…
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